
Building Long-Term Client Relationships In A Remote PR World
Remote work and communication have increased in recent years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that the American Community Survey (ACS) found that remote work increased dramatically across all major industries between 2019 and 2021, from the scientific and entertainment industries to hospitality. This shift can also be reflected in the public relations (PR) industry, for both industry professionals and clients. Clients are increasingly looking for remote PR assistance, and PR professionals must meet that need effectively.
My PR firm has been fully remote for over a decade, fostering lasting client relationships across a range of industries well before the most recent shifts. I know what it takes to create meaningful, long-lasting partnerships. So, as the PR world grows increasingly remote, it's important to understand how to build and maintain remote client relationships—even if it seems daunting. The following tips are based on my own experience and can help you cultivate strong remote partnerships.
Establish trust and credibility.
PR professionals need to establish both trust and credibility for themselves, whether they're just getting started or have been in PR for years. This is more important than ever before, especially as trust in general drops among many professions. In Gallup's 2024 honesty and ethics survey, the general American public's trust in 11 core professions, when averaged, was at a historic low. While PR professionals weren't among the professions polled, several industries we most often represent weren't perceived in a flattering light overall, such as lawyers and business executives. This shows that trust and credibility are critical to both PR clients and the general public.
Fully remote clients must be able to recognize that a PR professional is trustworthy from a distance. They don't have the benefit of meeting with you in person. This leaves much of the heavy lifting to your actions as a professional. To build trust and credibility, you can:
• Be consistent in your work—deliver high-quality results and show up for your clients regularly.
• Demonstrate your expertise clearly through your actions, online presence, testimonials and case studies.
• Prove your value through tangible results. This can be through brand mentions, engagement, reach, website traffic and earned media value, among others.
• Even if you don't have tangible results to share on a given day, contact your clients with articles they might like or ask them about their lives outside of work. A quick 'How did Saturday's event go?' text can work wonders.
Communicate proactively.
Communication is key in the PR space, especially when building remote client relationships that will last. Proactive communication ensures that you and your clients are on the same page about every detail of your work. Establish communication preferences from the get-go so you can easily get in touch. This might include instant messages, email, text or other online communication options like video calls or Slack.
Additional ways to communicate proactively include:
• Write a brief standard operating procedure (SOP) for each client. An SOP will lay out step-by-step instructions on how to best communicate with individual clients, including their communication preferences.
• Always send an agenda before meetings and follow up with notes afterwards to summarize main points and action items.
• Set more frequently recurring calls than you would if you were meeting in person. For example, a weekly 15-minute check-in call can replace a bi-weekly 30-minute in-person meeting.
Remember that proactive communication is key to building long-term client relations and that you can get creative, especially when building relationships online.
Be transparent.
Transparency is naturally baked into every facet of the PR industry—it's a key part of any PR partnership, but it's especially important for remote relationships. A transparent client relationship means you'll need to share information with your clients, including pricing, project updates and campaign metrics, on the front end. Keeping things transparent at all times will help your clients have a full understanding of where exactly you're at in your work, even if you're facing setbacks.
A lack of transparency can lead to confusion, mistrust and overall poor relationships. By consistently keeping transparency at the forefront of your PR efforts and project management, you'll build trust and longevity. PR professionals may want to consider hiring a client relationship manager. This person should be solely responsible for handling client communication, transparency and troubleshooting—their main goal is to strengthen client partnerships with trust.
Building long-term client relationships in a remote PR world is not a one-and-done process.. It's something that will require ongoing effort throughout the length of all client relationships. Take time to ensure that your foundation is strong and adaptable—this will be key to creating lasting connections.
Your approach to each client partnership may differ in the minute details. But now you have a starting point on how to effectively foster and maintain strong client relationships that last in our increasingly remote industry.
Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trailhead Biosystems® Expands Human Cell-Based Product Line with iPSC-Derived A9 Dopaminergic Neurons
BEACHWOOD, Ohio, July 23, 2025 /CNW/ -- Trailhead Biosystems, Inc. ( a biotechnology company pioneering the creation of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived human cells at scale for drug discovery and cell therapy, introduces TrailBio® A9 Dopaminergic Neurons, a powerful new tool available off-the-shelf for studying Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. A9 dopaminergic neurons play a critical role in movement regulation and are disproportionately affected in Parkinson's disease. Historically, researchers have lacked access to viable human models, relying instead on animal studies with limited relevance. With TrailBio® A9 Dopaminergic Neurons, scientists now have a human-specific platform to investigate disease mechanisms, develop therapies and accelerate drug discovery. "TrailBio® A9 Dopaminergic Neurons open new possibilities for Parkinson's research," said Dr. Jan Jensen, Chief Scientific Officer, Chief Technology Officer and founder of Trailhead Biosystems. "These cells enable researchers to study the vulnerabilities of A9 neurons, helping drive progress toward more effective treatments." "For decades, the lack of human A9 neurons has limited our ability to truly understand Parkinson's disease," added Dr. Nooshin Amini, Scientific Director at Trailhead Biosystems. "Now, with TrailBio® A9 Dopaminergic Neurons, researchers can directly study the exact cells that are most affected, offering hope for groundbreaking insights and future therapies." About Trailhead Biosystems Trailhead Biosystems, Inc. is pioneering an informatics-based approach in regenerative medicine and drug discovery. Founded in 2015 as a spinout from the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University, Trailhead emerged from the research of CSO/CTO and founder Dr. Jan Jensen. Trailhead creates optimized human cells at scale with its proprietary High-Dimensional Design-of-Experiments (HD-DoE®) platform, integrating advanced mathematical modeling with high-throughput robotic manufacturing. This innovative system allows Trailhead to develop specialized, high-quality iPSC-derived human cells for drug discovery and cell-based therapies. TrailBio® A9 Dopaminergic Neurons represent one of many specialized human cell types emerging from this platform, with additional cell models expected in the near future. Learn more about Trailhead Biosystems, TrailBio® A9 Dopaminergic Neurons and HD-DoE® at For more information, please contact: Tim Mauk, Corporate CommunicationsTrailhead BiosystemsEmail: info@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Trailhead Biosystems Inc View original content to download multimedia:
