Public relations isn’t something most people consider when starting a business. Advertising, business development, operations, and sales are all important, but who do you call when things aren’t going as well as you planned?
Public relations, that’s who!
PR, or public relations, is a strategic approach to brand awareness and marketing. The goal of PR is to shape the public perception of your brand. If you aren’t sure if your brand has a public perception at all, it might be a good idea to look into working with a PR professional or a PR agency. Public relations professionals can effectively mediate your brand’s relationship with the public.
There are a lot of articles about why you should hire a PR professional to handle your public relations and communications, but how do you know when to make that change? Here are 5 signs you might need to focus more on PR:
1. People Just Don’t Know Your Brand
The first sign is no one knows your brand, especially locally. We’ve worked with companies before where nobody in the area knows them and their brand, even when they have been around for years. That’s not what you want to see! PR can change that by connecting your brand to the media and ensuring your marketing, creative, and content efforts are getting the hype they deserve. For example, if you have a new product, event, or campaign, PR can help attract positive public attention and make a big difference in a successful launch.
Engagement is the key to building awareness. Conducting outreach and making connections can boost engagement with your audience and overall brand awareness. PR professionals can coordinate important posts, campaigns, and media outreach strategies to get your brand’s name out there in ways you probably never before considered.
2. You Stress About Any Crisis That Might Hit
Nobody hopes for a crisis, but everybody should plan for one. A crisis could be anything from a social media post gone viral for the wrong reasons to a manufacturing issue with a product. Crises always seem to hit at the worst possible moment — but having a PR strategy is like having a reliable game plan ready to go at any time. First, you want to have a plan for proactive crisis management. Building up your reputation in the media with press releases and other publications can minimize the backlash any potential negative news. The goal is that any crisis is buried below all the positive news you’re sending out on a consistent basis.
Speaking of consistency — a solid PR strategy helps put into place a consistent and reliable communications plan for both internal and external use. If a crisis hits, or a big change takes place, that is not the time to figure out how to communicate with your employees and your clients/customers. Instead, you want to create an internal and external communication plan beforehand so you know who is in charge of sending out a response and what the process is for prepping it. Crisis management is an important step to take now to help your brand in the future. If you need to build out your brand’s PR crisis management strategy, check out our crisis management guide or reach out to our PR team.
3. You Want to Build Credibility, But Don’t Know How
If you want to be seen as trustworthy, it’s a good idea to focus on PR. Just like building an effective SEO strategy can boost your organic traffic, having positive media mentions can make a huge difference in visibility. Media mentions are crucial to your digital presence — having at least two mentions a day is healthy for your brand. To build that credibility with the media and your audience, you need to put in the work with press releases and outreach to have newsworthy stories for media outlets to promote.
A clear brand identity is also important for credibility. If your social media, digital marketing, or communications aren’t coordinated, it’ll be more difficult for viewers to understand who you are. With active PR efforts, the public has more opportunities than ever to interact with your brand. You want to take advantage of increased eyes on your brand, not let it backfire. Misaligned messaging can damage your reputation and dilute your brand awareness. Once again, this is where a PR strategy can effectively guide those efforts in the right direction until you’re a trusted brand in your space.
4. Your Business Growth Is Stagnant
Have your company’s growth prospects dried up? If your company’s growth is struggling, you might need a PR strategy to kickstart new relationships with the public. One of the best ways to grow is to focus on building your relationships with your community and highlighting your community activity through PR initiatives and events. Brand awareness and soft marketing may not give you an immediate return on your investment or be as trackable as digital marketing, but it does make a real difference in the long run for your brand’s growth.
Working with a PR agency or professional can help you create a PR strategy, organize events, and conduct outreach to raise brand awareness. PR professionals can also make sure that you’re involved in your community and get into conversations that matter most to your employees and collaborators. Their relationships with journalists, media outlets, and local businesses can be invaluable to your brand’s growth. If you’re ready to plan your first event or PR initiative, check out our event planning and management guide or reach out to our team.
5. You Can’t Seem to Attract the Right Talent
Another reason you might consider focusing on public relations is that you want to attract quality team members. Job seekers often take a look at a company’s online presence before they apply for an available position. And one goal of PR is to broadcast your business’s successes with the world. Because of this, PR can go a long way in terms of attracting like-minded professionals to your brand. The more reputable you appear, the more likely people are to want to work for you.
PR can also highlight your company culture and give potential team members a better sense of who you are and what you represent. For example, if you’re active in a particular community program or non-profit, then PR can help share the different ways you give back. Not only does this help attract talent, but it showcases your company’s culture to your audience so they can relate with your brand. Through storytelling and reliable communication facilitated by public relations strategy, you can bridge the gap between your company and the people you want to attract. In short, PR can help solidify your brand identity so your company stands out among competition.
Final Thoughts
All in all, if any of these five signs sounds like you, investing in public relations may be your best bet. PR is a great tool to boost brand awareness, cultivate credibility, connect with new audiences, and much more. If you think that your brand is ready to unlock the power of public relations, reach out to get the conversation started with our PR team!
