How to Create Your Corporate Public Relations Strategy?
Earlier in this blog, we discussed why you want to have a public relations strategy. It is an important piece of marketing that could provide you free publicity. That free publicity will help build your trust among your clients or customers. Now, you need to know how to create a corporate public relations strategy that is efficient and economical. You also want something that would get you the results you desire.
PR is an important piece of marketing that could provide you free publicity. That free publicity will help build your trust among your clients or customers.
Plan It
The worst strategy is no strategy. You want to sit down with your advisers and mentors and come up with a plan that works for your company. For example, you should plan when you will send press releases, where you want them sent and what you want to put in them. Many publications, especially magazines and trade journals, have editorial calendars. This means that they run specific stories during specific times of the year. They might have a trending issue in January, a what-is-hot-for-summer issue in May, and a gadgets-that-make-great-gifts issue in December. When you are planning your strategy, make note of these editorial calendars. Come up with ideas that could fit those special issues and send your release then. During your planning, you want to figure out what is your most important news that warrants a press release.
Research It
As mentioned earlier, you want to do your homework. You want to make note of the editorial calendars. You also want to find out the right contacts at various media. When you send a press release, you want to make sure you are sending to the right person. Later, in the book, you will have tips for finding that contact information. The research also will tell you what a publication writes or what a television station airs. For example, if you aren’t marketing to the Latin market, you should avoid Telemundo, which is a Spanish-speaking station. If your product is health-related, avoid publications that gear to cars.
Hire Journalists
Your corporate strategy should include hiring journalists and companies that specialize in sending releases, such as Faselis Growth. By hiring journalists and companies that specialize in PR, you ensure that editors and producers will look at your release over others that come to the news desk. Editors and producers get so many press releases a day. They can’t read them all. It is a hit-or-miss scenario, but journalists will know how to by-pass some barriers to move your release to a higher piece on the pile. They also have relationships with editors and producers and are more likely to get you the media coverage you seek. You aren’t buying a journalist. You are paying for their expertise in creating press releases.
Create Budget
Like other forms of marketing, a PR strategy should carry a budget. You should know exactly how much you are willing to spend on PR every year. Often, business owners consider PR an afterthought and have no budget for sending press releases. This is not a good strategy. You must budget an amount on marketing, including PR, from the beginning of your company or you are doomed. The most successful companies are those that are willing to spend money. Also, PR is an item where you could spend little and get a lot.
