Public Relations (PR) is an incredibly important element in the mix of any business’s marketing toolbox. It is essential that CEOs and Marketing directors understand how PR can help your business. PR is a key part of marketing, supporting and protecting your brand. At the same time, good PR is even more essential for certain industries that have specific needs or are facing current or temporary challenges.
1. Technology
Technology is an industry that is rapidly and constantly changing. In recent years, it has also been an industry with common PR crises, whether data leaks, hiring practices or workplace culture, these PR issues have caused tech companies public image problems. And as tech companies expand into new technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it will become even more essential that companies have excellent PR.
The public will have a lot of questions and suspicions about these new technologies, and about the motives and purposes of companies’ data collection and uses with these technologies. In terms of how PR can help your business, preparing for these eventualities requires some essential first steps: making sure that PR emergencies will be dealt with swiftly and professionally, answering frequent and emotional questions and concerns from the public and getting ahead of people’s questions about motives and purpose on your website and with publicity events, are some of the initial steps you’ll want to be aware of.
2. The Tourism Industry
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism has been forced to deal with a long hiatus. And there is still a long road ahead before returning to its prior robust health. The journey forward will require different types of PR campaigns that are all highly effective to persuade people to get back out to explore the world and create experiences.
Specifically, some of the benefits of public relations in marketing are that it causes potential travelers to gain more trust in your company’s ability to keep them safe, by making them aware of all of the safety measures you have in place to ensure their health and safety. Another use for these types of PR campaigns, is to update your customers on international, federal, state, local, as well as your own business’s restrictions, and the variety of flexible options you offer to them should they need to cancel their reservations or contract.
3. Online Gaming and Gambling
Playing casino games and betting on a wide variety of sports has never been easier. Not only have casinos proliferated throughout the US, but now you can bet and gamble from the comfort of your own home. Online casinos, like Caesars, BetMGM or WYNNBET, need immaculate PR in order to keep their image and brand hot because their games lose and win real money. If you want some real-life answers for the question, “how can public relations help a company,” just research the benefits of public relations in marketing for gaming and casinos.
PR specialists must convince people that online casinos and sports betting sites are reliable and trustworthy companies that will make good on all of their players’ winnings. Once they have done that, casinos and online gambling websites can boost their PR, build sponsorships, elevate their marketing campaigns through SEO, PPC marketing and even radio and television advertising.
4. Retail
Trends and political ups and downs can drive retail companies’ sales on roller coaster rides in short order. Quickly getting facts and data out to the public about reports, responding swiftly to criticism, dealing with bad online comments, keeping a pulse on influence culture and so many things that a retail business perhaps can’t do for itself, but is vitally important to the future of the business is critical. Additionally, the importance of PR in businesses like retail which handles vast amounts of public data, including credit card details, cannot be underestimated.
PR agencies are experts at telling the stories you want told, while simultaneously putting out the fires you don’t want to have seen or even noticed.
Taking Your Next PR Steps
Whether your business falls into one of these categories or not, the importance of PR in business is undeniable. Which leads us to the next question, how should your small to medium-sized business focus its efforts and money to get PR right for your business?
Magnify Your Brand
Whatever your business has done to launch an initial campaign that includes distinct branding and messaging for your products and services on your website, in your social pages, your paid advertising and content marketing – magnify it! Let your PR team (or whoever you have empowered and paid to do your PR) magnify your brand with focused, high-quality PR using your own tools wisely and creatively. It will be important to frequently track your progress throughout any PR outreach. Contact only the journalists within your industry whose articles on similar subjects have already been published.
Counter the Negative
When you advertise on Facebook or Twitter you can often count on a jump in revenue. However, because of the public feedback orientation of these platforms, your ads will elicit a lot of feedback and some of those messages are bound to be negative. This will be especially common among users who have never heard of your company. One method for proactively countering the negativity is to create look-alike campaigns using feedback generated from an article you published. In this way when your paid media marketing goes online, you will have greater assurance that your target audience will already be aware of, and connected with, your brand.
SEO Must Constantly Adjust and Improve
There are so many ways to continually improve our SEO. Learning what PR can do for your business on the backend of SEO will help you to make quality adjustments and improve your ROI. One thing that many brands are doing to improve their rankings in Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc., is creating backlink profiles. By improving press coverage, and building rapport within PR channels, your business can definitely improve its SEO whenever you get linked to other prominent sites.
Raise Brand Recognition
Quality press outreach can have a multiplying effect on brand recognition! Good press can lead to a lot more brand awareness and business opportunities. Adding value to your potential clients, while communicating clearly and meaningfully to readers and journalists will make growth much more possible. Give a clear and positive message that sticks closely to your brand and make sure your messaging comes through in your own writing. Make sure that all of your blog posts, press releases, newsletters and business updates raise your brand recognition.
Conclusion
For more answers to the question, “what can PR do for your business,” it may be necessary to find people who market businesses for a living to assist you. A quality full-service marketing agency will help you understand all of the possibilities and pitfalls behind the quandary, “how can public relations help a company?” An agency will help your business identify the many benefits of public relations in marketing while also assisting you in choosing types of PR campaigns. Placing the responsibilities of PR into the hands of a capable full-service marketing agency will allow you to sit back and focus on what your business does best.
One of the frequently asked questions when engaging a full-service marketing agency is, “how do we afford agency prices?” At zö agency, we will get to know your business, define your target audience, identify how PR can help your business and maximize your PR marketing budget. Not only are we great at what we do, we love our clients and will work hard to bring you into the tribe! Visit us at www.zo.agency today!
