R Public Relations

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Ronkepm, LLC. I provide blogs and also teach at public schools. My goal is to help aspiring product managers and recent college graduates become product managers by teaching them soft and hard skills.

What challenge were you trying to address with R Public Relations?

I needed assistance to raise my personal profile outside the product management industry through a PR campaign. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

R Public Relations manages my PR campaign. My goal is to position my profile as a thought leader in the product management industry. A small percentage of the US population that dedicates to product management are people of color. We need diverse voices in the industry to ensure we develop products for every community, not just for a particular one. I want to be a voice that leads the pack, and R Public Relations has helped me with that. 

R Public Relations has helped me raise my profile by getting featured articles in magazines outside the product management industry. I’ve recently been published in WE magazine for women, which featured me for black history month as a founder woman of color. R Public Relations has also helped me apply for conferences and get podcast interviews. 

My company’s content writer creates original content and requests for magazines, and R Public Relations’ content manager also reviews articles. I send them my blog posts, which they share on different media publications. 

R Public Relations has recently written a press release for Women’s History Month to promote my upcoming product management talks. They also respond to reviews and share my features on their site. R Public Relations will help me find a publishing company.

What is the team composition?

I mainly work with Emily (Founder).

How did you come to work with R Public Relations?

I found R Public Relations through an online search and chose them amongst six other PR companies. I chose them because the first time we talked, Emily had already googled my company — she was the only one that did it. She was prepared and ready to have a conversation with me. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $10,000 with R Public Relations.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since October 2022. We signed a six-month contract, and I’ll renew it each month after it finishes. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

R Public Relations has helped me get published in various publications and surpassed my expectations. They’re willing to grow with me, and their content writer is professional. 

R Public Relations cares about my company as much as I do. They’re better than my previous PR manager. I used to work with someone else, and they’d forget things like sending pictures for my publications, which I ended up doing — I’ve never experienced that with R Public Relations. 

When a publication shares my blog, R Public Relations looks it over before they send it to me. They ensure my brand looks professional, and that’s really important to me. I’ve shown R Public Relations where I want to go, and they’re ready to roll up their sleeves. They never say they can’t do something because they find a way to make it happen. My previous PR manager wasn’t like that. 

How did R Public Relations perform from a project management standpoint?

R Public Relations is detailed and meets deadlines. We have meetings every two weeks, and I get a weekly update through email with the publications they’ve gotten me featured in. I answer with questions, and R Public Relations always gets back to me by next Monday. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed by how R Public Relations had researched me before I even got on a call with them. I felt other companies were promising things they couldn’t deliver when I talked to them, whereas Emily was realistic. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only issue with R Public Relations, which they’ve already improved, is that I’ve asked them to change how they send me the weekly reports since it was getting cumbersome. I talked to R Public Relations about this, and now they only send the most important things. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend creating a wishlist about your project’s goal and having a clear mind of what you want to accomplish. This has really helped my brand because R Public Relations works with me to reach my goal.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of Local Moves Studio, a fitness circuit training studio. 

What challenge were you trying to address with R Public Relations?

I was new to San Antonio, TX, and needed a PR agency to help me get my name out on the market.

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the start of the project, I only used R Public Relations for marketing and exposure. Most of what they did was media-related, but I also wrote some content that was published in local magazines. R Public Relations was able to tie that content into releases for the local and global news. Three months into the project, I expanded the scope to include social media management. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Emily (Founder) and worked with a local representative from the company. 

How did you come to work with R Public Relations?

I wasn't looking to reinvent the wheel — I knew I wanted a local company already active in the market. 

How much have you invested with them?

I invested $15,000–$20,000 with R Public Relations. 

What is the status of this engagement?

My engagement with R Public Relations was from October 2021–May 2022. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

I was able to get a lot of exposure in magazines thanks to R Public Relations' work. They were able to get my company noticed by local news networks too. 

How did R Public Relations perform from a project management standpoint?

