Due to global warming, nature conservation and species protection have never been more important. The topic is also extremely important to Katharina Heuberger. The thematic focus of her agency “Katharina Heuberger – Agency for Communication” are predominantly in the areas of organic food management, natural gardens, and conservation and environmental protection. Since founding her own agency in 2018, she was on the lookout for a suitable PR software that would make her day-to-day work easier. After coming across PressFile about a year ago, the search was over.
Not a typical PR agency
Katharina Heuberger has been working as a freelance journalist for 20 years, including several years writing about food topics for the lifestyle sections of the business magazines Finanzen and €uro. At the same time, she worked as a freelance communications expert and copywriter, sometimes in fixed network partnerships with small agencies or other freelancers. Even then, organic food management and nature conservation were her focus. Customers included small and medium-sized companies from the organic and health food sector, public institutions, associations and NGOs. For almost ten years, she was in charge of Slow Food Germany, an organization that campaigns worldwide for a sustainable food system. She headed the online editorial team and handled press relations for events and, for a time, the Slow Food flagship fair “Market of Good Taste” in Stuttgart. Accordingly, she aligned her agency with these themes. “I can’t imagine working in a department that I don’t personally identify with,” Heuberger said.
According to their data, sustainability communication comes up short in many companies. She wanted to change that by founding her communications agency in Munich. She mainly handles press and public relations for medium-sized companies in the organic food sector and organizations that are committed to nature conservation, environmental protection and biodiversity. Among other things, she was part of the press team of the successful Bavarian “Volksbegehrens Artenvielfalt – Rettet die Bienen!” (petition for a referendum on biodiversity – save the bees!). As far as the relationship with her clientele is concerned, Heuberger attaches great importance to a personal and familiar relationship: “I’ve been lucky, so far I’ve always worked very close to the management and been well integrated into the team of the respective customer.” In parallel, Heuberger is heavily involved in volunteer work – among other things, she is a member of Naturgarten e.V.: “The things I do in my agency also keep me busy in my private life.” For example, she runs her own online advice magazine (Wilder Meter) and lectures on the topic of species-rich wild plant balconies to encourage insects, birds and other small life in urban areas. The aim of the public relations work is to also encourage other people to switch to insect-friendly balcony greening and thus increase biodiversity in urban areas. She was awarded the Bavarian Biodiversity Prize 2020 (2nd place) for the project.
The range of services offered by the PR expert is very wide: In addition to classic press and public relations work, Heuberger also offers the organization of lecture events and services in the field of copywriting. For larger projects, she is supported by her husband Holger Wiedemann, who himself worked as editor-in-chief for various business magazines of Axel Springer Financial GmbH. With such a range of services, stressful situations can naturally arise. Heuberger previously used Excel spreadsheets for customer management, but she has always found them very time-consuming and prone to errors. Then a long-standing client also transferred the entire press work to her agency. Since Excel was not up to the task, a solution had to be found quickly. That’s why she started looking for an uncomplicated and professional alternative.
Individual and competent customer service
After extensive research on the Internet, Heuberger initially came across a competitor’s PR software in addition to PressFile. After trying a trial version of both, her decision was clearly PressFile. Katharina Heuberger attributes this primarily to the software’s high level of user-friendliness: “PressFile solves my problem – I’m rid of the annoying Excel lists and can manage my contact data and send personalized press releases by e-mail without any hassle and in a very clear manner.” For about a year now, Heuberger has been relying on the cloud-based PR software, which not only gives her a handle on her press contacts. It is also very easy to create press distribution lists. This has made communication with their customer base much easier.
Heuberger is particularly positive about PressFile’s outstanding customer service: “For lone warriors like me, support like I experienced at PressFile is worth its weight in gold. Even when I was pressed for time, the PressFile team remained patient and extremely accommodating at all times. I am very grateful for that.” Heuberger praises the individual and extremely competent customer service. “With PressFile, everything was just right for me,” summarizes Heuberger with satisfaction.
