Are you looking to establish your brand as a leader in its industry, gain a loyal customer following and retain a positive brand image in the public eye? You need PR!
Public Relations is the most important piece of your marketing plan. An effective PR strategy will have a positive influence on all facets of your business—sales, thought leadership, reputation, clients, and employees—which ultimately impact your bottom line.
Here are three reasons why PR should be at the top of your to-do list:
1. PR Shapes Your Image
Every brand has a story that showcases why it’s special. Your PR team works with you to create company messaging that defines who you are, what you do, and how you’re different from competitors. Having messaging in place promotes consistency and prevents confusion.
Not only does a complete branding exercise determine how you want to be heard, it also takes into consideration how you want to be seen. It’s a combination of brand colors, logo, website design, font styles and more. In fact, your visual identity is an excellent tool for attracting the right business leads. If your current brand isn’t bringing in the right leads, perhaps a rebrand is in your future.
When everyone at the company is following the same style and understands the key messages that need to be conveyed, the business comes across as polished and professional.
2. PR Builds Awareness and Credibility
With the help of PR, your thought leaders will become trusted experts on topics important to your clients and customers. This can be done through speaking opportunities, press interviews and social media to name a few.
Implementing a content marketing strategy can help increase your SEO rankings and drive more traffic to your website. Part of that strategy might include posting content regularly to a company blog and including links to additional content like other blog posts, white papers, videos, infographics and e-books.
3. PR Protects and Manages Your Reputation
It’s not as fun as creating your brand’s color palette, but having a contingency communications plan prepared before a crisis happens will give you peace of mind and one less thing to worry about when decision-makers are in panic-mode.
The crisis communications plan will enable you to respond quickly and control the story before you find yourself reacting to news of the day. This means you’ll have to think about possible scenarios that could spiral into a crisis: a CEO leaving the company, government investigations or even employees participating in fraudulent activity. The key is to be prepared. You’ll thank yourself later.
The role of your PR team is to protect and manage your reputation while implementing stellar campaigns that keep your company in a positive light and customers knocking at your door.
Do you want to learn more about how PR can help your business flourish? Contact JConnelly today to hear how we can help!
Check out our free ebook to learn how to develop a well rounded digital marketing plan that includes PR and more:
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