Often, I find that there is an obscurity around what a PR professional’s purpose is. Are they an extension of marketing? Are they here to drive up clicks, follows, applications? Are they here to tell you exactly what you should be presenting to the wider media space? Are they here just to ghost write the pieces and articles you do not have time to write yourself?

When you start working with a PR consultancy for the first time, it’s important to keep an open mind. Any preconceived ideas about what PR is or what it should be can hold you back from getting the full value and success that comes from working with true PR professionals.

It is easy to see why some people conflate the work that PRs do as an extension of the marketing team, but to use the PR talent that you have to hand wisely, here’s my advice on what you should think about:

Think of Your PR Like a Personal Trainer

You may think that lifting weights, squatting barbells and curling iron has nothing to do with an institution’s PR operation, think again.

To demonstrate the importance of utilising your PRs effectively you must see them not as genies from the lamp or marketers, but as Personal Trainers (PTs).

Your institution needs a ‘gym coach’. The analogy works poetically. So, to once and for all clear up the miss-use of PRs I shall show you how PRs can be seen as the PTs of the communication world.

Know what you want: Set your realistic goals

Like all institutions and gym goers, there are varying degrees of general experience whether that be utilising effective PR or pumping iron. In this analogy your institution is the average gym goer. You see PTs are not just for aspiring Olympic level lifters nor are they just for novices either, PTs broadly help many regular gym goers help achieve their fitness and gym goals.

Much like a PT, PRs like us at BlueSky work with institutions at every stage of their journey. Whether you’re new to the media space and still building the foundations of your reputation, an established institution looking to reach the next level, or aiming for those Olympic-level, gold-standard results.

That said, it’s important to understand where you are in your PR journey. Your institution needs to come to the table with its wider institutional goals, because it’s not your PR’s job to set them for you, it’s your PR’s job to help decide and deliver on realistic media goals. This takes a bit of honest self-evaluation. For example, as someone who weighs 80kg, it would be unrealistic for me to tell my PT I want to be deadlifting 250kg any time soon. A good PT would point out that goal is a stretch and suggest I reassess. Likewise, a good PR will be honest and tell you that you’re probably not going to be on the front page of the Financial Times  every other week.

The key takeaway here is the importance of setting attainable goals, ones that are realistic and tailored to your institution. Much like a PT, your PR can help you refine those goals and explain what success might look like, but it’s ultimately up to you to decide what’s relevant and achievable for your organisation.

Create a plan: Trust the process

Once you are aware of where you want to go and what you want to achieve, having created realistic goals, stronger bench press, bigger glutes, to be leaner, it’s now your PT’s turn to create you your own personal gym plan.

Often regular gym goers are disappointed that although they attend the gym often, they fail to see the success they are desiring. Having a PT allows even the most seasoned gym veterans to attain that next level, creating specific and bespoke gym plans tailored to that exact individual to find their success.

Remember, success is relative. What works for one person in the gym won’t necessarily work for another, just as success in PR should be measured against where you started, not by comparing yourself to others.

In contrast, a successful PR plan for one institution does not mean it can be replicated for another, you don’t pay a PR to tell you the same thing they are telling everyone else. Here at BlueSky we are here to create and develop a plan that will be tailored to your goals which are based upon your institution’s size, current media presence, and plausible growth. A plan must be specific and targets the individual goals you have set.

Stick to the plan

To put it simply if you want stronger legs, doing bicep curls is not going to help. Much like actively avoiding higher education press yet having goals of promoting your institution’s new master’s programme is equally as illogical. The plan is there for a reason, understanding that the small wins count too. Not every time you go to the gym will you set a new personal best, just like not every bit of coverage you’re going to garner is going to front page of the Times. Remembering that PR is NOT marketing is imperative to understanding your success. PR is about reputation, it’s about public presence, how you are perceived, and influencing the right people. There aren’t strict metrics for measuring this kind of success. Yes, a mention in The Economist is valuable and will be seen by a large audience, but a feature in a sustainability trade publication will likely offer greater depth, focus closely on your message, and reach the specific audience your institution truly wants to engage.

Equally, bicep curls are great, a quick bicep pump can make us think we look more like The Rock than we actually do and give us that inflated sense of ego we can ride high on for a while. This said, however, turning up consistently and sticking to the gym plan given to you by your expert PT, doing the little things right and taking the small wins is when you will ultimately set new personal bests and find that long term attainable success.

Listen to Your PT (and Your PR)

Listen to your PT, don’t go to the gym thinking you know more than the expert. Set plausible attainable goals that get the results you want.

At BlueSky, we take the time to get to know you, understand your goals, and build a relationship that’s focused on long-term success. We want to see you grow and achieve real, measurable results but that only happens when you follow the advice of your PR professionals. Trust the process, listen to your experts, and you’ll see the strongest return on your investment.

Gym bodies aren’t built overnight, and neither are reputations. Just like fitness, a strong reputation takes time, consistency, and maintenance. Going to the gym isn’t meant to feel easy, and you won’t set a record every session. The same goes for PR: you won’t land front-page coverage every week, but every success adds up. Each feature, comment, and interview strengthen your institutional “muscle memory” in the media space.

By celebrating the small wins, sticking to the plan, and trusting the process, you’ll start to see real, lasting progress. A well-balanced reputation isn’t built by chasing only the big-name outlets, the PR equivalent of doing nothing but bicep curls. It’s about creating a media presence that’s both powerful and well-rounded: the kind that commands authority in top-tier publications while showing depth, expertise, and authenticity in targeted trade press.

Like a great training plan, effective PR builds over time. The more consistently you show up, the stronger your institution’s public presence becomes until that reputation isn’t just built, it’s maintained with confidence and credibility.

Author: Adam Kelly-Moore

Adam understands how to tap into current news and ensure his clients’ voices are heard. He secures strategic media visibility for renowned institutions from around the world, including Trinity Business School, Hult International Business School, and more. Adam understands the value of higher education first-hand, having achieved his undergraduate degree in Law and Politics at Cardiff University, a respected Russell Group institution, Adam built on his academic success with a Masters in International Journalism, at Cardiff’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture.