PR trends

The Ultimate Guide on How to Hire a PR Agency in 2023

Outsourcing PR activities is the best option if you own a small business and need to break into new markets. Not only does it save time, but it also enables you to get the best results faster while you focus on building a unique product. However, the sheer number of PR agencies promising different results can make the hiring process daunting. In this article, you will learn everything you need to hire a PR agency in 2023, including the types, costs, and questions to ask when interviewing firms.

How to Hire a PR Agency in 2023

Here are steps to prioritize if you want to hire a PR firm in 2023 without making costly mistakes

Set Clear Objectives that Align with Business Goals

Many PR campaigns fail due to a lack of direction. You hire a PR agency because your competitor has one, and you try to replicate their tactics without considering how it affects your goals. That's a remedy for disaster, and you won't get the right results, especially if you hire a PR company that's only interested in the pay and not your business. To avoid this, you must first set clear objectives that align with business goals. For example, if your marketing goal for the first quarter is to reach 1 million people, your PR tactics will involve media publications, guest blogging, and other awareness-based strategies. This way, you can easily track key performance indicators and identify if your PR firm is getting the right results.

8 PR Campaign KPI to Prioritize

Sentiment
Share of voice
Earned media value
Media impact score
Relevance index
Key message penetration
Quality of coverage
Social engagement

Create a Budget that Aligns with Your Objectives

When setting your budget, consider your in-house PR workforce, business goals, and the type of PR firm you need. A full-service PR company might cost more than a crisis management firm. Consider this as they guide you in choosing the best PR firm for your business.

What's the Cost of Hiring a PR Firm in 2023?

According to the Clutch PR pricing 2023 report, you can hire a public relation service company for a $100- $150 hourly rate. However, larger PR agencies might charge up to $500 hourly. In contrast, retainer PR agencies might charge between $1500 to $10,000 monthly. You can also expect larger PR firms to charge up to $25,000 monthly.

Research PR Firms

With your clear objectives and budget, you should research a PR agency that meets your requirements. Your goals will guide you in choosing the right PR services and type of agency. You should ask for recommendations from friends, check review websites, and read reviews from forums or the PR marketplace. Select your best 10 PR agencies and schedule a consultation interview to get more information and see if they are a good fit for your company.

Types of PR Firms and Their Services

Here is a list of different types of PR agencies and the Services they render

General strategic communications PR agency focuses on all aspects of business PR strategy. Services include reputation management, brand awareness, media relations, internal communications, speech writing, crisis communications, investor relations, and more.
Press communication PR agency handles all strategies to improve media relations. Services include outreach, pitch writing, securing media coverage, interviews, and more.
Crisis communication PR firm focuses on creating and implementing crisis management plans. Services include risk planning and mitigation, crisis communications planning, crisis PR training, strategic counsel, and on-site crisis management support.
Internal communications focus on disseminating information within the organization. Services include newsletters, announcements, training guides, policies, and procedures.
Investor Relations PR company facilitates effective communication between executive leadership and investor stakeholders. Services include conducting reputation audits, running reputation campaigns, strategic communications, and coordinating investor day events and announcements.
Reputation management PR agency handles all strategies to improve brand perception in the media. Services include web monitoring, training, content marketing campaigns, strategic messaging, negative content suppression, and social media reputation management.

Interview Qualified PR Firms

Gather information about the PR agencies by asking strategic questions. The interview will help you understand their ideology, strategy, experience, and values. Consider agencies whose values align with yours and foster seamless communication. This will go a long way in building effective bonds that turn them from just an agency to a partner dedicated to your business growth.

Questions to ask During an interview

Here's a list of questions to ask during the interview

Do they specialize in your industry?
How will the firm get you media coverage?
What's their pricing plan and cost?
How do they measure success?
How will they work with your marketing team?
What should you expect in the first three months?
Can you reach out to their previous clients to get more information?
Will they assign an account manager to your business?
Do they offer marketing and sales services too?

Onboard PR Firm

After the interview, review all proposals and strategies and decide the best-fit PR company.

Contact your choice agency and sign the contract details. You should also set clear expectations so you are on the same page before work commences. Provide the PR firm with relevant information and documents to enable them to understand your business. It's also important to set strict communication channels and plans for effective collaboration.

Partner with the Best PR Agency for Business Growth

At RPR, our services integrate customer research to identify critical issues and customer behavior, enabling us to create an effective PR strategy for your business.

Schedule a free consultation today to partner with us for strategic growth.

by R Public Relations Firm

Can a PR Firm Deliver Fast Results?

Have you ever been advised to hire a PR agency if you want to boost your brand awareness, reputation, or sales with fast results? But how realistic can this be, and what do fast results mean in PR? In this article, we will explore the concept of fast results in PR and how they can vary depending on your business goals and expectations. We will also discuss the factors that can influence the speed and quality of PR results to give you a better understanding of what PR can do for your business. Finally, you will learn how to get the best results from working with a PR agency.

What Do Fast Results Mean in PR?

In simple terms, fast results in PR are defined by positive performance based on selected goals within the agreed-upon contract duration. These business goals vary for different brands; they can be short-term, mid-term, or long-term goals. A fast result for short-term goals might be within the first 30 days of deploying your campaign, for example. In PR, effectiveness and timely delivery count more, not necessarily the speed of results.

How Long Does It Take for Public Relations to Work?

As a professional PR agency, we have worked with many brands to generate profitable results based on selected business goals. We have had clients get results from PR activities within three months to 12 months. Depending on your PR readiness, campaign history, business goals, and industry, this timeline might vary for your business.

For example, a PR campaign built on a short-term goal of creating awareness could start showing results two to three months into execution. In most cases, you can start seeing results in the first month.

Midterm and long-term PR goals should take four to nine months before you start noticing tangible results. However, the proactiveness and expertise of the agency also contribute to the results' timeline, so it's best to hire a professional PR team with industry experience and up-to-date tools.

4 Factors That Can Influence the Speed and Quality of PR Results

The speed of PR results will vary depending on internal and external factors. For example, campaigns launched around the time of Queen Elizabeth's death will have had less public traction based on the importance of that event. Natural occurrences like this can happen anytime and might derail the traction of your PR campaign performance. However, there are certain factors within your control. We highlight them below:

1. Cooperation and Responsiveness

When you hire a PR agency, that's just the beginning of the process. You cannot expect PR agencies to perform magic when you don't communicate your goals, share data from past campaigns, or respond to interview requests. A PR agency can only deliver results fast when you provide relevant information to help them understand your business. This will reduce the time spent researching your business, and creating a strategy and other essential assets to aid successful campaign creation.

2. Existing Brand Reputation and Perception

If you were scrolling through social media and saw multiple ads from fashion brands, which would you choose? An entirely unfamiliar ad or one from a brand you recognize? That's how PR campaign results work, too. If your brand has a good reputation and a loyal customer base, you will have a lesser barrier of entry than a business without these assets.

3. Scope and Complexity of the PR Campaign

The speed and kind of results you get from a PR campaign can depend on several things. For instance, think about how intricate your campaign is—more complex ones might take a bit longer to start seeing results. The tools you need for the campaign also play a part. If they're unfamiliar to your team or require a lot of training, that might slow things down.

Also, what you're aiming to achieve with the campaign matters. You might not see an immediate impact if you have big, ambitious, long-term goals. Conversely, if you're focused on smaller, short-term objectives, you might see results quickly.

Lastly, who you're trying to reach plays a role too. If you're targeting a large audience, getting your message across might take longer. However, the payoff could be worth the wait.

For example, a simple PR campaign will take less time to create than one requiring AR / VR technology integration to deliver a message. Is the PR campaign built around a long-term goal? Does it need feature collaborators or third-party tools? These questions can help you determine the scope and complexity of your campaigns for better PR strategy development.

4. PR Agency Clarity of Objectives and KPIs

Sometimes, your PR agency might struggle with understanding the objectives and KPIs for your campaign. This is often the case when you haven't clearly stated your brand goals. If you don't have SMART PR goals, you could get poor results or focus on the wrong metrics, which will mean dedicating more time to rework to get quantifiable results.

How to Get the Best Results from Working with a PR Agency

Ideally, a PR agency should deliver good results within an agreed-upon timeline. However, business progress isn't always linear. Here are some tips to ensure you get the best results when working with a PR agency:

Provide relevant documents and information about your business
Set clear PR goals, objectives, and relevant KPIs
Adopt clear communication and a collaborative approach
Be responsive and available when needed
Be authentic, transparent, and honest with the PR agency about business activities
Treat the agency as a partner and be receptive to their ideas

Are you ready to improve PR results with personalized strategies delivered by professionals? Schedule a call with RPR experts today to get PR solutions tailored to your business needs.

by R Public Relations Firm

Building Successful Campaigns for Maximum PR Success

Mary owns a B2B fashion brand and has struggled to build brand awareness in the highly competitive fashion industry. She researched possible solutions and found public relations (PR) highly recommended by top marketers. Next, she set out to build a successful PR campaign to increase brand awareness, generate leads, and secure media coverage in reputable publications.

However, like many B2B companies, she struggled with creating and executing effective PR strategies that deliver results. She discovered that effective campaign PR was more than publishing press releases; she had to identify target audience pain points, create compelling stories, pitch to journalists to get media coverage, implement strategic content distribution, and track campaign performance.

Trying to make sense of all these moving parts was overwhelming, leaving her confused about what to prioritize and how to start.

Do you relate to Mary's challenge? Are you looking to implement a PR campaign for business growth but are unsure how to get the best results? This article covers all you need to create and execute a successful campaign for maximum PR success.

Defining a Successful Public Relations Campaign

A successful PR campaign has different definitions based on your business goals and expectations. For example, using Mary's business illustration, a successful campaign will deliver a compelling message that helps to build a connection with the target audience, which improves brand awareness. But most importantly, it must meet that campaign's set key performance indicators (KPI).

How Do You Make a PR Campaign Successful?

If Mary reaches out to us at RPR Firm to help her build a successful PR campaign, here are some steps we will follow.

1. Identify the Business Needs

To create a successful campaign, you must first identify the business need prompting it—identifying "why" will help you create a SMART goal, key performance metrics to track, your distribution channels, and whom it will target.

2. Segment the Target Audience

In most cases, your business has different customer segments in its target audience population. Each segment has specific challenges and messaging that will work for a campaign. You must identify the segment you want to target, their pain points, and how solving them helps achieve a bigger marketing goal. This part is often the secret to creating an effective PR campaign strategy. The information you gather from this process will help you create personalized messaging and get better results than sending out a generic campaign to everyone.

3. Create a Compelling Message Tailored to the Target Segment

When creating a campaign, it must speak directly to your target. Effective PR campaign messaging will use the audience's language and how they describe their challenge to paint a picture of the transformation they can achieve with your product. You can create a compelling message using the storytelling framework that walks your customers through a journey from point A to B. It should capture the target audience's pain points, challenges, and goals. As well as, clearly explain how your product can help them overcome them.

