Rev PR are very pleased to be speaking at the British Franchise Association’s Women in Franchising conference on 16th November. We’ll be sharing the stage with Catriona Berry from Merry Maids to discuss using PR to raise your brand profile and how to deal with enquiries.
This blog is a quick intro to explain what PR is and why you should be using it in any business to support growth.
What is PR?
Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation and, in its most basic term, it is someone relating to their public. With PR, we aim to earn understanding, create discussions, and influence opinion and behaviour – whether focused on an individual or an organisation.
There are many activities a PR campaign can contain but they may include a pitch to a newspaper journalist, a celebrity-backed launch event, or an expert advice article like this one. One thing is for sure, PR works best when it is planned and a sustained effort is made to establish and maintain communication between an organisation and its public.
So, why do you need to think about including PR as a regular activity for your business? Every organisation, no matter how large or small, ultimately depends on its reputation for survival and success. Customers, suppliers, employees, investors, journalists and regulators can have a powerful impact. They all have an opinion about the organisations they come into contact with. These perceptions will drive their decisions about whether they want to work with, shop with and support these organisations.
Franchisors can use PR to build their brand, generate interest in their franchise opportunity with the right prospects and to support nation-wide sales. Franchisees and business owners can do exactly the same to generate interest in their product or service with consumers whether that be on a local, national or international basis.
In today’s competitive market, reputation can be a company’s biggest asset – the thing making you stand out from the crowd and giving you a competitive edge. Effective PR can help manage reputation by communicating and building good relationships with all of your stakeholders.
And woe betide you if what they think about you is negative, especially in these times of instant media gratification through social media – in a recent survey by Dimensional Research 54% of respondents who had shared a bad experience said they shared it more than 5 times! So, PR is also about reputation and crisis management which is another whole conversation – ask our resident crisis PR expert at #TeamRev, Sally if you want to be prepared with a crisis PR plan.
Want to know more?
For the ladies out there – I hope you can join us for the bfa event on 16th November. Our talk is suitable for anyone looking to grow their business and effectively deal with new business enquiries, not just franchisors. If you’re a woman in business who would like to become a supplier to the franchise industry or franchise your own business, you’ll get a great introduction to franchising from the whole event – more details here: https://www.thebfa.org/events/women-in-franchising-2017-2017-11-16
For the chaps – sorry you can’t come to this event but you can find more of our PR advice on our blog or you can contact us.