Overview:
In today’s digital world, there’s an expectation that everything happens fairly quickly and that we can measure the results of activity instantly.
Sometimes, PR campaigns that are relevant, timely, newsworthy and genuinely useful to the reader can get results within a few hours for online coverage or a day for print.
However, more often than not, it’s a case of waiting for the news agenda to fit your story. This means that we regularly see stories take 6 months or even longer to come to fruition. But when they do, they often hit big!
And in an AI-driven search world, this is one of the most powerful ways to build credibility and growth.
We get it. Sticking it out and trusting that the effort is going to pay off is a real gamble, especially when you need to prove that the PR campaign has been a success. Here are five reasons why PR is a long-term game:
Targeting the right publication – finding the right publication for your story or reimagining the story for the publication you want is a skill.
Building a relationship with the journalist – this is worth its weight in gold, but can take weeks, if not months, to establish.
Providing detailed information – often a feature will be planned in and then require further interviews, quotes, images, research and links. This back and forth with the journalist and the client can take time.
Waiting for a topical fit/time of year – just because you’re ready to launch doesn’t mean that it’s relevant. Magazines often plan ahead by several months anyway, big news stories can take precedence over yours, or sometimes it’s worth trusting the journalist to get a bigger and better feature at a later date.
Journalists are stretched – the irony is that despite PR being more important than ever, journalists are struggling with fewer resources than ever before. Sometimes coverage just takes longer.
Some of our best results for clients have happened months later. Here are a few examples:
HMS Victory – Six months after pitching, My Weekly ran a double-page spread on women in shipbuilding and changing your career later in life. It included brand mentions, on-brand images, key messaging, quotes and a URL.
World of Books – Four months after promoting the World of Books Sustainable Story Award and securing 15 pieces of coverage at the time. Throughout, we had been working with a People’s Friend – a national lifestyle magazine with the exact target audience we wanted to reach, which ran a double-page spread on one of the award-winning authors. This included brand mentions, CEO quotes, branded photography, URL and key messages.
UK-based fintech platform – One year after pitching the launch of their app, Closer Magazine covered the story, including quotes from the original press release.
This tells us that clients are better off committing to long-term representation over short-term project pushes. It just so happens that long-term visibility is exactly what AI now rewards.
After years of not being able to measure PR effectively, some even went as far as to say that PR was dead. However, the recent shift in how people use AI to find answers and recommendations has seen PR take on a new importance in the last year.
PR is now measurable. I’ll say that again, ‘PR IS NOW MEASURABLE’, and we can actively prove that it contributes to how your business appears in AI search results.
AI doesn’t learn about your brand from a single press release or a handful of keywords on your website. It learns the same way a human learns: through validation. If you’re consistently cited, quoted, and positioned as an expert across a broad spectrum of trusted sources (think articles, podcasts, expert databases, and more), AI views you as credible.
So you need to have PR as part of your marketing and SEO plan. Because that’s the other thing, these tactics no longer operate in silo. It’s an essential part of your lead generation.
So, how long does it take to see results from PR?
Sometimes hours. Often months. Occasionally years.
But when PR works, it works in ways that paid media simply can’t. It builds trust, credibility, and long-term visibility that compounds over time. In a world where AI, search engines, and consumers rely on trusted third-party validation, being consistently cited and featured is no longer a ‘nice to have’; it’s essential.
That’s why PR shouldn’t be treated as a one-off campaign or a quick win. The real impact comes from showing up consistently, telling the right stories, and earning visibility in the places that matter most.
The solution? Earned visibility delivered through a retained PR approach that plays the long game and wins.
We are a PR, marketing and communications agency with a difference
You need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information
