Get Back in Touch With Your Customer Community and Improve Your Company’s Public Relations in 9 Easy Steps
Boost sales and customer loyalty with your PR strategy.
PR refers to the ways in which a company maintains a positive and favourable image in the public eye. Although most companies neglect to focus on their PR they often unintentionally or unknowingly engage in PR strategies all the time. For example, companies often hold charity fundraising events within the community and keep up to date with following industry trends.
It may be tempting to prioritise perfecting your products or services and improving your customer experience, and of course these are good uses of your time, but don’t underestimate the power of holding a good relationship with your community and clientele. Word of mouth travels fast so whatever industry your business is in, one of the best things for trade is holding a good reputation.
So, if you own a company and you’re interested in boosting your sales and growing your customer base in a simple and inexpensive way then this easy guide for good PR is for you.
1. Firstly, make your brand personal
Give your clientele an opportunity to get to know you, your business and your employees. Allowing your customers to feel more connected and invested in your brand will go a long way to improve your PR.
You can achieve this personability by telling your story on your communication platforms, including your website and social media pages. Be genuine and tell the public why you started your business and what makes your brand unique and special.
2. Stay informed and up to date
Ensure that you keep up to date with industry trends, movements and fashions so that your brand stays current and the products and services you offer fit the demand of your target market. For example vegan and cruelty free products are becoming increasingly popular within the beauty industry.
Stay informed by looking at trends on social media and seeing what your competitors are doing. Also talk to your customers, ask them what products or services they’d like that you don't currently offer.
3. Know you community and be helpful
PR is all about your brand's relationship with the community and your target market so it's worth giving some thought into what this group of people really need and want.
Sometimes you have to spend money to make money and if you know there's something that your community really needs then try to make this happen for them. For example you could organise or participate in fundraising events for your local community.
4. Be knowledgeable and reliable
If you're considering pitching to journalists to write an article about your company or requesting social media influencers to do a sponsored ad then do your research and don't waste their time.
Reach out to individuals that specialise in creating and posting content related to your industry and if you have an arrangement with them then make sure you stick to it. Influencers receive a mountain of requests so if you're reliable they may be more likely to post for you in the future.
5. Spot PR trends
If you haven't got the funds to hire a PR professional all is not lost. You can still engage in successful PR strategies by simply looking at what the professionals are doing.
Have a scan over social media platforms and see what gets the best responses and engagement and what doesn't.
You don't necessarily have to copy what others are doing but seeing other PR trends can be a good start for creating your own ideas.
6. Utilise the power of media
Media is one hell of a tool and you'd be a fool to not take advantage of it.
Ensure that you have an exciting and engaging media presence and try to upload content consistently. Also remember to mix it up when you can to keep your pages interesting, for example try out videos, blogs and photos.
Having a good social media platform is a great way to make your brand a talking-point and it gives you an opportunity to talk about what you stand for and hope to achieve. If you do this well you might even find that reporters or promoters want to work with you.
Most importantly, engage with people on your platforms by replying to comments and messages. Don't waste an opportunity to reach out to people who've shown an interest in your content.
7. Share your expertise and become well known in your industry
One way to improve your PR is to become a recognised person in your related industry. If you're super knowledgeable about something or have ideas to share, get yourself on online forums, join groups, become a spokesperson or start a youtube channel. There are so many ways to get yourself known and if people know about you and what you do then your brand will be more recognised and well regarded.
8. Have information ready to go
You never know when customers, journalists and the like may reach out to you to ask you a question about your business so it's always a good idea to have pre prepared answers to fall back on.
We advise that you create an in depth resource of any useful information about your business, for example where you source your products from, what the ethos of your brand is and what steps you've taken as a brand to improve your sustainability. With a resource like this you'll always be ready to fire off consistently high quality responses and you won’t have to leave people waiting.
9. Outsource if needs be
Whilst it's often preferable to get things done yourself, outsource to a professional if you need to. When PR is done right it can be a powerful tool but a failed PR move can be very detrimental and costly for your business so sometimes it's best to get a professional in.
We'd consider getting a PR professional if you're trying to manage a business crisis and restore your brand image. Also, if you're about to launch a big new campaign then it's worth getting a professional so that you can maximise the benefits of this.
PR is oven overlooked for more modern business strategies but it really is a brilliant secret weapon. A business with good PR will always have a loyal following of customers and stand out from its competitors, even against those that offer a good quality service. Better still PR isn’t difficult once you know what you’re doing and it’s very inexpensive when compared to alternative forms of advertising. There’s really no excuse to not give it a go, so try out some of our advice and see what works best for you!
Ready to get started? Get in touch with our team today to see how we can help you with your PR strategy.
Licorne Agency was founded with one goal in mind:
To offer fully managed web and branding solutions that let SMEs focus on what they do best—running their business.
If you want us to look after your website or branding, please get in touch.