Strategic and targeted PR can help you generate profits, by raising awareness of your business, developing trust in your brand, and helping you to manage your corporate reputation.
It can increase visits to your website, trigger enquiries and drive sales. Engagement improves staff morale and retention, and reduces recruitment costs. With a little planning, time and effort, PR will make money for your business.
Here are seven ways you should be using PR:
1. Make PR part of your corporate strategy
There may be times when you want to tell your customers about your success. It could be an award, a major contract, business growth, a new apprentice scheme, or green energy initiative. PR should form part of your corporate strategy.
2. Understand when a good news story can help your bottom line
The best PR is aligned with your objectives and helps you to drive your business. It can increase profits, improve your SEO, boost your brand, and corporate reputation. A good news story helps engage employees, improves staff retention and reduces the cost of recruitment (people want to work for you!).
3. It’s free publicity!
Except for your time and energy, PR is free. One news release can be used for print, digital, and broadcast media. A summary version is content for your annual review, newsletter, website and blog, and extracts can be used for social media, for example your company’s or employees’ Facebook and Twitter.
4. Leverage the power of the media, photography and social media
Ideally you’ll share your successes on your website, digitally through an e-shot, on social media, with bloggers, and as a news release to your target media (specialist, local, regional and national). Quality images help tell your story, improve take-up, engagement, response rates, shares and likes.
5. Influence stakeholders
These range from external stakeholders such as customers and clients, suppliers, and industry opinion leaders, to internal stakeholders for example shareholders, partners, and employees. Editorial content produced by a journalist commands greater credibility than an advert.
6. Gain new customers and generate leads
If targeting the right media, consumed by your customers, coverage will lead to orders and enquiries. To generate most interest, align all marketing and communications, and ensure that the sales team is briefed so they can plan for and capture response. Once published use the coverage and links, as a reason to get in touch with customers and add cuttings ‘old-school’ style to noticeboards.
7. And finally… impress your Mum!
However old you are, mums and dads love to tell friends about news coverage of their children’s successes! And that’s word of mouth marketing!