4. Develop a PR Campaign Distribution Strategy

Choosing the right distribution channels helps you to reach a wider audience with impactful performance. You should create a strategy that covers content types, distribution frequency, methods, and channels that are relevant to your audience. This will help create an organized approach. You will also have real-time data from each channel to refine your strategy.

5. Track Results and Refine PR Activities

You can track campaign performance in real-time thanks to data-driven PR tools. Like Google Analytics, Hotjar, Mention, Google Alerts, and social media analytics. Tracking performance will allow you to refine key strategy elements based on audience engagement to deliver a better experience. Ultimately, your campaign will evolve and deliver better results than if it runs without tracking results.

5 Proven PR Campaign Strategies for Maximum Success

Here are some strategies you can implement to achieve PR campaign success.

Generate leads through targeted email campaigns and social media promotion like Cheetos' Snap to Steal Snapchat campaign.
Invest in content marketing to produce engaging content highlighting your solutions and customer success stories like Salesforce's Room $ Board company showcase.
Develop a thought leadership program that positions your brand as an expert and influencer in the industry, like Siemens A New Space Race.
Use PR storytelling to craft a compelling message that showcases your unique solutions while creating positive brand associations like Dove's #theselfietalk.
Partner with influencers to create buzz-worthy campaigns like the ALS Ice Bucket Campaign that featured Bill Gates and other celebrities.

Partner With Professionals for PR Success

Merging the many moving parts in creating effective PR campaigns can be overwhelming for new businesses. However, following a structured process that involves identifying your business needs and target audience, crafting compelling messages, and tracking performance will improve your PR results.

Don't let the complexities of PR campaigns slow your business growth. With RPR Firm, you'll have a dedicated team of seasoned professionals committed to navigating these challenges and driving your business to new heights.

by R Public Relations Firm

How To Approach PR as a Startup in 2023

Are you a startup founder looking to integrate PR into your overall marketing strategy? Treating PR as an integral element of your comprehensive success strategy is essential. Much like meticulous product development, your PR process should be strategic, agile, and clearly defined—emphasizing building relationships and setting realistic expectations. As a seasoned PR agency, RPR Firm has spearheaded numerous small businesses' successful PR initiatives.

This article reveals our tried-and-true approach, offering you the keys to navigating PR as a startup and ensuring a successful journey in 2023.

Startup PR in 2023

The PR industry is evolving, and some old rules no longer apply. If you want to achieve successful PR as a startup in 2023, here are a few tips on approaching it.

Start With a Clearly Defined PR Strategy

The startup workflow is often fast-paced and disorganized, so it's easy to pick a random PR approach as your strategy. Most businesses make this mistake, and it's often the fastest route to failure in implementing PR for a startup. A strategy is not just a nice-to-have; it's essential in guiding your campaign tactics and performance. When creating your strategy, it should include key elements like:

SMART PR goals that align with business plans
Clear objectives
Ideal target audience descriptions
Media relations and outreach
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
Key messages and positioning
Crisis communication plan
Content marketing strategy
Employee's roles and responsibilities
Measurement and evaluation

Each section should always answer the question, "Does this help us achieve our main business goals?" For example, if your business goal for the year is $10,000 in online sales, including customer success stories in content marketing activities will help more than using employee success stories.

Be Realistic With Your PR Performance Expectations

Many startup founders mistakenly view PR as a quick fix for rapid business growth. Although you can achieve viral content status, it's often not as frequent and may never happen for many businesses. As a startup, setting realistic PR expectations is crucial. Also, you need to understand that results may vary. For example, you may publish a product launch press release and expect it to get wide coverage. However, an unplanned global event hits the media the same day and takes all the attention away from your product launch or announcement. This is just one example of what could happen, so always set your expectations realistically and allow the PR team to function effectively.

Prioritize Building Relationships with Media and Journalists

You should cultivate genuine relationships with journalists and media personnel in your industry. It's easier to get media coverage when there's an existing interaction, and they understand your business and offers. Start by creating a list of journalists and media outlets covering your industry. Once completed, you can create personalized messages and pitch to start a conversation. This will allow you to build a connection and share your unique business story, angle, and insights for better media coverage.

Adopt a Multi-Channel PR Strategy

In the past, public relations was almost synonymous to press release distribution. However, times are changing, and you have podcasts, social media, content marketing, online events, influencer marketing, and many more PR channels at your disposal. Identify the best ones for your target audience and invest in them. There's nothing like too much attention if it's coming from the right audience. A multi-channel approach also helps you to experiment and identify the best-performing options within a short period.

Embrace PR as an Organization Initiative and Not just a Marketing Tool

Many startups use PR mainly for sales, highlighting product features and solutions. However, they often neglect to promote their company culture, ideas, and authentic story. This is often a result of creating a PR strategy that doesn't involve the organization as a moving part. In the long run, you might struggle with building a connection with your audience because your focus is on selling and less on telling a story that’s relevant to your target audience. However, treating your PR as a company initiative allows you to tell authentic stories that involve stakeholders and employees in your PR activities. For example, when you approach PR as a company initiative, you prioritize collaboration between HR and PR to create effective strategies for attracting top talent and retaining employees. When customers see that the product is made by real people, with real stores and challenges, they will connect better with your solutions.

Data-Driven PR is a Necessity

For startup PR success, tracking performance across all channels, campaigns, and brand mentions is indispensable. Invest in tools that can monitor key metrics such as media mentions, website traffic, social media engagement, and lead generation. The data from PR analytics tools like Google Analytics will help you.

