Are you looking to reach a wider audience for your product or service? Or you want to maintain the repute of your brand among your target audience?
If you are looking for an answer to these questions, then public relations strategy is your solution. There are agencies like PR agency Toronto that cover your public relations requirement.
To put it in layman’s terms, public relations is how a company interacts with customers, journalists, politicians, media agencies, and the general public. Public relations can help you expose your business to a wider audience and maintain the reputation you earn through great customer service.
A standard misconception about PR is that it is only needed when a company needs to correct a mistake. While this falls in the category of public relations, there are several other things: managing the spread of information, managing your reputation, and communication that your PR manager handles.
In this digital era, information travels quickly, and every business, no matter how new or old, how big or small, needs an effective PR strategy because it builds trust in the customers. If you need a skilled person to handle your public relations, you can contact the PR agency in Toronto.
Table of Contents
Difference between PR and Marketing
Albeit marketing and PR are similar in actions, their goals are entirely different from each other. While marketing focuses on increasing sales, the main goal of PR is to enhance the reputation of your company.
To improve your reputation through PR strategies, you need to indirectly promote your brand through press releases and guest speaking engagements at industrial events. PR is important because people don’t just buy products, and they buy brands. Any customer will prefer a recognized and renowned brand that he knows he can trust. PR agency Toronto provides you with public relations strategies that are tailored to your needs.
Different Types of Media
Any brand manages its communication and reputation (public relations) through various media channels. There are three main categories of public relations- owned, paid, and earned media.
Owned Media
This media is the type of media that the company has complete control over. Because of this total control, more focus should be put on building an attractive PR campaign through this media. Owned media includes blog content, posts on social media, websites, and email newsletters.
Paid Media
As the name suggests, it is the type of media outreach where you pay someone to display your content. This type of media includes- Pay per Click (PPC), Social media advertising, and marketing through influencers. This type of PR will help you in reaching out to your specific target market
Earned Media
Earned media is the most difficult to obtain because it is out of your control. What is said about your brand depends on the quality of your products or services, your customer service, etc. Earned media includes praise from customers on social media, high search engine rankings, and brand mention in news and reviews. One thing to watch out for is that earned media can sometimes also be negative
Public Relation Strategies
Business & Industrial Events
Events like these are helpful to build PR whether you are hosting or attending. You get the opportunity to meet new clients and keep the current clients happy. You can market your products and gain exposure for your brand.
Speaking at events like these is also helpful in boosting awareness about your brand
Community Relations
Build a positive relationship with the surrounding community. Make donations, do charity work, give special discounts. Anything that builds a good relationship and retains loyal customers is encouraged
CSR
Corporate Social Responsibility focuses on ethical business practices. It also includes any philanthropic work and responsibility towards the environment. It is a very important aspect of PR as it directly affects the public image of the company
Crisis Handling
One of the most important functions of PR, crisis management, involves trying to reverse any negative communication which could harm the company’s reputation. Any situation of crisis should be mitigated quickly and strategically.
Media Relations
This process includes writing and organizing press releases and scheduling interviews. This exercise helps to gains exposure for your business and builds positive relationships with journalists and media outlets.
Social Media
Social media is a really helpful tool for a great PR strategy in the current situation of social distancing and pandemic-induced lockdowns. It helps you share your content, gains followers, convert customers, and resolves the crisis quickly. It is critical to have a social media strategy that keeps up consistent communication with the followers.
How to Measure Your PR Performance?
The first and foremost thing to do is keep track of your brand mentions. A brand mention happens when someone talks about your brand or business. Although they are talking about they might not provide a link to your site.
Now, this is where PR tools come into play. Some tools help you keep track of your brand mentions. You can see the positive mentions and reach out to the websites talking about your brand to create backlinks. These backlinks will help you increase traffic to your website, and a combined increase in backlinks and traffic will push your SEO rankings upwards.
These are all criteria that will help you measure if your PR strategies are effective or not.
What Are the Responsibilities of the PR Manager?
The PR manager shoulders the responsibility of creating, implementing, and monitoring your PR strategies. They handle communications in times of crisis, write press releases and manage the public presence of your brand. They are the voice and face of your company at times.
So, you would want your PR to manage to have good communication skills. They will be speaking at events, public functions, and press conferences, which is why strong communication is a critical skill. Other than that, you want them to be able to communicate well in written form. They will be responsible for writing your press release and other company-related news. They should be able to get the right message across to the public.
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