If done in the right way, at the right time, PR is able to produce results that "can absolutely be magical for a business," NRPR Group founder and CEO Nicole Rodrigues tells Doug Simon.

To prove her point, Rodrigues cites the example of a start-up with whom NRPR recently worked, a bionic clothing company that helps people with movement disabilities.

"They had a website, started a little bit of their social media, just to start laying the groundwork," she says. When NRPR got involved, "over the course of two months we planned out the messaging, planned the timing, planned exactly what we were going to share, and exactly who we were going to share that with."

The key to that careful planning, she tells Simon, is patience. "A lot of companies like to rush out announcements, and it drives me crazy because then they get upset when the results aren't great."

Thanks to NRPR's well-timed approach, their client "got 200 inbound emails within the first week. As they are gearing up for FDA clearance, they've got a baseline of interested people who are now discovering who they are because we did the PR right."

Another essential planning step is paying attention to your digital footprint, "your website, your social media channels." She stresses maintaining a presence on LinkedIn and Twitter, and for consumer products, she says Instagram is very important. And while you need to make sure that your digital content is always "channel appropriate," you also have to ensure that your overall message is coherent across all those channels.

For healthcare clients, a big part of laying your groundwork is "helping people understand the problems, the why," even before a product jumps all of the regulatory hurdles. "You don't even have to mention your product to inform people."

Rodrigues also discusses the relationship beween in-house communicators and agency pros. "If you're sitting back and waiting for the in-house people to just give you orders, then you're actually not doing what you're supposed to be doing as an agency," she says.

"If you're not coming to the table with that in mind, then you're not going to gain the respect of the in-house people and they're just going to think that they can push you around and say, well, just go write this press release and go pitch that. That’s really not how our clients feel about NRPR when we show up."

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D S Simon Media helps clients get their stories on television through satellite media tours and by producing and distributing content to the media. The company also produces live social media events.