Launching a new business, service, or product, is as challenging as it is exciting. Most of us want to reach the market with a new offer that can make businesses or consumers' lives better. The only problem is no one knows who you are. This is where Public Relations comes in.
Nadia Hearn, the founder of Get-Published, an entrepreneur, broadcast media producer and presenter, and purpose-driven business mentor, shares her insights after almost two decades of helping entrepreneurs launch successfully.
Nadia believes that PR can be a magic wand if it is used well and for its original purpose; to introduce, educate, showcase and to tell the story of what you have to offer, and why it is especially important to your target market. After all, it is about them and they need to know why they need you.
We all know that when an expert is featured in top media, we simply feel more inclined to trust them, and if others are being helped and seeing the results, surely buying from you is a no brainer?
PR supports your sales offering through media articles that you can share across your digital platforms, as well as providing organic search benefits.
Also, you can send these articles to potential customer databases, include them into some of your marketing tactics like landing pages, e-mailing and social media campaigns like LinkedIn where you can also publish your articles and insights about why your target needs to pay attention to what it is you offer.
A Long Term Strategy
In today’s financially strained marketplace businesses and brands cannot compete on price only. PR elevates your brand and what it offers, connecting you with the ideal customers, who are happy to buy from you for your value, quality or even lifestyle at the price it costs.
These customers can be brand loyal but they should also become completely brand insistent, so distracting them with price wars is not the way to create loyalty.
A large percentage of successful global brands, experts and businesses that consistently use PR in their strategy and activity, have great success – because you know about them.
They invest in PR and communications strategies – as a must-have annually - and they see great benefits in using it as a tool to support the emotional brand relationship with their target market and all stakeholders. They see the larger impact of brand value also on equity value of their business.
Invest In A High-Quality Media Pack
Firstly, a great PR campaign aligns your communication objectives with your business objectives. Secondly, it is important to have a media pack that holds the information media need to publish content about you.
Spokespeople need a media biography and high-quality media friendly profile images in the correct format for media to use - as a bare minimum.
You need a brand story that connects the target audiences with why you do what you do, and why the market will need you. Good brand imagery and an image bank of the business, services and products is also required to support written content.
Numbers captured through infographics and product shots also help media visually communicate your message to your audiences in a way that is easy to understand, memorable, and more importantly that connects with them emotionally.
Hearn concludes that when it comes down to market share, growth and sustaining business, PR is the strategy to positively impact these crucial business objectives.
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