Who doesn’t love a good story? The chance to read, hear or listen to something new or learn about a product, a place or something groundbreaking that’s happening. And that’s PR. In essence, it’s all about storytelling with an important message behind it.
But from our experience, PR is one of the least understood of all the marketing disciplines so let’s dispel some facts:
- It’s not free advertising
- It’s not always mass communication
- Journalists can’t be persuaded to write about something that isn’t newsworthy for their audience
The best PR allows brands to authentically and creatively bring a story to life, to communicate facts and figures, and effectively have a voice within the media.
It also enables companies to comment on topical news at just the right time.
Unlike advertising, public relations is ‘earned’ content that boosts an organisation’s credibility via the story that’s being communicated, rather than ‘owned’ media that’s bought-in and where the messages are controlled.
Getting started
Once you’ve worked on your newsworthy story and your key messages, what’s the next step? It’s all down to great media relations, journalist relationships and targeting – effectively reaching the titles that are relative to your ideal audience.
Timing is also so important in the PR space, as is watching the news about the sectors you work in – have you spotted a trend you’d like to comment on? Can you predict what’s going to be happening in your sector in the next six months? Journalists are interested if you have the story and the opinion, but not the sales pitch…definitely not the sales pitch.
If you can connect with the journalists that matter most to your sector you’re already on to a winning streak. It’s then all about staying on their radar and targeting them with your news.
Helping yourself
There’s no denying that public and media relations is a labour intensive marketing discipline that requires tenacity, grit and determination in order to get news secured. But if you know you have a genuine story to communicate then PR is the right avenue to pursue in order to build brand trust among your stakeholders.
So if you don’t have a flair for storytelling, allow us to help…
