VGPR #016: I'm Trying To Help You

I'm hiring! Also: cover letter advice and when to think about PR

Feb 15, 2021

[Hi, I'm Lizzie Killian, founder at FIFTYcc PR. You're reading VGPR, a newsletter featuring interesting developments and topics impacting public relations in the video games industry.

If you’re enjoying this newsletter, please consider subscribing or sharing with a friend or colleague. Send feedback, questions, and ideas to vgpr.insider@gmail.com, or drop me a note on Twitter.]

In this issue: a huge list of media updates and new PR jobs (by the way, I’m hiring!). I talk about the right time for developers to find PR help, workflow tools that I love, and, in the spirit of hiring, I share some reasons why you should actually care about cover letters. Let’s hop to it!

When To Think About PR

Many of us independent or agency PR folks have seen this scenario: a prospective client is looking for PR help for their upcoming announcement, and they want to do it *gasp*… next week! It's definitely not impossible, and has been done many times before, but it's of course not ideal.

So, when IS the best time to think about PR?

The answer differs from agency to agency, person to person, but I — along with many other VGPR subscribers in a very scientific study on our Discord — would recommend at least two (preferably more) months out from your desired announcement date.

Why it’s Good to Consider PR Early

A successful PR campaign takes careful research and planning. We need time to onboard and understand our new client, to help craft thoughtful and accurate messaging, and to research the appropriate audience, targets, and competitors. We also consider what else is going on currently, and what we expect to be happening at the time of launch. Maybe the time you are hoping to make your announcement isn't ideal for reasons you hadn’t considered (e.g. a very big product launching on the same date), and a PR professional can help you think through all of that.

When you approach PR partners for your project too close to your desired announcement date, you may not only limit what the campaign can accomplish, but you also run the risk of not finding any PR help at all! PR partners may have commitments to existing clients, and you might be left scrambling to find someone you can’t properly vet in a short amount of time.

Is there a risk in thinking about PR help too early?

Not really. Finding a partner early guarantees plenty of time to develop messaging and do great research. Sometimes early planning can increase the chances you’ll need to pivot or update a plan as things develop, but with more time to consider, this is usually easy to manage.

Finally, your campaign length should match the product.

If your announcement has some pre-existing interest (e.g. a known brand), or if your team simply doesn’t have the resources to produce a lot of assets, there may be less need to stage a long campaign. Two months gives you time to plan carefully and hit the announcement hard for maximum impact.

That said, you never know what kinds of additional considerations or issues may come up for your title, so the earlier you start the PR discussion, the better.

Tools I love: Toggl

In the last issue, I talked about how tools help me become more efficient in my PR work. Here’s why I love Toggl (and I promise the last you’ll hear about Toggl — they’re not paying me for this anyway #NotAnAd).

No, YOU worked 2 hours and 52 minutes on a Sunday

What it is: Basically a timer that lets you see how much time you're spending on a given task or client.

Why I love it:

Very easy to use. Install, hit start on a task, hit stop when it’s completed.
Gives me clear data on time-intensive clients and improves task estimation for the future. This is super great for making sure your billing reflects the time actually spent.
Timing myself gets me to focus on the task and minimize distractions.
It’s free. You can pay for more users or the ability to auto-generate billing reports, but I don't use these features.

Cover Letters

Cover letters: almost everyone agrees they kinda suck! It’s no fun to write them as an applicant, and it can be even worse reading hundreds of them when you’re hiring. So how can they be worth the time for writer and the reader?

Lizzie Killian @lizziekillian

The concept of a "cover letter" needs a rebrand. "Cover letter" doesn't mean "Google a template and replace certain words" -- a cover letter is your pitch! If you're applying for a job in PR, you're pitching yourself to the hiring manager, and showing off a relevant PR skill.

First, some mistakes to avoid!

Don’t be like me when I was just starting out—I wrote cover letters on autopilot. I treated the letter as a dumb hoop I had to jump through rather than an opportunity to stand out. I googled “sample cover letter” and basically tried to c+p my way through it. My early result did actually make a few relevant points, but hardly stood out. Fortunately someone decided to give me a chance anyway.

Within the next week I will stand outside your window unexpectedly to answer any questions you may have.

Another common early mistake can be thinking the question you’re answering with an application is “am I capable of doing this job?” A better question is “why am I the BEST person for this job?” For jobs with lots of applicants, you can be sure there will be lots of capable people, so think instead about how you can stand out.

This effort to stand out shows why cover letters can be especially important for anyone interested in PR: it’s essentially a sample media pitch, but instead of pitching a client, you’re pitching yourself. In PR, the journalist you are writing to may get hundreds of emails a day seeking some form of coverage. If you’re hiring, you may be fortunate enough to get hundreds of applications. In both cases, the writer should ask how they can cut through the noise. Finding a way to stand out in a crowded field is a core skill to PR success, and your cover letter is a great chance to show that you can do it.

Some easy ways to stand out in a cover letter:

Is this job special to you? Not every job will be special, but if it is and you can explain why, that has a chance to make an impact.
Your cover letter is also your writing sample. It’s an important chance to show you can string original sentences together, and pay attention to detail by avoiding typos, etc.
Do you understand where it is you’re asking to work? If you’ve done your research about the hiring team, a cover letter is a chance to show off that investment and make an impression.

A cover letter is a chance to be compelling, concise, and show your audience (in this case, the hiring manager) why they should care about your “pitch.” Rather than seeing it as a dated chore, take it as a chance to demonstrate an essential PR skill to stand out in crowded fields.

In the Media

Wesley Win-Poole is promoted to Editor at Eurogamer
Shannon Liao is moving to Washington Post
Stephen Totilo has left Kotaku and will launch the Axios Gaming newsletter
Carli Velocci is now Gaming Editor across iMore, Android Central, and Windows Central
Jonathon Dornbush is now Senior Features Editor at IGN
Matt Kim is now News Editor at IGN
Rebekah Valentine is now News Reporter at IGN
Imran Khan is now News Editor at Fanbyte
Jesse Vitelli is now Editor at Prima Games
DualShockers is undergoing many staff changes