R Public Relations Firm
9 Reasons your Business Needs PR Consulting
There are functions of any business deemed essential – accounting, human resources, sales – and then there are functions that far too many believe unnecessary. Public relations (PR) is one of them. That’s a mistake businesses often don’t realize until they’ve spent valuable time and money only to achieve lackluster results. For example, Forbes cites a study from Nielsen commissioned by inPowered that concluded that PR is almost 90% more effective than advertising. But PR is a specialized skill set often confused with marketing. However, the two are very different, which is why lumping PR in with the responsibilities of your marketing team isn’t always the best choice. On the other hand, outsourcing PR consulting can be a game-changer. Here’s why.
Why Your Business Needs PR Consulting
1. Shapes Your Reputation and Message
When your business is presented in a positive light through outside sources versus direct communications from you to the customer alone, it does wonders to improve your brand’s reputation. That’s why relationships with the media and influencers are so important. Cultivating and maintaining those relationships is a key component of PR consulting.
What’s more, your customers need to be aware of your business’s brand positioning and the benefit and value of your product/service in a way that resonates with them consistently. PR can help you relay those messages effectively across multiple channels.
2. Drives Awareness
Your target audience can’t buy your products or services unless they know about them. That’s why driving awareness is so vital to businesses. Having direct media contacts is the key to ensuring your message is shared in the right places at the right time. Unfortunately, most businesses neither have the time nor the expertise to cultivate and maintain these relationships. However, PR consulting firms do!
Another part of driving awareness is staying relevant to your audience. A business only has so much news to share. But PR consulting firms stay on top of trends and opportunities to pitch your brand in a way that’s relevant to what’s going on in your industry, with your target audience, and in the world.
3. Boosts Credibility
Consumers don’t take businesses at face value anymore. They ask questions and want to know your brand before buying. In fact, Edelman's Trust Barometer found that 70 percent of consumers say trusting a brand is more important today than in the past. What’s more, 53 percent agree that trusting the business behind the brand is the second most important factor (only to price) when purchasing.
As such, PR consulting that helps you to be featured in the media, trade publications, and/or by trusted influencers will boost your credibility (and, as a result, trust) in a way that no advertising and direct communications from you can.
4. Reaches a Wider Audience
Most businesses don’t have unlimited budgets, and advertising is costly, particularly when it comes to national campaigns. On the other hand, a PR consulting firm has the expertise to help you reach a wider audience with earned media. However, this organic coverage is harder to achieve on your own without the right media connections.
Another benefit of earned media coverage is that you may receive news mentions introducing your business to new audiences that you’ve never considered before!
5. Gives You an Edge over Competitors
As mentioned above, PR isn’t often seen as necessary because it doesn’t directly drive sales in the way marketing does (although it does indirectly by driving leads). And while competitors are ignoring those top-of-the-funnel activities and trying to figure out how to stretch their limited marketing budget to attract more interest, those who are proactive about PR enjoy a robust funnel of leads. This, in turn, gives your business an edge by allowing you to focus marketing on increasing sales conversion.
6. Enhances Online Presence
You may not realize that PR and SEO have similar goals, including brand awareness. For example, high-quality backlinks from credible media sources (or influencers) can help your website move up higher in search results which drives more organic traffic. Brand mentions as a result of your PR consulting efforts can also help you rank higher for specific keywords in Google as well, particularly local brand mentions.
7. Generates More Leads
Again, if you think of the sales cycle as a funnel, PR is at the top, where awareness, credibility, and engagement are cultivated, versus the bottom of the funnel, where the sale is closed. Marketing can only do so much at the top of the funnel for several reasons: budget limitations and the resulting reach limitations, not to mention lack of staying power.
Once an ad or campaign has run its paid course, it’s done. Whereas those news mentions have legs, they can be found long after publication. So, PR drives lead in the short and long term, consistently generating more leads overall.
8. Attracts Investors and Brand Partners
PR consulting can help your business get in front of VCs and other investors in a way that increases your credibility. It helps them learn about your brand as a potential investment option. PR can also help you find brand partners by raising awareness among those with complementary products and services.
9. Effective Crisis Management
Crises can and will happen. Whether it’s a problem with your product/service, an issue in the industry, or some unforeseen event. In these circumstances, your PR consulting firm’s crisis management strategy is vital in helping you quickly share information, address the impact on your customers, and let them know how you’re remedying the issue(s).
A good PR consulting firm can also help you to identify any potential vulnerabilities proactively, too.
How Do You Choose the Right PR Consulting Firm?
To ensure the PR consulting firm, you choose is a fit for your brand, industry, budget, and goals, ask about their specialty, clients, whom you’ll work with daily, their working style, and how they measure success.
