Growth is one of the primary goals for every business. You can’t have a successful business without it. And public relations (PR) is ideal for helping to attract new customers and build loyalty among your current customers. However, those outside the PR trenches often see the discipline more narrowly, not recognizing its full potential. But PR is more than press releases. When properly executed, public relations strategies can be indispensable to your business growth. Here’s how.
Before Putting PR Into Action
Any successful PR effort begins with research, and the first step is to understand your target audience. Who are your customers? What are their needs? How can you reach them? This insight helps you effectively tailor your message and identify the best places to reach your audience.
Next, you’ll want to set specific goals to help you stay focused. For example, do you want to increase brand awareness, introduce a new product line, attract new customers, or manage a crisis? We recommend setting goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely).
This leads us right into the next bit of prep work: measuring results. Yes, you need to put a plan in place to measure results BEFORE any public relations strategies are implemented. This helps you to understand what worked well and what to improve in the future.
There are a number of ways to measure results, including tracking the number of media hits secured, the number of impressions secured, and the number of readers per month for any publication in which you’re featured. You can also use trackable links and measure how many people visit your website from each media placement. Similar tactics can be used when tracking partnership coverage and social media results as well.
Public Relations Strategies to Help Your Business Grow
Now, let’s talk about some of the public relations strategies you can use to help your business grow.
1. Establish and Maintain Media Relationships
It’s essential to not only establish relationships with members of the media but also to maintain them for your PR campaigns to be successful. As with any other business relationship, you must ensure it’s mutually beneficial and that you respect boundaries. For example, make sure you’ve done your research before contacting a journalist and pay careful attention to their preferences. You don’t want to waste their time with pitches that won’t interest them.
To maintain the relationship, engage with journalists as people, not just about what they can do for you. Ask them about their families before diving into business, or call them instead of emailing them for a more personal touch. What’s more, when your story/news has been shared, follow up with a short thank-you note or email and share the article across your social media channels.
The care and authenticity you put into the relationship will help strengthen your connection and lead to better media coverage down the line.
2. Position Executives as Thought Leaders
Thought leadership builds credibility for your brand. When those on your leadership team are considered experts within your industry, customers are more likely to trust your products and services and may be more likely to purchase from you over your competitors.
Now that you have those media connections, you can position your executives as thought leaders through interviews, offers to comment on industry-related breaking news and evergreen topics, and writing opinion pieces. What’s more, you can do this on a small scale, like pitching op-eds to local media, for example, so it’s budget-friendly too!
3. Create Compelling Content
At its heart, public relations is about sharing the right information in the right places and with the right people. That’s why knowing your audience is so important. You must create messaging that is not only relevant to your target customer but also engaging enough to catch their attention and keep it.
Consistency is also key across channels, so make sure anyone writing or speaking on behalf of your business is prepped on key talking points, preferred brand language, and tone so all content works together. A cohesive brand is a persuasive one, as your customers are more likely to trust your brand and be loyal to your business if they know what to expect from you across all channels.
And don’t forget the call to action (CTA) in your content to guide the audience in taking specific action toward your goals. It’s so simple, but you’d be surprised how many PR campaigns fall short because the audience doesn’t know what to do next!
4. Develop Partnerships
Like media relationships, well-aligned partnerships with other brands or influencers can also be mutually beneficial. However, the key is ensuring both parties have similar values and/or are working towards similar missions, or the partnership won’t feel authentic. Successful partnerships not only feel natural but will also expose both parties to new audiences and demographics.
Partnering with influencers, in particular, is one of the most effective public relations strategies to grow your business. Why? Customers are typically more likely to trust recommendations from other people than the brand itself. So, look for partnerships with thought leaders, bloggers, and other influential personalities in your niche or with values that align with your brand and endorse or promote each other’s products or services.
5. Optimize Your Online Presence
A strong online presence is one of the most powerful public relations strategies to attract new customers and build loyalty among your current customers. For example, when your business is featured in an article or you’re selected for an interview, you’ll start to be associated with certain keywords. When searchers type in these keywords, results related to your business will be more likely to show, increasing your reach among your target audience(s).
In addition, search engines like Google rely on backlinks, or links to your website from other trusted sources, to help it determine which webpages to boost when search queries are submitted. The more trustworthy backlinks you can secure, the better your website will ultimately perform.
6. Stay Active on Social Media
Social media allows two-way communication with current and potential customers in a way no other type of marketing or advertising can. That’s why using your platforms to engage with your audience is an essential public relations strategy. You’ll need to make announcements, publish, and share content. As well as interact with followers regularly to show you’re genuinely interested in connecting with your audience.
But it’s not just your customers you’ll reach on social media; many journalists follow businesses’ social media accounts to stay informed as well. So you’ll be helping to get your message in front of the media and maintaining those relationships, too. It’s all interconnected!
Need Help With Your Public Relations Strategies?
At RPR Firm, we have a team of PR professionals with the skills and experience to help you create successful public relations strategies to grow your business. Schedule a free consultation with us today.