In a recent survey PR was the fifth most popular marketing tool behind social media and email marketing. For many businesses, and rightly so, it is not the first activity they undertake.
Knowing when to strike out in the media and how to get the most out of your activity is a careful balancing act. With lots to weigh up, it is why it is always important to think strategy first and then work out when is the right time.
Going too soon and you could have lots of media attention and interest with no way of catching and filtering that activity to generate sales. Go too late and you might already be in the middle of a PR disaster and finding your self firefighting to protect your reputation.
We explore some of the main triggers that leave businesses reaching for PR and how to make sure your business is media ready.
Why businesses turn to PR
Most businesses typically reach for PR experts when they face one of three triggers:
- Growth
Growing businesses often engage PR services. This might be due to launching a product, entering a new market, or scaling up. Growth stories make strong business news and help to showcase credibility in a brand. Businesses will be looking to showcase recent successes and creating new opportunities to grow their reach.
- Visibility
If organic growth is waning PR can be used to help gain greater visibility. Word of mouth and other marketing techniques have their limits. PR will help to reach new markets by providing more media coverage, brand awareness, or additional content to push through other channels.
- Pressure
The third major trigger is when a company has reached a breaking point. It maybe they have been hit by a crisis or suffered reputation issues and are in need of crisis communications to manage the brand reputation, or there could be an internal skills gap causing pressures on the team.
It is important that whatever the reason, choosing PR isn’t a knee jerk reaction and that it becomes part of a strategic plan for growth.
I have come across SMEs that haven’t had the infrastructure behind the business to manage a steep growth in sales produced by added media attention. Or companies that don’t have an up-to-date website but want to feature in national press. Without the right sales funnel and business processes it is like catching fish without a net.
So, how do you know when you are media ready?
Visibility needs somewhere to land
Get the basics right first. There is no point getting lots of media coverage if you do not have other marketing activity around your business to direct it to. As a minimum you need an up-to-date website that you can link to in your content. This can then carry your more salesy messaging and continue to keep this initial interest engaged. Sharing coverage on social media also helps to reach additional markets and makes sure that contacts who haven’t seen the coverage in the publication are aware of the content as well.
After seeing media content the first thing people will often do is Google a business to find out more. If you cannot be found online or if your messaging isn’t right any credibility and interest you built will automatically disappear making the PR piece useless.
It isn’t just the marketing basics you want to have right as well. Think about whether your business is prepared for a rise in sales if your coverage goes viral. Have you got a plan in place to up production if needed, have you got capacity within the team to answer extra calls and enquiries?
Targeted media coverage can see instant results. I had a clothing company see sales double and demand on their website increase following a series of national magazine and TV coverage. They ended up needing to pause media activity to manage the logistics of keeping up with packaging and deliveries.
Another charity was looking for additional volunteers and was flooded with 120 enquiries after their appeal went live. You need to be prepared for the unexpected and have processes in place if there is a sudden influx of activity following a campaign.
Strategy is key
Being clear on your goals and driving activity that meets those needs will always see the best results. If you are thinking of targeting media coverage but haven’t taken time to plan out your strategy it is best to pause and complete your strategy first.
Quality coverage is always more important than quantity. Just getting coverage wherever you can will never have as much impact as targeting messaging that speaks directly to your audience in spaces that speak to them.
It is also important to remember that just as back links in high-ranking media outlets can have a positive impact on your SEO, lots of back links in irrelevant ‘spam’ style publications can actually damage your SEO rankings.
PR should fit into your wider aims and drive targeted awareness. This is the only way you can really measure success – identifying key messages used, positivity of articles, backlinks and future engagement, share of voice and reach.
Find out more about measuring success in How do I know if my PR is working?
PR is not a magic wand
Like any marketing activity PR relies on consistency to build results. Leaving it to the last minute to engage PR activities will mean you may not see results as quickly as you wanted to. PR is something that grows and develops with your business. A good PR article will continue to have impact months after you have delivered it with SEO links and back links being live forever more.
However, building a reputation within the media to gain expert comments takes time. This means results aren’t always instant and you need to factor time into your plans to gain traction in the media especially if your brand has never featured in press before.
Getting the timing right and starting PR before you need it to hit is always best.
Remember as well PR cannot magically ‘spin’ you out of a disaster. The best crisis management is always prevention. Once a crisis hits your reputation is already damaged and it is simply matter of minimising that damage not erasing it.
Working with a PR company early on will help identify potential issues before they arise keeping your company in the headlines for the right reasons instead of the wrong ones. Think of them as an insurance policy for your business, they are there to identify and keep your business reputation inline so that you don’t have any nasty surprises.
In short, PR should be built into your wider strategy to build brand reputation long term. Consistently drip fed around other activity its power lies in reaching new markets, targeted audiences and building brand credibility.
With the right focus and timing it can be a very powerful tool.
If you are unsure whether your business is ready to add PR to its marketing mix then why not get in touch. We take the time to get to know your business and never take on a project we don’t feel will have real impact for your business.
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