Public relations is a great way to help build your brand. If your organization already has an established brand, consider yourself lucky, as you don’t have to build it from scratch.
At the same time, managing PR can be tricky, even for established brands. Here are our top 10 tips for how to take on a higher level of public relations.
1. Create a PR Calendar
Organization is key. Yes, PR can involve many unexpected circumstances that are almost impossible to foresee. However, it’s best to put together your planned campaigns and tasks in an orderly schedule. Doing so will make room for those last-minute PR scenarios you’ll encounter in the future. Plus, maintaining a consistent schedule can also appeal to customers. For example, clients can subscribe to the idea of relying on your company to send out monthly newsletters with product updates, blog posts, upcoming webinar dates and more. With that said, it’s best to create a calendar and provide some level of consistency so you can habituate them to the rhythm of your calendar.
2. Know your Audience
Undoubtedly, being able to best communicate with your clients and prospects is a must. In order to achieve this, you must know who they are and what they like to see. The more established your brand, the greater your audience will likely be. Therefore, it’s important to tailor your communication to what works best with your target audience. If you’re a B2B organization selling to other big-named businesses, you might consider a more formal tone. If you’re a B2C organization targeting newlyweds or parents, you might go for something a bit more casual and bubbly.
3. Provide Latest News Releases
The common hurdle in producing press releases is understanding, as it can be challenging, how to balance getting your releases out promptly with quality. You’ll need a solid combination of the two. We recommend you prepare a few drafts beforehand so that you can minimize errors and also have little time to spend on editing since it’s already drafted.
4. Publish Industry-Related Content
It’s no surprise that it’s great to publish your organization’s content across a variety of media sources. Nonetheless, you have to make sure you do not overshare your company-specific content. You may have heard of the 80/20 rule. It states that your company should publish 80% interesting, informational and educational content. The other 20% should be sales-related, pertaining to your business and its products. The percentage varies for certain companies, but this ratio is a good place to start.
5. Feed off Collaborations
Organizations grow with the help of other organizations. Cross-promotion is a great example of how they do so. Today’s digital world consists of many communication channels. While collaboration doesn’t necessarily work for every type of communication, we suggest collaborating on online media. For example, you should consider interviewing other business pros for your blog or a podcast. Doing so gives you an opportunity to show your clients that you are deeply involved in the industry. Then you can publish the podcast and have them share it with their clients and so on. It’s a great way to increase your professional network.
6. Build Your Network
We’ve all heard of the saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Who you know can play a big role in building your brand. It can provide opportunities for partnerships, collaborations, sponsorships and so on. A great way to succeed in network building is to make connections through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. A social media monitoring tool can help you track mentions about your company and make it easier to engage with industry influencers from time to time. We recommend making this a common practice so it wouldn’t be completely random when you do end up reaching out to them.
7. Budget Accordingly
Helpful PR resources can be expensive. Luckily, big organizations typically have a larger budget. Regardless of your total budget, make sure you allocate your spend accordingly by prioritizing your must-have software and services at the top of the spending list. Do your research and make sure you are partnering with those that are reasonably charging you for excellent service. If you have extra left in the budget, that’s ok. You never know when you might need to use it to promote last-minute releases and ads.
8. Always Have a Backup Plan
The foreseeable future in PR can be a bit hazy for certain companies. New releases and updates can sometimes have unpredictable results. Therefore, it’s best to prepare for both scenarios. A big part of PR is prepping for the inevitable. With that said, make sure you have more than one backup plan at all times.
9. Keep it Fun
PR talk is typically all business, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it fun. It’s ok to add a little bit of humor within certain media channels. More specifically, social media is a great place to test this practice. Consider adding some gifs pertaining to your business’ excitement about new product launches or feature updates. Some people love a good pun too. We suggest you keep it light and use them sparingly. They can help bring personality and a great level of realness to your company.
10. Share your Coverage
Most importantly, you should be sharing all of your company’s good coverage. Getting your hands on positive media coverage is gold. Clients love seeing testimonials and perspectives of other organizations working with yours. It’s a great way to shine a spotlight on your business and show its true credibility.
Critical Mention
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Get a closer look at the most robust media monitoring and intelligence platform in the industry by scheduling a free, custom demo.
Priscilla Osorio
Priscilla is the marketing coordinator for Critical Mention. Early on in her career, she developed a passion for marketing, writing and anything within the communication field. During her leisure time, she loves to watch her favorite sports teams and explore new restaurants with friends and family.
