Every business wishes to rise above the competition. Wants to stand out in the crowd seemingly reaching to the target audience. A good product, resilient revenue model, rocking team-all are in place. Yet, you feel something is missing! The missing thread here is an effective Public relations (PR). PR helps you reach to the target audience, create a good image of the company and engage the audience with the right kind of information/storytelling.
The core responsibility of PR is to influence, engage and build relationships with the relevant stakeholders to shape a good public perception of a firm across various platforms. Although there are plenty, we choose the following five rules of using PR to boost businesses:
PR to build your brand
As per the adage, “Advertising is what you pay for; publicity is what you pray for.” Businesses need public relations to earn publicity and use advertisements to preserve that publicity. Defying the myth, PR uses trusted sources only for the brand building exercises. The most important aspect of PR is that it builds the foundation for marketing. That can later be cultivated through prospective buyers. The following are a few tools for brand building exercise:
- Storytelling.
- Identifying target audiences and key messages.
- Locating the right channels for communication.
- Establishing thought leadership (sharing innovative content and ideas).
- Expanding contacts (personal networking, at events, etc.).
PR to raise brand awareness
Making the target audience aware of your brand and services is the foremost task a PR firm does for you. With careful strategies, media reach and with personalized curated content, PR firms work to raise brand awareness. There are campaigns, workshops, events, and tip-ups to take the brand to the next level as well.
PR to establish your product
When a positive story about a brand gets published in media including magazine, website or newspaper, it is viewed as “verified by trusted source”. Here, your product or the brand services are getting verified by media and reaching to the targeted group. It is a smart way of establishing your product or brand in a much cleaner, better and practical way. However, reaching this point requires a diligent effort but once you reach that stage, your sales might jumpstart from there.
PR to boost credibility
In the age of fierce competition, often brands struggle to earn trust and credibility among stakeholders and the external world. Going by the trend, users review a brand first online before trying the same. Here, building and maintaining the credibility of your brand requires continuous work which is an owner of the company may not always can do. Therefore, it makes sense to choose a PR company that enhances the credibility factor for your business. A PR firm helps you to achieve this by strategic PR campaign.
PR to make real connections
PR is a great tool to humanize your brand/services. PR companies often do this by identifying key customers at an optimized cost. PR often builds the foundation for marketing in following lead-to-sales strategy. Because once your consumers are informed about your brand and services as a credible and reputable brand, sales will follow. PR helps build a perception that marketing strategy may lack.
Conclusion
While there is no debate whether to opt for PR or not, however, the criticality lies in choosing the right PR agency that understands your requirement better and delivers as per the requirement of building that public perception.