Seven weeks, seven sins… it’s the final instalment of our Seven deadly PR sins blog series.
Sin 7: Denial
SPOILER ALERT: you won’t get any PR coverage if you don’t actively plan and prepare your content. Of course, we’re going to be biased, but we think it’s something that every business – no matter how big or small – should be doing.
The most common reasons for not including PR as part of a business growth strategy are lack of time or expertise. As this is the last in our series, we thought we’d share WHY PR really ought to be given the consideration it deserves.
The reasons why you should be doing PR:
- It helps to build trust. Ask yourself: who do I want to trust me? Those little stories that you see from a brand in a newspaper or online – they’re slowly building your trust in them. And that’s what you should be doing. By having those little touch points for your audience, they’ll begin to see you as a credible option should they need your product or service.
- You can reach people that you wouldn’t normally. Your advertising and marketing strategies are great but PR can reach where they don’t – for instance, you can’t buy airtime on BBC radio stations but you can put yourself forward for an interview.
- Your competitor is probably doing it! If this isn’t the one thing on the list that kicks you into action, then we don’t know what will. Your arch nemesis will be using PR as part of their strategy and if you don’t up your game soon then you’ll be left behind. Competition is healthy after all.
- You can prepare yourself for crisis. Contrary to popular belief, not all publicity is good publicity. By getting to grips with PR, it will give you a better understanding of how to react if something goes wrong. Remember when KFC ran out of chicken? A chicken shop running out of its main ingredient wasn’t ideal, to say the least, but they had a process in place to handle it.
Getting started
For TeamRev, PR is a big part of our lives. But we understand that, for busy business owners, it can slowly get pushed to the bottom of the priority list. If you’re daunted by the thought of starting some PR activity for your brand, here’s a few things to remember:
- You don’t have to do it on your own. PR is a collaboration and sometimes the best stories come from those in your business. Speak to your staff and customers to find those nuggets.
- Keep a notebook handy. Ideas pop into your mind when you least expect it, at any time of the day, so have a notebook with you so you can jot them down. Then, once you’ve factored in time to sit and discuss your PR plans, you won’t have forgotten anything.
- Content is king, consistency is queen. Perfecting your content and timing is really important. If you treat your PR efforts like any other business discipline, consistently allocating time for planning and execution, you can create some royally good results.
You’re never guaranteed coverage from your media relations efforts, that’s just the nature of the PR game. But that’s no reason to not try at all. Remember, spending time creating PR content will never be wasted, it can be used for your website and in chunks for social media posts. Maybe you could use the content for part of a newsletter or as part of an ad campaign on Facebook – the possibilities are endless.
Procrastination kills so many great ideas, never having the chance to get off the ground. Don’t deny your brand the opportunity to be heard – start planning some PR today.
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