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Whenever harnessing both digital and traditional PR methods, it is crucial to understand what the right approach for either looks like in the first place. In addition, one should consider the elements best leveraged into their strategy to achieve success. Together, let’s explore some practical tips that might potentially benefit your company, along with a quick refresher of the fundamentals – the ABCs of good PR, if you will.
What is PR?
PR, or public relations, is the communication and relationship between brands and/or businesses with the public and/or media. PR is essential to all companies as it is an integral part of marketing to make your brand stand out in the public’s eye. The key to understanding PR is knowing the difference between paid media and earned media. Paid media is coverage of a brand on large outlets that help advertise a campaign or help boost brand awareness with a commission to the outlet in question. This is helpful as it guarantees coverage in the media in exchange for monetary value. Earned media is when the press or media outlets share the brand’s content or speak about it, should it provide value to their outlet without paid advertising efforts.
One of the newer facets of PR is digital PR, which is geared towards helping brands increase SEO traffic on their sites. The ultimate goal of digital PR is to use a combination of earned and paid media tactics to provide content to outlets, ultimately in exchange for their use of your content while citing your business along with backlinks. Digital PR is a long-term process, requiring a combination of substantial brand reputation and networking to secure a high-quality placement and backlinks.
Know Your Clients
Developing a deeper, more meaningful understanding of your clients and their needs – and expectations – is one of the most important things to keep in mind when working in PR. As the PR representative of any brand, you need to effectively communicate their voice, services, and story to the public. A great first step to getting to know your clients is setting up calls to discuss their campaigns’ brand, messaging focus, and long-term goals. This discussion with both parties will allow your team to effectively align your client goals, PR services, and department goals to meet their needs more effectively. Transparency and clear expectations between the client and the PR team are conducive towards an ideal, healthy, and mutually beneficial relationship.
In addition, another good way to get to know your clients and their industry is to perform a thorough analysis of their website and social media channels. This enables you to better understand their services, audience, and communication style. Browse through their services, “about us” page, FAQ, landing pages, company values, high-performing social content, blog posts, and other similar forms of copy to refine your focus.
It’s essential to ask any additional questions that you may have after reviewing the website, social accounts, and any other company documents. This ensures that you can truly understand what they do when outputting a PR campaign and can hit the ground running.
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Know the Media Landscape
To achieve optimal PR efficacy, you need to know what’s happening around you. What is the most recent news? What are people talking about? Once you have the answers to those and other related questions, leverage your most newsworthy content, whether adding onto a story that is already happening or something that will grab the attention of various readers.
Next, make full use of your client’s industry knowledge and ask if they have anything to share — get them involved so their voice shines through. Be proactive and reach out to your client or propose something you think would be fitting but do so without overburdening them. This is a delicate balance to strike, but the effort can more than pay off.
By doing this, the client can share their input and utilize it in their campaign, maximizing its potential. People are always interested in harnessing new insights and reading fresh perspectives on a given topic. Therefore, take advantage of every change and trend, and draft up a story pitch according to what is going on.
Go with the flow of the world around you – especially the elements of it that would logically appeal most to your client, target audience, and outlets covering the industry and/or applications in question.
For example, during the wintertime, your pest control client can talk about seasonal pests. Alternatively, a real estate client can discuss the seasonal market landscape. Or perhaps a client operating in eCommerce can utilize deals for the holiday shopping season.
Good PR is about good timing, planning your outreach list strategy, and subsequent content around the media landscape, all while pitching appropriately and meeting those all-important deadlines. It’s imperative to continue building and sustaining your relationships with journalists, outlets, and clients so that you can reach out to your network when you have a story of interest. It is a constant battle of sorts, consisting of hundreds of emails, calls, researching, reporting, resource analysis, innovation, creation, strategy, proposals, and implementation. Still, the results speak for themselves when you land a perfect opportunity — a win-win for the client and the PR specialists.
The Medium is the Message
Today’s PR undergraduates are inspired by a variety of sources and theories, one of which is The Medium is the Message, coined by Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan. In essence, it discusses the fact that how we send and receive information becomes more important than what is being communicated to us.
We have shifted from being consumers to becoming producers, producing endless content for others’ pleasure. These mediums have transformed our ways of thinking, connecting, and sharing information.
This plays a prominent role in PR as there is a direct correlation between choosing the suitable medium with the opportunity presented. Ensuring that what you will be sending out will be well received by the audience and appreciated, which translates into sharing a publication through an outlet in an article, press release, interview, podcast, or any other type of media will articulate your message effectively and competitively.
If you notice that your message is not being received, re-strategizing the medium is the most appropriate option. Check out your competitors; what platforms are they using? How are they sharing their content? Where are they getting featured? What keywords are they using? It’s all about finding the medium that will allow you to stand out from the competition. When drafting up unique content and sharing your thought leadership across mediums, there’s ample opportunity to engage your target audience.
The Fortune is in the Follow-Up
A saying that every PR or marketing professional should live by; this should never be overlooked. People are busy, and things often get lost in your inbox; that’s perfectly normal. However, if it’s been a few days since you’ve sent an opportunity to a client or submitted a pitch to an outlet, don’t be afraid to follow up. An optimal approach to PR is about being reliable and serious with the submissions you make to an outlet. This is especially the case when you are making a pitch to an outlet, as you need to be mindful that they are receiving many similar pitches to yours.
One of how you can stand out is by sending a follow-up and highlighting your pitch, thanking the outlet for their time, and providing additional content. Typically, the outlet or your client will respond to the second email with interest and, if not, pass and move on to a different pitch.
Of course, you can always revisit the email later with newsworthy content and other story ideas, so don’t lose hope! The key to success – and an eventual placement – is all about being proactive and not giving up. When sending numerous emails every day, it is crucial to follow up and provide an additional reminder for the parties – this often gets the ball rolling or enables you to move onto more suitable topics.
A Recipe for Success
The very notion of “good PR” is highly subjective. A campaign that your company might consider “bad PR” may be a missed opportunity for your clients, for instance; you never know how it may be received by the audience. It’s crucial to get to know your clients and the media landscape itself, stay up to date on current events, and choose a suitable medium. Collectively, this contributes to your audience potentially sharing your information, plus you’ll be less likely to forget to follow up with specific clients and/or outlets.
By leveraging these tactics, your department will increase its chances of receiving optimal media coverage for clients, providing a space for them to share their knowledge in their respective industries. PR is all about trial and error – there is no one-size-fits-all. Therefore, continue to strategize, update your goals and keep reaching out; a successful placement is always in reach.