[the following is a guest post by Kate Sullivan, owner of New York fashion and lifestyle agency Kick PR. To learn more about Kate, check out this interview by Smashing Darling. If you are interested in writing for PR Couture, please contact us at writers[at]prcouture.com]

As a public relations professional, it’s important to understand what the media needs, how they need it and when they need it. And although I am no mind reader, I try and use the most effective tools to get this done for my clients. My company, Kick Public Relations, has been in business for over three years and before that I was a PR Associate for a fashion designer. I have learned many things about the media over the years, but one that stands out clearly is that editors, reporters and new media professionals are just like anyone else. For example, they don’t want to be bcc’d on a text-heavy mass email sent in Outlook, and doing so often leads to one thing – a quick hit on the delete button. I completely understand this because once a week my mom forwards me (and about a hundred other people) emails about the dangers of pumping gas at night. No one likes getting these emails. They feel impersonal and in case of PR, when irrelevant ruin our ability to build relationships and effectively communicate client news to those who may be interested.

We work with emerging fashion designers, and like the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Standard text press releases simply don’t work for our needs here at Kick PR. We rely heavily on getting images into the inbox of editors so they can see what we see; new and fresh talent that they should consider writing about. Isn’t that a PR Professional’s job? I tell all of my clients before we sign a contract that they will need high-quality, hi-res photos that we can present to media. In the beginning of the press push, these photos are the only cues we have to showcase to the collection, as such photos are crucial tools that heavily influence editors to decide if they like it, if they don’t and more importantly, if they want to see more in person.

Out of a desire to better our communication with the media, Kick PR switched over to an email management system called My Emma Email Campaigns a couple of years ago to create a more effective and receiver-friendly pitch. Through My Emma, we create content-rich, html newsletters and use this format to send out client information.

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