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Recovering from a bad week in PR

For some, it will happen more frequently and for others, not at all. The truth is PR is hard. It's hard to be in front of the competition and it's hard to be consistent. Whilst creative campaigns can spring to life in an office, the success of these ultimately lay in the hands of journalists.

Having been in the digital PR industry for just over a year and a half now, I've had many weeks feeling frustrated, down and worried about my work performance. Fridays are no longer exciting and Mondays couldn't come soon enough. The reality is, it happens. And it happens to the very best in the business. It's how you react and bounce back that's the most important.

Now, this post won't exactly vanish bad weeks in the office, but it’s what I do to help face the battle, focusing on heading in the right direction.

Take a step back

I cannot stress enough how important it is to slow down and look at the overall situation. It's far too easy to act like a bull in a china shop and start spamming journalists with all the pitches you've ever written. The truth is, it'll just make you more frustrated.

If you're in the process of working on a recurring campaign and haven't had much success, have a look at your strategy. Whether that's email template layouts, the type of journalists you're contacting or the content itself. Spend some time making notes and questioning where you can improve or tweak things to help make your piece different. It's no secret journalists are sent hundreds of emails a day – ask yourself, would I open this? Does this interest me?

Involve colleagues

From experience, I’ve learned that we're often too afraid to ask people for help. If you've been assigned a project, it's easy to think that only you can work on it. This couldn’t be any further away from the truth. Working with a team of talented individuals who are all in the same boat as you allow for an explosive array of ideas. But, it's important to voice that you need help and that you're struggling.

No one will judge you for asking for guidance, or other ideas to help push your campaign. It doesn't show a sign of weakness, rather the opposite. It takes courage to step up and call your team members for a meeting to get their help. Ten minutes of their time and you can completely transform the look of a campaign. Before you know it, you'll be off and running with brand new content and a new vision.

Written by Alex Fiske, digital PR executive at content marketing agency Kaizen

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