Unify PR & Marketing

THE CHALLENGE

Sarah Thomas, Head of PR at Unify, is no stranger to media databases. However, finding one that meets the agency’s needs has been an ongoing struggle, forcing Sarah and the team at Unify to switch services frequently. “We’ve found with a lot of other services that either the journalist contact information was out of date, or it just wasn’t available,” says Sarah.

For the busy Unify team, having to do extra research to find or verify contact information was creating inefficiencies and eating up precious time. “If we can’t quickly find that information on our media database, it means we’re Google searching,” says Sarah. “If it’s a freelancer, we’re trying to find their website or we’re contacting them on LinkedIn and their social media channels to try and get the right email address. It takes us more time to send these emails out and we don’t have a lot of time. We have many clients to cater for.”

Not only did these services not provide the data they needed, but Sarah also says, “We found some on the market ridiculously expensive and hard to use.”

THE SOLUTION

Agility PR Solutions wasn’t the only media database vendor in the running, but it was the vendor that accomplished everything Sarah wanted: “Something really simple that we could teach to our colleagues and get press releases out efficiently” and “an effective release distribution service at a really good price.”

After coming across Agility through a Google search, Sarah did her due diligence, reading online reviews before deciding to book a trial. “We’ll see how it goes,” she thought.

Sarah calls the Agility demo experience “brilliant.” She says, “We did a few trials with other vendors but out of all the trials, Agility’s database was the most simple and easy to use it. And for us, that’s what it’s all about.”

THE OUTCOME

One of the features that stood out to Sarah the most during the demo was Agility’s reporting function. “When you’ve sent your press release, you can look at those unique clicks and the soft and hard bounces so that we can then tailor the media lists for the next time we send a release to those contacts,” says Sarah. She takes full advantage of the reporting feature now and uses the results to inform list building and ensure the Unify team is always targeting the right people. “We’re making sure that news about our clients’ products and services are reaching the right pool of journalists who can write about them and then notify their consumers.”

Sarah enjoys how simple it is to search for contacts and build media lists. “We’ve been able to widen our media lists which allows us to reach new people,” says Sarah. Earning media coverage for their clients is the “bread and butter” of Unify and Sarah believes they’re able to do it even more effectively thanks to Agility. “We feel we are generating better results for our clients as a result of using Agility. That’s in terms of the number of pieces of coverage and opportunities to see.”

Sarah isn’t just a fan of the platform; she also appreciates the fast and reliable customer service. “We really like the support from the Agility team,” says Sarah. “We find that if there is anything that we’re unsure of, or if there’s a circulation missing, for example, we’ll just message them, and we get a response straight away. We don’t have to wait for 24 hours like you find with some websites.” Having that immediate response is incredibly beneficial for her and her team, especially since saving time is so important to Unify. With the quick turnaround in support, Sarah’s workflow isn’t disrupted, and she can still get her release out on time.

Sarah says she would happily recommend Agility to anyone as a “really cost-effective way to manage PR campaigns.”