Understand audience behavior across multiple touchpoints
Identify effective communication channels and tactics
Create targeted messaging and personalization strategies
Measure PR Impact
Implement proactive crisis management

With this information, you can consistently refine your PR as a startup to achieve even better results.

Hire PR Professionals with Industry Experience

Whether you choose to build an in-house PR team or engage a PR agency, experience working with startups should be a must. Expertise in your industry is also important for implementing PR as a startup to avoid costly trial and error. For example, at RPR Firm, we are well-versed in helping startup lifestyle brands grow their businesses using PR strategies. Our approach focuses on creating personalized strategies that align with your goals and maintain best practices without compromising quality. Schedule a call to discuss how we can help your startup do PR the right way.

by R Public Relations Firm

5 PR Platforms You Need to Know in 2023

Success in public relations is more than being an expert. You need a committed team, knowledge of current trends, strong relationships, and data-based decision-making. But that's not all; to streamline your processes, you also need the right PR platforms. Since there are many PR tools out there, we have compiled a list of the five best PR platforms you need to know.

1. Meltwater

Meltwater is a game-changing tool every PR professional should have in their arsenal. The PR platform provides targeted media monitoring, social media listening, and analytics tools for improved performance. You can track brand mentions and make data-driven decisions using the analytics features. It can also be helpful to show stakeholders the impact of PR and prove a case for continued investment.

You can also stay on top of conversations, allowing better audience engagement and crisis management. For example, if there's mention of your brand in negative reviews or allegations, you will get alert and quickly respond to the news. This way, you control the narrative and maintain brand reputation. In addition to tracking brand mentions, you can also share analytics with your team members for seamless collaboration and improved PR strategies.

2. Cision

Cision is a leading PR software that helps brands manage media relations, distribute press releases, and monitor earned media performance. This has revolutionized how PR professionals manage their campaigns and media relationships by providing the necessary tools to streamline workflows and achieve maximum impact. One of its main features is the global media database that houses over one billion journalists, influencers, and media outlets, making it easier to target the right audience for your PR campaigns. With this feature, you can quickly identify and connect with the right journalists and influencers in your industry. Doing this will increase the chances of securing media coverage and amplifying your message to a broader audience.

The advanced brand monitoring features allow you to track mentions of your brand or specific keywords across various media channels, including social media platforms, news websites, and blogs. This way, you can adjust your strategy to meet urgent industry needs and score profitable points.

Cision also provides comprehensive analytics and reporting features to track the reach and impact of media coverage, monitor sentiment analysis, and generate customizable reports. Moreover, you can distribute press releases directly from the platform, which saves time and allows you to monitor the outreach performance. This PR management software offers unlimited benefits which can complement your expertise and lead to improved performance.

3. HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

HARO is one of the must-know PR platforms to connect directly with journalists looking for expert sources and get your clients or brand featured in top-tier publications. When you sign up as a source, businesses can receive daily emails with media opportunities in their industry.

Beyond securing valuable media coverage as you respond to these queries, you also boost your link-building profile and foster stronger relationships with journalists. HARO is a cost-effective way to gain media exposure and establish thought leadership. It's also an excellent tool for journalists to access a pool of experts and reliable sources for their publications.

4. Prezly

Prezly is an all-in-one PR platform in 2023 that empowers you with features to manage campaigns and engage target audiences effectively. It focuses on streamlining communication and enhancing relationships with journalists, bloggers, and influencers. This unique media relations software provides many features like media database management, press release distribution, story pitching, and contact management. For instance, you can use the multimedia newsroom as a central hub for all your press releases, images, videos, and contact information. This feature lets you create visually stunning and interactive newsrooms showcasing your brand's story.

In addition, you can use email distribution tools to create, track engagement metrics, and schedule follow-up emails. Prezly also provides analytics to measure the reach and impact of your PR campaigns, helping you refine your strategies in real-time and stay one step ahead of the competition.

5. Mention

Mention is an exceptional tool that revolutionizes how businesses monitor their online presence and manage their brand reputation. It allows companies to track brand mentions, competitors, and industry news across various online platforms. This PR platform provides real-time alerts, sentiment analysis, and social media listening capabilities to stay on top of online reputation. Mention also helps you to identify PR opportunities and respond to customer feedback promptly.

Furthermore, it allows you to share mentions with your team members, assign tasks, and track progress within the platform. This facilitates effective collaboration, ensuring that all mentions are addressed adequately, leading to better customer engagement.

Grow Your Business with Professional PR Services

An effective PR strategy integrates human expertise, tools, relationships, and creativity. As a forward-thinking business, you must integrate analytics and effective content distribution into your approach to guarantee better campaign performance. Thanks to technological advancements, PR platforms like Mention, Cision, Meltwater, and HARO now offer reputation management, brand mention tracking, and campaign measurement features. This allows you to get real-time insights, track industry trends, and respond to crises faster.

However, handling all these PR platforms on your own can be overwhelming, expensive, and time-consuming. That’s why you need to partner with an experienced and result-driven PR agency to get the best result on your PR effort. At RPR Firm, we help brands to maximize their PR campaigns that drive trackable results. Ready to optimize the ROI of your PR campaign? Schedule a free consultation to get a personalized PR strategy.

by R Public Relations Firm

How PR Improves Investor Relations

Whether you're an early-stage start-up hungry for that first round of funding or a business navigating choppy waters, PR is your secret weapon. Sure, a slick pitch deck can dazzle, but does it really tell your brand's story? Does it solidify your company's credibility? With a tailored PR strategy, you're not just selling—you're sharing a portfolio of your brand's value, weaving your narrative, and showcasing your industry expertise to those potential investors. So, let's dive into the five powerful ways PR can ramp up your investor relations, reel in that funding, and strengthen existing partnerships when the going gets tough.

