Last year, our Head of Client Success, Elizabeth Finch, penned a piece calling out the gaps in comms tech— an umbrella term for the various tools and platforms that communications professionals utilize in their daily workflows.
As a quick refresher, comms tech can be broken down into three main categories for PR pros: distribution (e.g. sending press releases via wire services), targeting (e.g. sourcing journalists by category or “beat”) and monitoring and measurement (e.g. monitoring for coverage or measuring sentiment).
At the time of our last article, we identified the biggest shortcomings in comms tech as poor contact sourcing, difficult-to-use platforms and unreliable measurement. Analyzing the industry again about six months later, it’s clear there’s still plenty of progress to be made. Although, with incorporating technology more and more each day, we remain hopeful that 2023 will be a year of robust growth in comms tech.
In the meantime, let’s check in on the current status of comms tech’s gaps and envision what the road ahead could look like:
Contact sourcing
As communicators, so much of our work is centered around reaching the right journalists. That said, reaching the wrong individuals wastes time and energy, but it unfortunately happens all too often. Since our last article, some platforms have updated and expanded contacts, yet irrelevant outreach still seems to occur on a regular basis, annoying both PR pros and journalists alike. Between layoffs, an increase in freelancing and a variety of other factors, journalists are frequently on the move, creating a need for up-to-date targeting tools to ensure contact accuracy. Ultimately, we feel that it’s an investment that will end up saving everyone time (and headaches) in the long run.
Platform functionality
When a platform is immersed into a workflow, smooth functionality is of the utmost importance. Despite this, not all comms tech platforms invest in quality user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design. Since our last article, we haven’t witnessed improvements to write home about. Clunky and confusing platforms only serve to slow comms pros down; today’s most strategic and performative professionals need to be able to count on cutting-edge technology in order to maximize their potential, and we hope that 2023 sees more platforms prioritize well-thought-out design.
Measurement accuracy
Difficulty measuring results isn’t a new issue in communications by any means, but the more sophisticated that our tech becomes, the fewer excuses there are for imprecision. Earned media, especially, has a ways to go when it comes to accurate measurement, and given the growing focus on analytics across the larger marketing and communications landscape, our crystal ball tells us that 2023 will shape up to be a pivotal year for the industry to achieve such improvements.
In the interim…
We recognize that these gaps can leave you with more work than you started with, which is why PRophet cuts sourcing time in half. With our AI-powered platform, you don’t need to worry about sorting through random names in search queries or dealing with outdated contacts that leave you with yet another dead end. PRophet is sleek, easy-to-use and designed to simplify the pitching process in every sense.
We firmly believe that companies putting in the effort to blend the worlds of art and science creates new possibilities for PR professionals, helping them produce high-quality work and achieve their desired results. So, here’s to hoping that even more PR professionals are uplifted by comms tech this year — not slowed down.
