To stimulate more demand for a product or service,
Or to underscore the credibility of the business.
Public Relations is the ‘invisible marketing partner.” Everyone in business who wants to be more successful should take advantage of the hidden value of Public Relations.
Public Relations is the creation of goodwill. It is a way of increasing the climate of belief. It is a marketing strategy created specifically to gain acceptance and support for a company's goods and services. It can be most effective when the PR efforts reach an untapped market and motivate people to take action.
Public Relations is publicity, sponsorships, special events, customized promotions, speaking engagements, and newsletters. Like advertising, but without the hard sell, PR makes potential customers aware of the benefits they will receive from the product or service. Public Relations is anything imaginable which produces the desired results.
Public Relations can enhance the achievement of specific business goals. It can boost sales, improve management’s morale, increase client base. Public Relations is often difficult to measure. But it can be extremely successful when the message, identity or image desired in the marketplace is carefully defined and reinforced with uniform consistency.
Publicity, a form of PR, is a way of raising awareness through news or feature stories in the media. Studies have shown editorial space is 3.5 times more believable than paid advertising.
Well-written, factual, accurate, interesting, and targeted press releases are critical to the success of any PR campaign. Nothing can undermine credibility with the media faster than inaccurate or incomplete information, or press releases without a purpose.
The media includes community, local, regional, national and international newspapers, general interest, specialty and trade magazines and publications, radio, television, wire services and the Internet. In some cases, it is wise to include the publications associated with businesses, associations, organizations, and government.
You must have an accurate media list which includes names, addresses, phone and fax number, email addresses, and titles. Correct spelling is fundamental.
The success of any media coverage depends upon the flow of communications within the organization, as well as the flow outward from the organization to the public or intended target market. Get your employees involved in the PR process. Ask them for news stories about their work, as well as anything in their personal lives which is related to their work. These sidebar stories are effective and most easily acceptable to the media.
Editors and producers have the tremendous challenge of coming up with stories to fill their pages and air slots every day of the year. Furthermore, many news operations don’t have the budgets to allow the research necessary to find the good stories. Each reporter in a news room is looking for a scoop or a good story. In fact, there is a healthy competition inside the news room which, along with the freedom to be creative, motivates them to look for a great news story. There is always newspaper space and radio and tv air time to fill. It’s a never-ending process.
The public relations liaison must take advantage of this voracious media. Feeding them credible and unusual news stories will make them happy. Take advantage of this opportunity.
Every time an event is planned, organizers should include publicity as a critical factor in the event’s success. Often the people in charge of publicity can contribute ideas and angles which will generate the media coverage needed to ensure the event’s success.
It is equally important to remember that media coverage is not guaranteed. For this reason it is critical to continually interest members of the media with a range of information from which they can select what interests them as the subject for an article or story. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
One person in your organization should be the media liaison. Nothing aggravates the press and electronic media more than not knowing who to contact and how to locate that person. They also expect that person to have a good working knowledge of the media and be conversant with media language. Include your name, address, phone, fax, e-mail address and web site on every press release.
At the same time, there must be only one “spokesperson” inside the organization. This person funnels information from the company to the media and visa versa.
These are only some of the options one could consider when creating Public Relations efforts for a company, demonstrating that Public Relations is much more than getting your name in the newspaper.