1. Building Credibility and Trust

Investors tend to associate with brands with good reputations. According to a report, 82% of investors agree that familiarity with a brand's name significantly influences investment decisions. This is critical if you want to attract new investors and retain the existing ones. A well-defined PR strategy focuses on fostering open and transparent communication patterns within a company. For example, the PR team is in charge of publishing press releases with company financials, conveying the progress of specific projects, and informing the public of business dealings. When there's open communication at all stages, the investors will trust your brand to deliver on promises and utilize investment well. However, without PR fostering this clear line of communication and interaction, you leave room for speculation, which can jeopardize your company's long-term growth.

2. Managing the Company's Image

Perception isn't only important when building sales and marketing strategies; it's also vital in attracting new investors to partner with your business. Public relations can create a positive image representing your brand's true identity in the media space. PR tactics like press releases, guest blogging, corporate social responsibility projects, and more can showcase your company values. PR also serves as an engine to distribute a company's achievements and control the narrative if there are negative speculations about your brand. These activities help to shape positive perceptions amongst investors, increasing the possibility that they will invest in your company.

3. Improving Market Perception and Valuation

Market perception and brand valuation are vital factors influencing investors' decisions to commit financially to your company. If your business is perceived as market risk or without prospects, your chances of attracting financing will be reduced. However, implementing an effective PR strategy can build market perception, which impacts brand valuation. For example, PR strategies like expert interviews, guest blogging, and thought leadership initiatives can help showcase your field expertise. In addition, it serves as a medium to explain your business's unique value, the science behind your innovation, and how it benefits the public. Regularly discussing your company will help investors understand the possible growth curve and investment opportunities.

4. Effective Crisis Management

In times of crisis, everyone is on edge. Shareholders worry about stock collapses, employees fear layoffs, and consumers may boycott your business if issues aren't addressed properly. It's even worse if you are in talks with investors, as many will withdraw from the deal. An effective PR strategy will have a crisis management plan that communicates your brand's narrative and de-escalates any issues before they get out of hand. Also, the PR team will create and distribute internal communication documents amongst shareholders to explain the company's problem-solving approach. With an effective crisis management plan, you can quickly dispel any speculation in the mind of your shareholders. This proactive approach reassures investors of the company's commitment.

5. Facilitate Effective Investor Education

Investors often conduct a background check before investing in a company, including possible conflicts of interest, business reputation, financial reports, and initiatives you support. Online information about your company, which is not in your pitch deck, could be the deciding factor in sealing the deal. Implementing effective PR strategies can serve as a tool to educate investors about your company's activities. Publishing product press releases, brand stories, case studies, quarterly financial reports, and project updates will help build a credible online portfolio. This information will be easily accessible to investors and help them understand your business beyond a pitch deck. Subsequently, they can make informed decisions about investing in your business.

Get Started Improving Investors Relations with Effective PR

Every business needs a continual investment inflow to maintain a sustainable growth curve. Although an innovative business idea might attract investors, it takes more than a visually-appealing pitch deck to get investment. Your company's market perception, ability to manage crises, and reputation also play vital roles in attracting and retaining investors. In summary:

Implementing effective PR strategies can help you build these additional requirements and support investor relations.
You can use expert interview features to position yourself as a thought leader and build hype around your innovative solutions.
A well-implemented crisis management plan can also help you to manage investors' speculation and any public reputation damage in times of crisis.

Achieving these results isn't magical but a gradual process requiring a professional team and strategies. At RPR Firm, we help brands create effective public relations strategies that boost brand awareness, revenue growth, and investor relations. Book a free consultation to experience how our PR services can help you win investors.

by R Public Relations Firm

4 Top PR Ideas for the Fast Food Industry with Practical Examples

The food industry is dominated by brands that can excite customers' taste buds, from McDonald's and Burger King to Subway and Taco Bell. However, with the growing number of food businesses with an estimated CAGR growth of 10.76% from 2022 to 2029, serving tantalizing food alone won't keep you in the game. Besides the growing competition and consumers' craving for exceptional customer services, you also have to deal with the crisis in the food business. Harnessing the power of public relations to create memorable experiences for your customers, forge strong connections, and deftly navigate any crisis that comes your way can help you do just that. Check out our list of the best PR ideas for the food business with examples of how successful brands have used them to drive quality results.

1. Build Hype with an Experiential Marketing Strategy

Experiential marketing, also called engagement marketing, is a strategy that aims to build lasting connections with consumers by forging practical and immersive experiences. This strategy allows you to deliver how consumers would love to experience their favorite meals, snacks, etc.

Imagine participating in preparing your favorite meal, living in a doughnut-themed city, or getting a personalized chocolate bar. These are all possible PR campaign activities that can help you build hype for a new product or relaunch your restaurant. Taco Bell's Hotel "The Bell" launch is an example of experiential marketing at its best. The PR campaign combined the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and the brand's impressive fanbase to create buzz and give customers an exclusive experience. The hotel has a Taco Bell-themed setup, like sauce packet-shaped pillows, and salons with taco-themed manicures and pedicures. The campaign sparked media buzz and quickly built hype for the hotel's launch. Unsurprisingly, all rooms sold out within 30 minutes of opening for bookings!

