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The Impact of Press Release in 2023
Companies have used press releases as a tool to deliver updates about product launches, mergers, and other news for decades. However, in today's digital media landscape, press releases serve a far more critical purpose. Including press releases in your public relations (PR) strategy can help you build brand awareness and credibility and manage the narrative in times of crisis. So how does a press release impact business in 2023, and why is it still relevant? Read on to find out.
Why is a Press Release Important in PR Strategy Today?
In today’s competitive marketplace, you need more than a great product to succeed. A press release offers an effective way to communicate with your customers, build credibility, and help to control the narrative on controversial information. Here’s how press releases can impact your brand.
1. Build Brand Awareness
Today, one of the most important currencies in business is attention. The number of customers you can reach determines the sales you generate and how fast you build a formidable company. However, many competitors are also vying for your target audience's attention. Research from Cision has shown that 68% of businesses experienced improved visibility from publishing press releases, making it a good strategy for building visibility.
A press release is typically written by a company and distributed to journalists and news outlets with a good reputation and coverage in your industry. When this content is published, you can reach a wider audience than your regular followers on social media or website visitors. Occasionally, your news can go viral, which creates a bigger buzz for your launch, merger, or announcement of groundbreaking technology.
In addition, if your press release integrates the best SEO strategies, you will show up on search engine results for specific keywords, contributing to visibility and awareness for your brand. This is very important for small business owners and startups competing against more prominent brands as it helps them to gain more attention with a cost-effective approach.
2. Build Brand Credibility
Trust plays a vital role in how consumers interact with businesses today. A recent Edelman report shows that 81% of consumers will only buy from a brand they trust. With a press release, you can communicate your brand's value and good works and if it shows up in a reputable publication, you will gain even more trust. Why? Your consumers trust these publications to deliver verified news and credible brands. This is good for startups who want to gain market authority for their new product.
3. Establish Brands Authority
Press releases also help you to establish your brand as a thought leader. According to Cision's State of Press Release report, 36% of business owners who used press releases said it reinforced their market position as a thought leader. Edelman also reports that 48% of decision-makers say thought leadership can influence purchasing decisions. For startups and small businesses, establishing yourself as an expert helps to build authority in your industry. It’s also another way to gain customers' trust as they believe you can solve their problems and deliver on your promise.
4. Control the Narrative
Recently, deep fake technology has become a major driver for misleading information. It uses artificial intelligence to create videos that mimic the voice and faces of celebrities in an almost undetectable way. Besides the typical controversies a business might find itself in, deep fake technology increases the need for good reputation management. That's where the press release comes into the picture as a tool to control the narrative. For example, a deep fake video surfacing online with a top company executive making unsubstantiated claims can tank your stocks or business. You can quickly get ahead of this by publishing a press release to address the issue, take control, and leverage the publicity to promote your brand. This approach will prevent your business from losing partners and customers.
Getting Started Making Impact with Your Press Releases
Today, press releases for businesses do so much more than share news. They impact your brand’s visibility, credibility, authority, and overall reputation. If you aren't adopting this cost-effective public relations tool, you are missing out on the opportunity for growth.
To get started, you need a professional team with a proven track record of delivering effective press releases as part of a PR strategy for businesses. At RPR Firm, press releases are a cornerstone of the public relations strategies we create for our clients and include SEO and link-building to make them even more effective. Schedule a free consultation with us today to see how we can help you grow your business.
Can PR Improve Organizational Reputation?
Building a positive organizational reputation is not done in a day; it takes years of effort, patience, and investment in effective strategies. On the other hand, it may only take one mistake for years of good reputation to crumble. Public relations (PR) is the key to a reputation management strategy to help you maintain a good relationship with the public.
At its core, PR helps to shape how people perceive your brand, which results in better sales performance and helps to build a community of loyal customers. In this article, we discuss organizational reputation and the PR tactics to improve yours.
What is Organizational Reputation?
