While some say a good product sells itself, if you have a great product and no one knows about it, your brand will not be associated with anything worthwhile.
Public relations can be a valuable part of your business plan and marketing toolkit as long as you know what PR can and cannot do. If you aren’t sure, we defined it here.
Your PR team, whether in-house or an agency, needs to work closely with you to ensure that the company messaging being shared with the media aligns with the message your company wants to share publicly. PR is a critical part of any company and here are a few reasons why.
PR Can Build Credibility For Your Company
Every media outlet has its audience, readers, viewers, and/or followers who have learned to trust what that outlet is telling them. PR professionals continually cultivate and reinforce relationships with media to foster trust.
This relationship offers information and resources that outlets need to create a trustworthy piece of coverage. An organization can build its own credibility and trust by having reliable products and services, however, PR can help build credibility for the company by framing stories about the company’s good works.
Executives can do their part by being honest as spokespersons, through participation in industry events, and thought leadership activities that demonstrate valued expertise in a specialized field. Thought leadership is based on subject matter experts’ ability to discuss industry issues going beyond talking about what your company is doing.
PR Can Build and Leverage Visibility For Your Company
Any public attention for your company builds visibility. The more visibility your press coverage has, the more potential it has for positive impact.
One story may be picked up by several outlets, which helps build this visibility. A news section on your company’s website keeps these stories active and discoverable.
As social media continues to dominate in our society, sharing coverage on social media with the expectation that company employees will also share the stories on their social networks helps build exponential coverage.
Videos and podcasts are also great additions to content offerings and may include recorded interviews and speaking presentations from conferences and internal events. Our CEO Nicole Rodrigues has a podcast where she discusses everything you need to know about PR and more. If you’re still wondering why you need PR, give it a listen here.
PR Can Share Stories About Your Company
Stories personalize your company and products from two angles. It is important that the story be targeted to the appropriate audience and PR professionals have the knowledge of media outlets and staff to know how to tailor stories for their particular audience.
Stories make it easier for a potential or present customer to remember the intended message and make them more likely to share the story.
Moreover, if it is a story about solving a pain point for that audience, it will attract the attention of those with that problem and they may turn to the product or service to alleviate the problem they are having. It’s the old WIIFM—what’s in it for me?
PR at its core is about building and maintaining a positive public image for your brand. Perception is reality and while you may be doing many great things behind the scenes, if your various publics do not know about what you’re doing, it’s like it never happened.
Experienced, proficient PR pros focus on building solid relationships, so that they will share information that conveys the right image for your company. Never underestimate the value of a good PR team for creating, enhancing, and sharing positive brand identity.