2. Engage New Audiences with Influencer Partnership

Have you bought a drink or visited a restaurant because your favorite celebrity mentioned it in a video? If you answered yes, you have experienced the power of influencer marketing first-hand. Although cooking great meals and delivering unique experiences is impressive, it drives little results without a massive distribution medium. Leveraging influencer partnerships can turbocharge your reach, effortlessly breaking down barriers and getting your message out there.

Unlike advertising to an unknown audience, partnering with an influencer gives you an automatic vote of confidence. People are more likely to engage, visit your food business, and trust you when their favorite celebrity endorses or associates with it. For example, in September 2020, McDonald's partnered with Travis Scott to create a memorable meal as part of a PR campaign. The partnership succeeded, leading to 5% YOY growth in McDonald's Q3 sales. It also created buzz on social media, thanks to the contribution of the rapper's artwork, merchandise, and social media content.

3. Build a Connection with Social Activism

Adopting a social activism strategy that aligns with your brand's core values and audience challenges helps to build a connection. Furthermore, research has shown that 34% of consumers say standing for a cause that affects them boosts a brand's credibility. It shows the consumers that you identify as part of their community and are committed to improving it. Social activism events like fundraisers, tours, and many more can also serve as a channel to build awareness for new products or your brand.

You can also adopt collaboration to reach a wider audience like Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream brand. The brand partnered with Tesla Motors, a clean energy vehicle producer, to launch a climate change tour called "Save Our Swirled." The partnership had many activities, including ice cream delivery made with Tesla-branded vehicles to customers in California. This method is successful as it allows you to humanize your brand, deliver on your promises, and show that you are reliable.

4. Combine Technology with Food to Deliver a Unique Experience

The technology industry has grown exponentially lately, with AR/VR and AI taking center stage. This growth also opens unique opportunities for the food industry to create memorable experiences. AR dishes, virtual culinary journeys, virtual menus, and dining have been part of a campaign aimed at giving consumers more than a tasty meal. The Le Petit Chef 3D Animated Culinary Journey is an excellent example of how technology and food can combine as a PR strategy.

Furthermore, the culinary journey hosted in Thailand by Park Hyatt featured a tiny virtual chef that traveled the world at a table in front of guests. The dining experience showed the chef muttering to himself as he traveled from France to China and back, creating a menu from the dishes he found along the way. This method gives the consumers an entertaining experience allowing them to explore new locations, menus, and cultures while enjoying their meals.

Hire a Professional PR Agency to Create Effective Campaigns

In today's fast-paced environment, creating an effective PR campaign depends on the connection it builds with your audience. One of the best ways to strengthen this connection is by creating a food experience that triggers an emotional reaction. However, if your campaign doesn't capture your target customer's attention and fails to show you care or offer them something to talk about, you will most likely get poor results. Strategies that adopt experiential marketing, technology, and social activism will help you build this connection, and you can customize the approach to your brand's unique needs. Book your personalized consultation today, and let us help you make your mark in the food industry!

by R Public Relations Firm

How to Stand Out Through PR in 2023: 5 Effective Tips

In the fast-paced public relations (PR) world, capturing attention has become an art—a delicate dance of creativity and connection. Consumers are more suspicious of information online due to the widespread fake news, and authenticity is now an essential element of good PR. Therefore, to stand out in 2023 and navigate the ever-evolving PR landscape, you will need more than fancy press releases or well-advertised corporate social responsibility projects. Subsequently, today's PR landscape is shifting away from broad PR activities to implementing personalized PR, embracing digital tools, and adopting collaboration strategies. This article explores some PR tactics that will help you stand out in 2023.

1. Integrate Storytelling into PR Activities

Storytelling in PR is a vital strategy that helps you build authentic connections with customers and media. Unlike bland press releases with product terminologies and features, storytelling engages the audience's imagination. Research has also shown that storytelling lights up certain parts of the brain that other types of information cannot. So not only does it allow the consumer to see themselves experiencing the transformation your products deliver, but it also builds a connection.

Therefore, instead of creating traditional press releases and product campaigns, you can infuse storytelling to take your audience and the media through the product creation journey. Incorporating storytelling allows you to share personal insights, convey emotions, and show the real motivation to make the product. Top-rated brands like Apple and Skype have mastered the PR storytelling approach, which has given them a strong brand reputation both online and offline.

For example, Skye's Stay Together campaign used storytelling to show the media how their platform facilitates connectivity and maintains human relationships even when they are miles apart. The PR campaign shared how a Ugandan man stayed connected with the family he left behind when the war forced him to relocate to America to start a new life. This approach created an emphatic narrative that gave the brand good PR while showing the extreme possibilities that consumers can achieve with the tool.

2. Embrace Influencer Partnerships

Influencer partnerships have been a significant driver in successful PR marketing strategies. Collaboration allows you to reach a wider audience and build a strong brand reputation. Influencers have built a loyal following that trusts their recommendations. Thus, partnering with them serves as a vote of confidence, boosting brand awareness and increasing sales conversion.

Working together with influencers also enables you to integrate unique and creative elements into your PR campaigns. This approach highlights the influencer's genuine persona while ensuring it aligns with your brand's principles. Although influencer marketing has long been a marketing strategy for big brands, the advent of social media platforms like TikTok makes it easy for brands of all sizes to benefit from its impact.

