Hey brand execs, does this story sound familiar?

You decide it is time to take PR seriously and designate someone on your team with the task of hiring the PR agency that you think is the best fit for you. After weeks, months or even years of research, you make a decision, hire the perfect PR agency, sign a contract, and pay your bill.

Weeks or months pass as you work with your new PR team to craft, approve and finalize brand materials, making sure that they understand your products, history or technology as well as you do. Finally, you give them the green light, cross your fingers and put your trust into the hands of the new agency. Excitement and a bit of anxiety builds. Will they be successful? Will everything change this year? Will the traffic to your site or sales start rolling in by the hundreds, maybe even thousands?

Your PR team spends hours upon hours crafting content, pitching your story, scheduling interviews and phone calls, following up with their contacts, updating you via weekly calls and monthly reports as your anxiety builds further.

Finally, you get an email and your heart pounds quicker. You read that your brand is finally featured in an article in the outlet of your dreams. All of the work has paid off. But, now what? Do you sit back, relax and watch the sales, new customers and investors roll in? That’s how it works, right? Wrong.

There is little that frustrates PR people more than working tirelessly to land a piece of coverage, just to have clients downplay the results, not make efficient use of press, or ignore coverage announcement emails altogether.

Here is exactly what you and each of your company’s departments should do immediately after your brand is featured in a print article, blog post or broadcast interview.

- Social Media Team

Post a link, image or video clip to the press coverage on each of your brand’s social media accounts as well as your personal social media accounts. On Instagram, create a press category in the story highlights section of your brand’s account. On Twitter, pin a link to the tweet of the press coverage to the top of your feed. Don’t forget to ask your PR team for the name, title and social media accounts of the writer, editor or producer that they worked with to secure the coverage. Use this information to thank the contact and outlet publicly and tag them in each of your posts. Additionally, you can pay to advertise social media posts of best press coverage. This is easy, quick and very inexpensive on most social media platforms.

- Marketing, Digital & Branding Team

Add a mention of the press coverage to your brand’s website. Update your brand’s about or news page and even your personal profile. One way to do this is to use the logo of the outlet that featured you. Another is to pull specific favorable quotes from the article and highlight them. On your brand’s blog, link to the coverage in your latest blog post.

- HR & Talent Acquisition Team

Generate internal excitement by including a mention of the press coverage in your company’s internal newsletter or regular employee communication. Encourage employees to circulate the news to their social media followers, professional networks, friends and family. Consider rewarding employees with large networks for most shares or creating an internal brand ambassador program. To entice top talent prospects, mention top pieces of news coverage in recruiting conversations and meetings.

- Finance, Investor Relations & Fundraising Team

Startups and brands actively raising capital should include a news or press section in fundraising pitch decks and newsletters targeting potential investors. Additionally, include your press highlights in your quarterly reports to investors.

- Sales & Partnerships Team

Share unique email announcements with current customers, potential customers, prospective brand partners, current retailers and executives/buyers of budding retail relationships. For trade shows and events, include logos, links and images tied to press coverage on booth marketing materials such as signage, video reels and handouts.

The key to seeing ROI on your PR campaign is working in tandem with your PR agency and remembering that once they’ve played their role, it’s up to you and all company departments to leverage results and turn them into sales, customer leads, new investments, retail relationships, social media fans and excited, loyal employees. Publicity is very important, and a well devised strategy can scientifically impact many aspects of a business. But PR does work when siloed on its own and requires department integration to make an outstanding impact. When you become a partner to your PR agency is when you’ll see the biggest return on your investment and is the key to maximizing your results.