To learn more about PR consulting, contact us to schedule a call!
7 PR Trends Changing the Industry in 2023
The new year brings new opportunities for groundbreaking strategies, public relations (PR) successes, and company growth! Although it can be challenging to keep up with the fast-paced PR industry, not every trend sticks. Here are the seven PR Trends for 2023 that you need to pay attention to—they just might change the game for good.
1. Mobile Commerce as Part of Social Strategy
Organic social media is necessary for any good PR strategy, but organic posts alone won’t drive growth the way they used to. Recognizable brands like Domino’s and Starbucks have started turning to branded apps and SMS marketing to complement their existing social strategies.
While an app isn’t realistic for every brand, the barriers to entry for SMS marketing are low. Click-through-to-buy features on platforms like Pinterest and Instagram can, and should, also be leveraged by brands of all sizes.
Another one of the PR trends for 2023 is affiliate marketing, which is poised to become an essential driver of sales for product-based businesses next year. Amazon, Walmart, and Target all offer affiliate programs. Work with your product teams to get involved and increase the likelihood of your products being featured in product round-up articles.
2. Creator-Produced Content
As platforms introduce new opportunities for brands and creators to collaborate, the influencer industry continues to grow at an exponential rate. There are so many creators out there, it’s possible for any brand to find a good partnership fit.
Layer creator collaboration strategy onto your social media strategy and start to leverage this industry ASAP. Not only do creators have built-in, loyal audiences, but they’re often extremely well-versed in crafting authentic and engaging content about their favorite brands. This is especially true on newer platforms like TikTok.
An up-and-coming trend in the content creator space is live-streamed shopping events. Brands can collaborate with creators to run these events, which function similar to TV shopping networks, and pay them for their efforts. It’s a win-win!
3. Data-Driven Decision-Making
There’s growing interest in monitoring and evaluating PR campaigns and outcomes with solid datasets. Gone are the days of relying on monthly readerships and arbitrary subscriber numbers. As more brands layer paid strategies onto their campaigns, tracking specific revenue-based metrics like cost-per-click, cost-per-acquisition, and others will become increasingly important.
There are so many metrics to choose from; data-driven results are not one-size-fits-all. Work with individuals throughout your organization to determine which metrics matter most to your company!
4. Simplified Brand Messaging
One of the major PR trends for 2023 is simplified copy. Brands should work to carefully cull messaging until it is concise, catchy, and authentic. When in doubt, select shorter copy.
This trend applies to press releases, social media copy, advertising copy, videos, and more. Boil down key messaging until it is in its most concentrated form. This will help brands differentiate themselves from competitors and hone in on specific target audiences.
5. Convey Empathy and Authentic Values in Copy
Staying abreast of local, regional, national, and global news is incredibly important in the PR industry, and this will be even more true next year. Brands must be aware of all major news happenings and adjust PR and social media strategies accordingly, or else risk offending followers.
Avoid being the person behind an ad that runs next to tweets about a new global crisis. Check-in on world happenings often, and don’t be afraid to pause or delay campaigns. As stated by Jennifer Berson in her article for LinkedIn, “No one wants to support a brand that carries on as usual in a crisis, even if it’s happening on the other side of the globe.”
Brand strategy should also take inclusivity into account. Copy should exude authenticity and empathy, but be sure your brand values align with your company’s actions. Act on the causes you claim to support and treat employees with high levels of respect. Any effort to use inclusivity and diversity policies as talking points in campaigns will be counter-productive.
6. Pitch Exclusives
There is so much content behind paywalls now. Journalists that remain with short-staffed publications are slammed covering multiple beats while working to optimize their articles for SEO. PR pros should try to make journalists’ jobs easier by providing them with pre-optimized, catchy, and relevant premium content!
That means less widespread pitching and more highly targeted and exclusive content offers. With less publications to pitch and more news than ever, journalists will need additional enticement to publish your announcement, and exclusives will help you capture the attention of both reporters and readers. Exclusives also increase the likelihood of quality coverage and assist with relationship building.
7. Social and Media Strategies Will Find Equal Footing
As previously mentioned, media opportunities are dwindling while social media opportunities abound. Traditional PR strategies typically place a premium on published content and position social media in a supporting role. Adept PR pros will start to shift this dynamic by placing equal value on media and social media strategies. Keep your eyes peeled for this PR trend for 2023 and watch as more large companies make major brand announcements on social media and through creator partnerships rather than through embargoed press releases.
What is the best way to keep up with PR Trends for 2023?
PR firms are well-suited to keep up with industry trends. Because team members’ skills are highly specialized, they are able to keep a pulse on algorithm changes, media personnel shifts, and more. They also often have internal structures for knowledge sharing across industries, which means firms can apply learnings and successes from other clients to their strategies without having to go through testing or trial-and-error.
