Content Marketing Today

Believe it or not, Another Really Bad Public Relations Website

Richmond Public Relations may not be self absorbed in person.  But they are completely self-absorbed online.

If ever there were a profession where it should be all about the client and not about your company it would be public relations. While looking for great public relations sites, I fell upon yet another bad example of a self-absorbed company with an awful website.

I was amazed that a company that makes its living by providing relevant information for a variety of news outlets makes it so hard to get the same kind of information on its website.

When you arrive at the website, you are greeted by a perfectly nice looking logo.  Unfortunately, it tells you exactly nothing.  You are required to take step two which is to click either on the logo or the tiny “click to enter” link.

Words, words, words! Lots and lots of words!

Here’s what you see in big text when you arrive at the next page:

Who we are
knowledgeable
established
respected
creative
ethical

So, if I’ve taken the time to click past the first roadblock on the home page, all I get are five adjectives which taken collectively mean nothing.  I have no idea why Richmond public relations is unique–or how they can provide solutions to my public relations problems.

If you look at the text on the right which is in very small and hard to read type, you are confronted with the following incredibly long opening sentence:

Founded in January 1992 and based in Seattle, Richmond Public Relations (RPR) is a family-owned and operated business that specializes in travel, tourism, lifestyle, business, food and beverage, technology, entertainment, retail, design, non-profit, special events, crisis management, and real estate public relations as well as market introductions and launches for food products.

Yes, but how can you help me?

If you keep wading through, you get to their core values: “Integrity, Creativity and strategic development, and Increased financial results for our clients.”

The final core value “increased financial results for our clients” actually expresses a relevant outcome.  But this comes after an endless stream of company centric sentences.  It seems to me that this ought to have been the theme of their home page.  It would have been something on the order of “We improve our clients’ bottom line.” They should then have shown specific examples of how they have done that.

Can you find the cello, Kenny G.,and public relations connection? I can’t.

But wait it gets even worse.  If you’re interested in the owners and click on the owners page, here’s what you find out about CEO Louis B. Richmond:

Founder and CEO Louis Richmond sets the tone for RPR’s style. Studying cello at the Eastman School of Music and Temple University, Richmond started his career as a cellist in the National Symphony in Washington, DC. Followed by years of teaching cello at several universities, Richmond launched into creating and conducting two chamber orchestras that are still in existence — the Nevada Chamber Orchestra in Reno and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra in Seattle. Richmond performed with many of today’s superstars and hired Kenny G for his first paid professional job in music as a saxophonist at the historic Paramount Theatre in Seattle.

A prospective client would be hard put to know why his hiring of Kenny G. has anything to do with how the company can improve my bottom line. 

I’m sure this company does fine public relations work. They seem to have a solid roster of clients. But apart from that roster, there is very little do that would motivate me to  contact Richmond Public Relations based on what I can learn from their content-challenged website. 

Basically, this company fails Content Marketing 101.