Securing positive mentions in the news media that your audiences consume can help raise awareness, establish credibility, and build trust.
What Is PR or Public Relations?
According to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, PR is 'a planned effort to build mutual understanding and goodwill between an organisation and the public'. It says PR is also about managing an organisation's reputation.
In a nutshell, it's about creating a favourable impression of your brand with transparent communications that go beyond just promotional marketing, and that provide audiences with deeper insights into the character, personality, and values of your business or charity.
What does PR involve?
There are three key components to PR, although the first two are the ones most commonly pursued in brand building:
Proactive PR
Drafting and distributing newsworthy press releases to journalists to secure print, digital, ans broadcast media mentions, as well as placing opinion pieces and authoritative thought leadership articles in newspapers, magazines and journals.
Responsive PR
Being available and responding quickly to enquiries from journalists who are already planning to cover a story and need additional background or expert commentary, creating opportunities to be featured.
Reactive PR
Calmy responding to an emergency, scandal, or other crisis in real time, with communications designed to keep everyone properly informed whilst seeking to protect the organisation's reputation and aid its subsequent repair and rehabilitation if needed.
How PR helps to enhance your brand as part of your brand marketing activities
Done well, proactive and responsive PR can help to:
Raise awareness of your brand with PR
Media mentions can put your brand in front of people who may not already know about you, reaching them in ways that ads and other channels can't. For instance, if you're a charity with an ageing supporter demographic that isn't very active on social media, stories about you in local newspapers might give you a better chance of coming to people's attention.
Establish credibility with PR
When they encounter you in a newspaper, or they hear you interviewed on the radio, or spot you on the TV news, it immediately makes you appear very credible - why else would you feature in the news if you didn't have something valuable to add? Additionally, mentions in reputable media often come with links back to your website from sites with high authority, aiding SEO and your efforts to show up in organic search engine results pages.Build trust with PR
There's an expectation that journalists, editors, and news producers will do some basic due diligence on their contributors, and that works in your favour because it leads to your audiences thinking "if the media trusts them and their expertise, I can trust them too". This is especially helpful when people are researching you on the internet - when they come across lots of positive news mentions of your brand, it creates a sort of 'halo effect'. According to Nielsen research, a significant majority of consumers - over 80% - place the highest trust in earned media, such as word-of-mouth recommendations and media mentions, over paid advertising.
PR Is A Long Term and Strategic Play
Like many other aspects of brand marketing, PR is something that requires time and patience.
If you're going to add it into your promotional marketing mix, you need to commit to it over several years, seeking out pertinent and relevant media coverage on a regular basis (without overdoing it).
PR works best when it's something you invest time, effort and money into on a consistent basis.
If you dabble at it, only ever distributing press releases very infrequently, you won't obtain the awareness, credibility, and trust benefits that it offers.
Tips for securing and making the most of valuable media coverage with PR
To improve your chances of success with brand-building PR:
Make sure press releases are genuinely newsworthy. Most press releases never see the light of day because they fail to pass the journalistic 'sniff test': "why is this important, who's going to care, how will they benefit from knowing about this?" Think carefully about what you pitch to journalists because if you send too many non-story press releases, they'll stop bothering to read them at all.
Send press releases by email, and use a catchy subject line that piques curiosity. Think of it like a headline in a newspaper, what's going to make someone want to read more? That's what receiving journalists will want to know, so make it obvious from the outset. And include the entire text of your press release in the body of the email, don't send it as an attachment (journalists regularly tell us they don't appreciate being made to download and open documents).
Supply complementary photos, video, or audio. Regardless of the format it'll be used in (print, radio, TV etc) rich media can help you 'sell' your story to journalists. It can also make it easier for them to use it - an audio clip sent to media for use in radio news updates means they'll have something ready to go without having to send someone to record a comment or arrange for you to do that down the phone. Make it clear in your email subject (Press Release With Audio Commentary Attached).
Feature people prominently, where appropriate. Stories that feature people generally fare better than those that don't, which can be seen as too dry and factual without a 'human interest angle'. If you're going to include a quote from someone mentioned in your story, don't bury it near the bottom, feature it nearer the top to give it more weight.
Make your expertise obvious when pitching articles and opinion pieces. Journalists will want to know what qualifies you to talk about the topic, so make that clear early on. "I've been working in this field for 25 years, regularly speak on the topic at events, and in 2013 gave oral evidence, in person, to an enquiry in the House of Lords."
Target the most relevant media outlets. If you're an accountancy practice that exclusively serves the construction industry in the North East of England, there's not a lot to be gained from planting stories about looming tax changes in The Journal for the Study of British Culture, because it's unlikely that people running SME building firms in Sunderland are going to read that. Do your research, think about publications or news channels that your target audiences are likely to consume, and focus on those. A scatter gun approach rarely works.
Promote the coverage you obtain. Don't just assume everyone that you want to see your story in local press will. Instead, turn it into social media posts, blog about it, and send links to your existing and potential customers as part of your email marketing efforts. After working hard to secure media mentions, make the most of them by bringing them to wider attention.
Key Takeaways: Using PR as Part of Your Brand Marketing Efforts
PR Extends Reach Beyond Traditional Marketing: PR can reach audiences who may not engage with paid advertising or social media, expanding your brand's visibility.
PR Builds Credibility and Trust: Earned media coverage from reputable sources establishes your brand as an authority and fosters trust among your target audience.
PR is a Long-Term Strategy: Consistent and strategic PR efforts over time yield the most significant results in brand building.
Newsworthiness is Crucial: To secure media coverage, your press releases and pitches must provide genuine value and relevance to journalists and their audiences.
Targeted PR Delivers the Best Results: Focusing your PR efforts on media outlets that your target audience consumes maximises the impact of your campaigns.
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