There are various categories of influencers in which you can partner. However, you must ensure they reach your target audience and demonstrate high online engagement. An example of influencer marketing is Dunkin Donuts' partnership with Tiktok influencer Charli D'Amelio which generated a 57% spike in app downloads and tons of sales. You can use a tool like Modash to find influencers in your niche and get information about their activity before contacting them for collaboration.

3. Monitor and Respond to Trends

It's clear that the media landscape is continuously evolving. The advent of new tools and platforms has made it startlingly easy for the spread of fake news and disinformation or even launch of campaigns aimed at tarnishing your business's reputation. All it could take is a single Instagram post.

Monitoring the industry trends, information, and brand mentions across all channels helps you stay one step ahead of a crisis. Also, creating a crisis response plan is essential so you are prepared for anything. This approach allows you to take advantage of trends that align with your business goals before they lose their traffic relevance. You can use tools like Google Alerts to monitor mentions of specific keywords or brand names and respond to any queries attached to them fast before it escalates.

4. Adopt AI in PR to Streamline Your PR Processes

The AI revolution has been leading change and business growth across different industries. In PR, the possibilities for AI are unlimited as it has been implemented across all stages of the strategy process. For example, you can use AI tools to streamline PR processes, collate data, and set up analytics for better decision-making and influencer discovery. Moreover, AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data and identify audience engagement patterns. Subsequently, you can use these insights to create better campaigns, anticipate emerging trends, and enhance PR strategies.

5. Partner with Professional Firm for PR 2023

Collaboration in PR isn't restricted to influencers; your PR team needs to be at their best at all times. Even if you have an in-house team, you can partner with PR experts in 2023 to deliver specific strategy implementations that your team might not be skilled in producing. Partnering with a PR firm also gives you access to industry insight from years of experience working with different clients. This support will give you an advantage over the competition as you have a wider pool of knowledge and creativity. For example, a PR firm usually has wider industry contacts or specific expertise in crisis management.

Standout Through PR in 2023 with Personalized Services

PR is a unique field that requires a unique approach. You must be attentive to the needs of your audience, the media, and your industry to stay one step ahead. While it's possible to get results by implementing more traditional methods, it might not be sustainable in 2023. Adopting a storytelling approach, implementing influencer marketing strategies, investing in AI tools, monitoring PR, and partnering with experts will help you stand out in 2023. Are you ready to implement an effective PR strategy that gives you a competitive advantage? Schedule a call with our professional PR consultants for personalized service.

by R Public Relations Firm

4 Effective Ways to Improve Your PR Team’s Productivity

The fast-paced nature of public relations, coupled with multiple variables to consider, often leads to stress and reduced employee productivity. Besides the everyday demands of the PR role, other factors like inefficient processes, employee dissatisfaction, and poor communication can lower a PR team's productivity. Ultimately, this results in poor PR campaign performance and revenue loss.

Having built a PR agency with over a decade of deploying effective campaigns, a vital place to start building a productive team is setting clear goals. However, that's just a tiny part of the process. This article will explore four practical tips to help improve your PR team's productivity, why it's important, and the elements of a productive PR team.

Why Productive PR Teams Are Essential for Growth

PR teams play a crucial role in the growth process of any business. They are at the forefront of building a good reputation and awareness for your brand using different creative assets. The role of PR teams requires creativity and focus at all times. However, if a team is unproductive, it's unlikely to deliver fully innovative solutions consistently, thus limiting the potential impact of public relations on your business.

Building a productive PR team contributes to happy employees who are proud of their achievements and eager to deliver fast results. In the long run, you will experience better PR campaign performance, save costs on fixing avoidable mistakes, and improve your internal company culture.

What Are the Critical Elements of Productive PR Teams?

Improving your PR team's productivity is a function of multiple elements. Some key features businesses with a productive PR team may have in common include:

Clear goals and objectives
Clearly defined roles and responsibilities
Effective communication processes
Ability to track results
Healthy collaboration practices
Adopting technology to automate routine tasks
A healthy work culture

What Are Four Effective Ways to Improve Your PR Team’s Productivity?

Low team productivity usually results from different factors that activate stressors in team members. If you are building a PR team from scratch, starting on the right note is essential. On the other hand, if your team has lost its steam, it's time to reevaluate your processes. Here is a list of four practical steps to improve your PR team's productivity.

1. Set SMART Goals and Objectives

The low productivity in PR teams often results from a lack of focus and direction. When your PR team works on everything and nothing simultaneously without clear milestones, it can lead to burnout. Setting SMART goals helps to direct focus on the right PR activities. It will also help your PR team members to identify where their skills will be most helpful in contributing creative ideas. Subsequently, this will improve team collaboration, foster better engagement, and boost PR productivity.

2. Streamline Workflow Processes with Clearly Defined Roles and Responsibilities

According to a Gallup article, unclear roles are one of the leading causes of employee burnout, resulting in low productivity. When your PR team doesn't have clearly defined roles, you miss out on a chance to maximize the full potential of each employee. It also affects project delivery efficiency, resulting in longer revision periods and disorganized workflows. To create clear roles, you must first understand the strengths and weaknesses of each PR team member. Then based on your PR activities, you can identify where they will best fit before assigning specific tasks to each member. This process will allow PR teams to focus on completing assigned tasks, identifying support tools they need, and improving their creativity rather than juggling unrelated tasks.

3. Leverage Technology for Automation

Technology and automation have come a long way, with PR tools reaping the benefits of these innovations. Often, routine tasks that could be automated end up consuming time and causing low productivity. With PR tools like Cision, BuzzSumo, and Google Analytics, PR teams can streamline analytics, report generation, and other tasks. You can save up to 40% of time lost to task switching when you automate repeat tasks and adopt technology for other complex activities.

