Your business is important to you: the way it is perceived by your customers will depend on how it will progress in the coming days, weeks or months. When asking the question of why you need PR for your business, it is important to acknowledge that you will rely on this no matter how large your company is, whether it’s a global brand or if it’s just you working in a number of roles in your new startup.
Public relations – or PR – is something you need to pay close attention to no matter the size of your business. These are some of the questions you may ask when deciding why you should dedicate some time and money to this worthwhile activity.
So what is PR for Business?
Firstly, you need to understand what public relations actually is. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) describes PR as:
“Public relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.
“Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of understanding, supporting, and influencing opinion and behavior. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its publics.”
So not only does your brand need to tell your audience about what it’s doing, but to also interact with it. It needs to be a two-way process.
Should I set up relationships with my audience?
Yes, you should! Setting up ongoing relationships with certain influencers – which also means that you get to interact with their audience – is a great public relations strategy. Your business may also then become a source of data with the party with which you are working.
Doing this should be part of your business’ overall strategic planning for PR. A well thought out communications strategy will help you to interact with target media outlets, and place coverage to create and maintain a positive image, give your brand a strong voice, and increase the strength of the relationship with your audience.
Will PR build my brand?
When PR is done well, it will build your business reputation. There are ways that businesses can do this effectively online – for instance, being mentioned in articles.
Good PR will also help you to gain trust and credibility with the public. Having your products or services reviewed, or even being interviewed by a publication, means you can get third-party endorsements. You just cannot get this with paid advertising. Chase good PR whenever you are afforded the opportunity.
Does PR help my brand to stay relevant?
This is what you should be aiming to do. Staying relevant means publications are always hearing about your company. If you stop being visible, then you’re no longer relevant. You should have a multi-tiered way of starting a conversation. Examples could be placing articles that your staff are knowledgeable about, or creating podcasts on relevant subjects to get attention for your company. This should get people talking about you and your business. If you need help with this, reach out and our team of experts will walk you through our PR service offerings to see how we can best help get you in the conversations that matter.