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
S&P 500 Is Getting More Bitcoin Exposure as Block Joins the Club
Block, Jack Dorsey's Bitcoin-focused payments company, is set to join the S&P 500 on Wednesday, a milestone moment for both the company and and foray further into crypto for the benchmark index. Block (XYZ), which was rebranded from Square in 2021, is the second blockchain company to join the club after cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global (COIN) was added to the index in mid-May. That means index fund investors will get a modest bump in exposure to the world's largest cryptocurrency bitcoin (BTCUSD). The company takes the spot vacated by Hess Corp., which was acquired by Chevron (CVX) in a deal that closed July 18. It's the third addition of the month, following The Trade Desk (TTD) and Datadog (DDOG). Since the announcement of Block's inclusion late Friday, the shares have risen 9%. Block's stock has benefited from an index effect, which refers to directional pressure on stocks when a company is added to, or removed from, the S&P 500 and other indexes. The most recent research report on the matter from S&P Dow Jones Indices, which studied the price impact of index additions and deletions from 1995 to June 2021, showed that it isn't always much of a force. The median excess returns—defined here as the difference between a stock's total return and that of the broader index—of stocks added to the index, measured from the announcement date to the effective date, was about 8% from 1995 to 1999. From 2000 to 2010, that number shrank to 3.6%, and was essentially nonexistent from 2011 to 2021. And even if an index effect shows up ahead of the official inclusion or deletion date, according to a McKinsey study, the premium or discount has a tendency to dissipate within a few months. What's new can get old pretty fast. Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump readies new hands-off AI 'action plan' that offers a split with Biden
President Trump is expected to release an AI "action plan" on Wednesday that reportedly outlines how the US can win in the global race to develop artificial intelligence by fostering a hands-off regulatory approach to the technology. Media reports suggest the document will likely mark a split from Biden administration policies, which favored restrictions against exports of AI chips and steps to ensure AI was not used to spread misinformation. The White House, according to a Reuters report that cited a summary of the draft action plan, will likely discuss how to make it easier to export AI technology abroad and reduce barriers to its development in the US. That may include everything from faster permitting for building AI data centers to more use of AI at the Pentagon to identifying which federal regulations slow down AI and even withholding federal funding from states with tough AI laws already in place. Trump is expected to discuss the topic during a speech at a Wednesday event titled "Winning the AI Race," organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the "All-In" podcast. The strategy announcement from the White House is the outcome of an order Trump signed in his first week that asked for an AI action plan to "sustain and enhance America's global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security." Some executive orders are also expected this week, according to Axios and the Wall Street Journal, that would promote the exports of chips and AI technology to countries considered friendly to the US. There may be an order that targets "woke AI," according to The Wall Street Journal. It would target AI developers that the administration believes create liberally biased algorithms and block them from serving as federal contractors. The White House didn't respond to a request for comment. Two constitutional law scholars who talked with Yahoo Finance said it is doubtful the "woke AI" measure will withstand legal scrutiny. "If you sanction software that is liberal, but not software that is conservative, the challenge will be that the executive order is content-based discrimination," said UC San Francisco School of Law professor Rory Little. "I don't even know how you tell if software is liberal or conservative," Little said, adding that the First Amendment protects intellectual property as forms of speech that the government may not single out for punishment. But the order's constitutional viability may not matter in the short term for companies like Amazon (AMZN), Anthropic ( Google (GOOG), OpenAI ( Microsoft (MSFT), and Perplexity ( all of which are vying to supply AI systems to the government. Even if the order is met with legal challenges, AI developers might not have time to wait out a court solution. "A lot of people are trying to make deals with the Trump administration, so they view these executive orders not as law, but as the opening bid in a negotiation," Little said. "If you're an AI company, like Google, you're probably going to do your best to negotiate something that permits whatever you want to do to go forward," he added. "And you could care less what atmospheric politics might look like, so long as you're making money on your software." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Tuesday at a Federal Reserve banking conference in Washington, D.C., that his company now has lots of government work. "We are increasingly working with the government to roll out our services to lots of government employees," Altman said. If such an AI order is issued and then challenged, a court fight is likely to resemble those in multiple ongoing lawsuits against two other DEI-focused executive orders issued by Trump during his first days back in office. Those earlier orders directed all federal contractors to certify that they do not operate DEI programs in violation of anti-discrimination laws. They also shuttered government offices and employment positions focused on DEI. David Coale, a partner with the law firm Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann, said the executive orders get into an area called the "unconstitutional conditions" doctrine, which prohibits the government from conditioning a grant on the exercise of constitutional rights. "This [type of] proposal goes too far," Coale said, explaining that tying the eligibility to an AI's liberal bias presents "serious First Amendment issues." Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on X @alexiskweed. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data