PR agencies (and agencies in general) are notoriously known for not having the time to invest in their own PR or marketing activities but make their living out of advising and implementing such for clients.

If you are an agency owner or work in an agency, let me ask you some questions:

1. Do you blog?
2. Do you use social media?
3. Do you have a landing page on your site?
4. How much time do you invest in doing PR for your own agency?

Now, let me take a guess about your answers:

1. Hmm when we have time.
2. Yes, but mainly just to curate or share our own stuff.
3. No, no time for that and what’s the point.
4. We just don’t have time because we are swamped with client work.

You might be thinking, “Why do I even need any of that? We have our clients, our team is busy, we can’t invest time and money into something that won’t bring us much result.”

Yep, sure. For now you do. Do you think about the future, though?

Far too often I hear “We just didn’t have time to blog this month, there’s just so much going on with our clients.” 

This is the number 1 challenge for agencies –> we don’t have time for our own PR and marketing.

But that’s just wrong.

I know agency life, believe me, I sympathise with the workload, and I know how demanding clients can be. But for me, not having time is an excuse.

Think of it this way: you really want to lose weight, so you need to fix up your diet and workout at least five times per week. However, you are super busy at work and at home, so you know that to achieve your goal you need to develop some new routines and adjust your daily lifestyle. That includes finding or better yet making the time for working out and preparing healthy food and snacks. There are two possible scenarios here: you find excuses and don’t make the time and so you don’t see any results, but you are still frustrated and angry as nothing’s happening; or you’ve made a conscious choice to change and make the time and you are seeing some fantastic progress.

Doing your own PR with your own content and promoting it on your own channels is the best thing you’ll ever do for your agency. Why? Because Inbound PR can help you build brand awareness, position yourself as an expert, generate leads, nurture them, close them as customers and then delight them by building lasting client relationships that allow you to retain the business.

What’s more, doing what you are doing for clients for yourself too adds credibility. You want to create content for my business? If I don't see you creating content for your own business, then I don't believe  you can create content for mine. It's that simple. Prospects and clients would trust you more because whatever you are offering them, you are using it for yourself too and following your own advice.

The best thing: if you want to try new channels out or experiment with some new tools or initiatives, do it for your own agency first to make sure it works before you do it for your client. You don’t want to mess up, do you? Take the risk for your agency, not your client.  

It's time to challenge your thinking and behaviour and to start doing what you tell your clients do. Practice what you preach. This will not only drive more credibility and trust in your capabilities but also improve your client relationships and most importantly generate new business.

Be your best client so that you can serve your clients best and generate the best fit new clients.