4. Implement a Rewards and Incentives Program

For a PR team to be productive, you must have good levels of employee engagement. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown that employee engagement has declined, with only 32% of part- and full-time employees actively engaged in their organizations. This results from poor team recognition and achievement rewards, amongst others. Adopting a rewards and incentives system will allow you to recognize your PR team's achievements. With the possibility of increasing productivity by 14%, adopting an incentive program for the PR team is a win-win.

Getting Started with Building PR Productivity

Productivity is one of the cornerstones of successful teams and business growth. A PR team’s critical role in improving brand awareness, maintaining reputation, and supporting marketing performance makes it an important element to prioritize. If your team isn't performing at high capacity, it might be a case of burnout or poor employee engagement.

Boosting your PR team's productivity isn't just about improving performance—it's about fostering a workplace culture that values creativity, efficiency, and dedication. Start transforming your PR team today and see the difference it makes to your brand's reputation and growth. Need expert advice? Schedule a call with our professional PR consultants, and let's transform your PR productivity together.

by R Public Relations Firm

Boost Audience Engagement & Sales with Effective PR

Audience engagement is essential for the success of your business, and one of the ways you can boost engagement is through PR. In this article, we discuss what audience engagement means and some PR tips to increase it regardless of your industry.

What is Audience Engagement?

In PR, audience engagement means getting your existing and prospective customers to interact positively with your brand, as engaged audiences are likely to drive sales and increase your revenue. It refers to the degree of customer involvement and loyalty to your brand. Note that engagement is often a result of the cognitive and emotional experiences people have with your brand.

Audience engagement is often measured through activities such as social media shares, comments, and likes. You can also track your website's engagement through organic traffic, retention rate, and number of clicks.

7 Tips to Drive Audience Engagement Through PR Campaigns

If you are working on a PR campaign, driving engagement should be one of your primary goals. Here are some PR tips for driving audience engagement.

1. Develop a Memorable and Consistent Brand Voice

Your brand voice can influence how your audience interacts with you, so it’s essential to develop a voice that people will find memorable. Also, the right brand voice will humanize your brand and compel your audience to engage more with you. It may take time to nail a strong brand voice, but creating audience personas can help you determine what’s most relevant to them. Unlike tone of voice, your brand voice must be consistent, and customers must be able to identify you through it.

2. Create Positive, Educational, and Engaging Content

Content is helpful for many reasons, and if implemented effectively, it could drive up to 55% more traffic to your website. Also, PR campaigns and content that people find relatable will get more engagement and spark more conversation. Therefore, ensure that your content educates your audience, provides solutions to their problems, and positions you as a thought leader.

What’s more, a study by Berger and Milkman found that articles are more likely to go viral if they evoke a positive emotion. So, make sure to consider this in your PR strategy when creating content to help increase engagement.

3. Incorporate Visuals to Increase Shares and Engagement

Content with visuals, such as pictures, videos, and infographics, is more engaging than campaigns with text alone. For example, visual content like infographics usually gets 40x more shares than other forms of content, while marketers employing video content experience a 49% faster revenue growth than those who don't. Also, be very creative with the content you share on social media. For instance, you can leverage engaging features, including stories, polls, stickers, live videos, polls, reels, and questions and answers to boost audience engagement.

4. Collaborate with Influencers and Brand Ambassadors

Many influencers have a large following on social media, and one of the ways to boost your audience engagement through PR is by getting them to say positive things about your brand. In fact, 92% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is effective. You can partner with an influencer in multiple ways, including promoting your social media page, reviewing your product, or recommending your brand. Your audience will be excited to engage with your brand if they see that you are associated with an influencer they like.

5. Initiate and Maintain Conversations with Your Audience

If you want your audience to engage, you must create content that asks them to do so. Also, ensure you don't confuse readers by using multiple call-to-actions (CTAs). According to a report, emails with a single CTA increased clicks by 371% and sales by 1617%. When you upload videos and pictures on social media, ask your audience open-ended questions to elicit responses. Also, engage your customers by holding games, contests, and quizzes. Moreover, it’s recommended to chat and reply to your customers when they drop comments or engage with you. Use PR tactics like social listening to keep track of when customers mention your brand so you can respond.

6. Encourage and Share User-Generated Content (UGC)

Word-of-mouth marketing, on average, contributes to $6 trillion in global spending annually and accounts for 13% of total sales. User-generated content (UGC) is a form of word-of-mouth marketing that involves resharing content your audience created about your brand. This will increase the number of people that engage with your content and encourage other customers to share images featuring your brand. You can increase the UGC you receive by telling customers to share pictures with your products or creating a branded hashtag they can use when they upload images featuring your brand.

7. Monitor and Optimize Engagement Metrics

The basic engagement metrics on social media are likes, shares, comments, and views. Your website's engagement metrics include unique visitors, average visit duration, and bounce rate. Always monitor these metrics to understand your engagement level better and identify PR strategies you can implement to improve. However, be mindful of vanity metrics; only prioritize metrics that align with your PR campaign objectives.

Get Help Increasing Audience Engagement Through PR

Running PR campaigns requires a lot of effort, and it may be difficult to handle if you do not have much experience. We at RPR firm have the experience, expertise, and strategies to drive PR campaigns that will boost audience engagement and sales.

Looking to drive audience engagement, increase brand awareness, or boost your reputation? Then schedule a consultation with us today and let our experts at RPR handle your PR campaigns for you.

by R Public Relations Firm