R Public Relations had exceptional project management. We had Monday phone calls to discuss the previous week's metrics and if we met our expectations. I talked to my local contact once a week — if I ever needed anything from them, I could reach out, and they'd respond promptly. We usually communicated through emails and texts. R Public Relations was great at meeting my expectations. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

R Public Relations was client-driven. They understood exactly what I needed to accomplish and collaborated closely with me —- they put my needs and the company's needs first. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It is very hard to anticipate the next step in social media management because everything is constantly evolving and changing. There's a difference between engagement and engagement that leads to a positive ROI. When running social media marketing, it's important to sit down and address changes to each branch of social media and how they can be used. It is also important to understand the target audience. So, I wouldn't say it was a fault of R Public Relations, but I think they could've assigned a social media specialist that could be more hands-on with my project. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I signed a long agreement at a considerable fee expecting a significant ROI, but I didn't experience that. So, I'd recommend that anyone who plans to do business with R Public Relations start with a 90-day contract to evaluate the ROI and scale up from there.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a QR menu that simplifies menu management, powers a restaurants marketing and sells more food & drinks with pictures that pop.

For what projects/services did your company hire R Public Relations, and what were your goals?

Our company hired RPR to help us build buzz and our brand as we soft launched in Nashville and now are rolling out to cities across the Southeast.

How did you select this vendor?

We were familiar with the great work Emily and the RPR team did with other businesses in Nashville.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

It began with a series of initial meetings to let Emily and the RPR team understand our goals, mission and brand voice. They developed an initial pitch plan to help us refine our messaging and create a timeline for media opportunities before and after our launch. We have on going calls with the RPR team to keep everyone on the same page as they continue to support our media strategy as we scale our business.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I work directly with Emily and Madison to support our account. They have also given me access to their copy writer for one off projects I’ve conducted as part of my business.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our National press opportunities (digital publications and industry publications) have continued to come in steadily and as we are expanding to new markets, we are expanding our opportunities to be featured in local press (local news, online publications and magazines).

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Communication is great. We receive weekly updates to where current projects stand in addition to our weekly call. The team is incredibly responsive to answering questions or providing information when asked.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their willingness to really take time to learn and understand our business is impressive. They've brought new ideas to us for how to message our brand externally.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Email is their preferred communication but personally I’m a big fan of slack and wish we could use that more to ensure team members not on the weekly call / PR update emails are aware of external press conversations.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own a baby and children’s gift and apparel boutique.

What challenge were you trying to address with R Public Relations?

We needed their team’s PR services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve been relying on R Public Relations’ PR efforts for the past six years. Our company has initially hired them to tackle a campaign launch. We’ve since given them similar responsibilities, taking charge of our retail sales and event campaigns and getting the word out about our services.

R Public Relations produces creative marketing solutions to launch earned advertisements and not paid ones. They regularly relay their creative pitches and ideas for our team’s approval and create press releases to tell our story once they’ve secured that.

We have an ongoing awareness and charitable campaign that R Public Relations supports us with. Their team conducts thorough research and secures solicitations from the press through the owner stories and press releases they write.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked directly with the owner and collaborated with R Public Relations’ relationship manager, an intern, and a PR specialist.

How did you come to work with R Public Relations?

I met one of R Public Relations’ photographers when I was still part of the banking industry and their specialty was in food and beverage. I knew of their expertise and visibility in their field, so I contacted them when we needed a reliable PR team.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $60,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in March 2015, and our collaboration is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve received marketable results for every month that we’ve relied on R Public Relations’ services. There was never a time wherein we had to wait another month to get media exposure. R Public Relations is just keen on making everything work to our company’s advantage.

How did R Public Relations perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via phone calls, texts, and emails and have monthly in-person meetings. Our long-term engagement with their team is the main proof of their successful and efficient project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

R Public Relations remains persistent in fleshing out creative ideas, and that common trait they share really makes things happen for our business. They always get things done with the right balance of creativity and determination.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great if we worked with the same people over the years. However, I understand that career changes are inevitable, and the company would then take on the responsibility to train new employees and have them take over our project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Maximize your ad spend and budget — paying attention to this will really reward you with extensive results.