Here is the first in our series of interviews with Birmingham's best PR agencies! We sat down with Ranbir, the Director of Vitis PR, to get the scoop on what makes them unique.
As well as being director at Vitis you also run and edit the regional TechSparx news site. So, are you crazy busy, and is it important to you that all your business ventures are Birmingham based?
I'm always crazy busy as the director of Vitis because the agency is my own, and I try to be available when my clients and team members need me. Having a Birmingham base is fantastic for PR agencies and clients across the whole country as we don't cost as much as a London-based agency, but we have a wealth of experience that often outshines the junior talent on offer in the capital's agencies.
The sheer volume of talent and media opportunities here in the Midlands may surprise some people but not us. We are proud to be a Birmingham PR agency, but we also have team members in other areas from London, all the way up to Fife in Scotland. This allows us to ensure our UK-wide clients have someone local to their base.
While Birmingham is important, as it is where Vitis PR is headquartered, our business ventures are not limited to just this region. We also work with international teams for a global client base.
So, how do you guys maintain clients for so long?
We now have clients that we have maintained for over 12 years. Vitis PR is made up of an all-senior PR team so when we win new business, our clients are assured of getting those who were part of the pitch working for them rather than us winning their business then having juniors work on client projects. This means that clients get the best in terms of experience and knowledge but every member of our team has a very different personality so there is always one or two people that each client gets on really well with.
However, rather than trying to be clients' best friends, we are not afraid of being honest and giving them constructive feedback if they have an idea that we know simply won't work. Our clients also appreciate that some of them have been with us since they were startups themselves. Now that they are growing and expanding businesses, they are happy to stay with us as they know we will always let them know if we need to change tactics or tailor a campaign differently to make it a success. Trust is important in client relationships but so is truth.
Vitis was recently selected as one of the Top 10 UK PR blogs on the web. What are your top tips for writing a successful agency blog?
Post regularly, have all of your team members writing content to ensure a variety of topics and different voices and don't ignore any potential ideas. You can turn pretty much anything into a blog. Find your niche and write about it but also consider trying to write blogs on topics that are not your area of expertise. Although for most successful blogs, people are writing about what they know or love, some of the better blogs are based on topics that the writer is not 100% sure about. Articles which ask for advice or encourage readers to comment and share their own knowledge and expertise can do really well.
Every piece of PR is a call to action, so your agency blog should be the same. Offer value to your readers but, at the same time, interest them with what you are saying, so they return to read future posts.
Great, what exciting projects has Vitis PR got going on at the moment?
Well, we have just finished wrapping up our CES 2022 client projects, so we are turning our attention to working on projects in the EV, cybersecurity, photography and IoT sectors.
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