Want to dive deeper into any of these PR Trends for 2023? Schedule a call with R PR Firm today—our team is always happy to talk trends and strategy. Contact us here to schedule a call!
5 Things PR Teams Can Do To Assist Entrepreneurs with Their Business
Running a company is hard! There are so many facets of the business that entrepreneurs need to stay on top of, from customer service to digital presence and beyond. Hiring a public relations (PR) team can be a lifesaver for business owners, as PR teams have the capacity to take lots of important tasks off owners’ plates and dedicate a set number of hours a week to improving public perception, media coverage, and more. Here are five ways good PR can support entrepreneurs in running their businesses.
1. Handle Customer Service Needs Online
With more and more social media platforms popping up all the time, it can be very difficult for business owners to stay on top of DMs, messages, emails, and comments, especially those voicing legitimate concerns. PR teams can take this off entrepreneurs’ plates by managing all aspects of social media, from content creation to community management. Handing the social media reigns over to a PR team ensures someone will be available at all times to respond to complaints, interact with happy customers, and clear your inbox regularly.
PR teams are also adept at crafting crisis statements, so if an issue arises and spirals online, they’ll be able to respond quickly and tactfully to help minimize the problem’s impact, thereby proactively avoiding negative press in the future.
2. Streamline Messaging Across Channels
It’s not uncommon for small businesses to explore lots of channels to promote brand awareness and drive sales. Maybe you send out a monthly newsletter, run ads on Google, post regularly on half a dozen social media platforms, and submit op-eds to your local newspaper. As just one person, it’s nearly impossible to ensure the message remains consistent across all your outputs.
PR teams are highly practiced at crafting concise, precise, and catchy messaging, and they can do the same for your business. Clearer and more consistent messaging across channels help new consumers understand the products and services you offer. It also supports better audience targeting, which drives down your cost per click and cost per conversion. If you are willing to allow a professional team to take on your company’s PR, entrepreneurs can expect to see a boost in sales.
3. Build Up Your Research Arsenal
Good PR is backed by lots and lots of research. A great firm always looks into the PR entrepreneurs in your region are securing and their like-minded business strategies as a jumping-off point for your plans.
That’s not all, though. PR teams have the ability to run competitive analyses and audits of your own business’s channels. Audits expose holes in your strategy and opportunities for improvement, as well as highlight great ideas other businesses are executing well.
Finally, research is the hallmark of a great media relations campaign. Hours upon hours of research are required to target the exact right publications and reporters for any given pitch. You can shoot random reporters an email about your new offerings, or you can allow a PR team to reach out to the exact journalist who has a passion for your new services. The latter strategy will result in more frequent and higher-quality coverage; the choice is up to you!
4. Define Operational Processes
PR entrepreneurs are just like other entrepreneurs; in addition to helming PR initiatives for other brands, they run their own businesses with a keen eye for operational efficiency. They are privy to all sorts of business setups and have been exposed to lots of examples of what works—and what does not!
As your PR firm hones in on your communications strategy and sorts out key messages, they can also craft approval processes within your staff structure. This is key for the PR team to be able to function optimally, but it may also streamline your own internal approval processes, too.
PR teams also have the skills to develop crisis communications operational charts, including who reports to whom in high-stress situations. You can apply this structure to non-PR emergencies, too, like a customer falling ill in your shop or a natural disaster hitting your area.
5. Use PR to Boost Entrepreneurs’ Profiles in the Community
Whether you’re looking to partner with other local businesses or meet like-minded individuals, PR increases entrepreneurs’ profiles in the community. The primary method for this tactic is thought leadership, which works for both business owners and other high-ranking company executives.
It’s challenging to pitch yourself for awards and interview opportunities, but hiring a PR team provides entrepreneurs with a buffer between themselves and the media. Unbiased PR pros can tout business owners’ accolades and artfully position them as leaders in their field, trusted sources for commentary, and exceptional partners and supporters for other organizations. Every little bit of positive coverage adds credibility to your business and increases customer loyalty and acquisition in the long run.
How will I know a firm is exceptional at handling PR for entrepreneurs like myself?
When hiring your PR firm, be sure to ask the right questions. Request the firm share samples of thought leadership articles they’ve secured in the past, and ask about the strength of their relationships with media outlets that have both local and national reach. If the firm you’re interviewing can share solid examples of similar work they’ve done for other entrepreneurs, they’ll very likely be able to replicate their success with your company.
R PR Firm Founder Emily Reynolds Bergh is a PR entrepreneur herself, so she knows a thing or two about running a successful business—and implementing a successful PR strategy! To learn more about her services and how a PR team can bolster your business, contact us to schedule a call.