Organizational reputation describes how consumers, employees, and investors perceive your brand. If you have done something questionable or associated with unethical practices, people will become reluctant to do business with you. A good reputation builds consumers' trust, and the stronger your brand reputation, the more people will want to do business with you.
How Does PR Improve Brand Reputation?
PR involves planned efforts and strategies to establish and maintain a positive relationship between an organization and its audience. PR can help improve brand reputation in the following ways:
1. Build a Solid Brand Identity
In business, brand identity focuses on the selling proposition and key characteristics of your company. A good PR strategy can help develop a compelling brand identity for your business, and this will improve your reputation. When you maintain a solid brand identity through PR activities, your audience will associate positive things with your brand.
2. Generate Public Interest
Adopting PR as part of your content marketing strategy helps build brand awareness and a positive company reputation. Whether through press releases, social media content, blog posts, or executive bylines, PR can help generate great buzz for your company.
3. Build Customers’ Trust
A significant part of reputation management is getting the trust of your customers, and there is no better way to do that than PR. Implementing PR tactics like thought leadership helps you capture the audience’s attention, build a good relationship with them, and give them reasons to trust your brand.
6 PR Tactics to Improve Organizational Reputation
Whether you are in the middle of a PR crisis or want to earn the support of the public, these PR tips can improve your brand reputation:
1. Monitor Your Reputation
You can't improve a reputation if you don’t know what the public thinks of your brand. An excellent PR tactic is to monitor what people say about you. Is there a lot of positive feedback? Do you have negative reviews? Learn from your feedback to enhance your company’s services. You can monitor what people say through social media and PR tools like Google Alerts and Mentions.
2. Publicly Address Negative Reviews
A study by Reviewtracker revealed that 45% of consumers are more likely to visit a business if it responds to negative reviews. This shows you care about your customers’ satisfaction and offers an opportunity to build interaction. When responding to negative reviews, you must empathize with the customer, accept fault, suggest possible solutions, and inform them of steps you are taking to fix the problem. Following this process will help you show other prospects that you are a reliable business and boost your brand reputation.
3. Be Loud About Your Achievements
Sharing news about milestones, achievements, endorsements, certifications, or customer success stories creates a ripple effect. For starters, consumers like to associate with the best brands as it assures them of quality service delivery. For example, if a reputable local magazine mentions your brand as the ‘best company of the year,’ it will reduce customers' objections during their research process. Therefore, sharing information about your achievements helps to build your reputation organically.
4. Have Responsive Customer Service
According to Microsoft, 58% of customers will stay away from a brand with poor service. Also, research by Zippia found that 72% of customers who had a good customer experience will share that with six or more people, which is good for brand reputation. A good customer service experience will help you build an emotional connection with customers turning them into brand ambassadors. This is profitable for startups looking to drive word-of-mouth marketing to reach a wider audience and generate more sales.
5. Invest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a PR tactic that involves making a social impact by participating in socially responsible activities for the greater good of the public. A good social impact strategy helps to humanize your brand and shows that you care about issues that affect your customers. These initiatives will also get media coverage which will help to create awareness and build a positive reputation among your target audience.
6. Have an Efficient Communication Team
In case of a PR crisis, one of the best ways to deal with it is by crafting a message to address the issue immediately. You might need a professional communication team to do this. A professional PR team will help you create a crisis management plan, track brand mentions, and manage PR activities. Furthermore, with a crisis management plan in place, you can quickly respond to any issues without spending hours confused and escalating the situation due to poor communication. Don’t wait for a crisis to hit before you get the services of PR experts.
Build Organizational Reputation with Profesional PR Firm
Building a strong reputation opens your company up to great opportunities for growth. Besides the obvious benefits like building brand loyalty and awareness, it can also help you increase sales. However, you need a professional team and PR tools to achieve your business goals through public relations.
At RPR Firm, we have more than 11 years of experience helping brands improve their reputation and build solid relationships with their audience. Are you considering working with a full-service PR team to boost your brand reputation? Schedule a free consultation with us today.
