Why Invest In PR For Your Brand

16 Jun 2022

There is often a misconception that companies that are investing in PR specialists are looking to repair a poor reputation. However, quality PR and communications can help to boost overall marketing efforts through the use of brand outreach and place your business directly in the eye of your potential clients and customers.

PR Benefits

There are a great number of benefits that can be seen from investing in quality PR as a part of your marketing campaign. There are 7 key reasons that businesses should be aware of:

PR builds brand awareness.
PR fuels growth.
PR is a powerful lead generator.
PR is the key vehicle for brand transformation
PR is the most effective tool for reputation management.
PR is an excellent tool for recruitment.
PR outlasts advertising.

Each of these benefits interlinks with not only each other but also with other marketing practices.
(Nasdaq)

PR For Brand Awareness

Successful PR offers the ability to increase brand awareness not only to potential customers but also to a range of other valuable stakeholders.
Depending on your target audience, your PR efforts can increase the brand philosophy and mission, among potential employees (this is particularly vital if you require a specialist or skilled workforce), potential partners and even investors.
A modern way that we are seeing PR used is in the form of influencer marketing. The influencer industry is now worth over $10 Billion globally, increasing year on year.
With 85% of companies stating that the top goal for influencer marketing is increasing brand awareness, it’s understandable to see why this type of PR has helped 67% of businesses reach a more targeted audience.
(Forbes, Reboot)

PR and Content Creation For Lead Generation

With content marketing becoming a larger part of PR, smaller PR agencies are starting to struggle with the requirement to include search engine optimisation, social media and video production as part of their strategy. This is where a full-service web agency becomes a key place to consider investing in PR.
Experts are saying that the role of the PR expert is continuing to evolve and becoming more cross-functional than ever. This has become more apparent with the increase in digital PR. This is where PR experts and SEO copywriters have the ability to work together, approaching outreach with best practice techniques from a number of specialist perspectives but digital platforms and even search engines.
It is quickly becoming the norm that PR and SEO professionals interact daily within an outreach campaign, helping to drive lead generation by making content visible to both a wider audience and a targetted audience.
(Meltwater)

PR For Reputation Management

87% of consumers look online for business reviews before becoming a customer, whether this is eCommerce, restaurants, or even insurance companies. This means that a poor online reputation can be detrimental to the sales of a business. Successful PR campaigns can be utilised in order to rebuild the reputation of a brand and to help them move forward successfully.
PR for reputation management’s main aim is not to increase brand awareness, but rather to alter a negative reputation and create a positive response to the brand moving forward. This can be in the form of responding to negative comments and generally being proactive in the online community to create a fresh buzz for the brand.
(StatusLabs, Meltwater)

Two-Way Communication

The introduction of digital PR has opened the door to a two-way communication form of PR. Digital PR encompasses everything from social media, including the uptake of trending hashtags, open letters and on view content. This allows PR experts to not only directly engage with the target audience but also for the audience to engage back.
It takes as little as 2 hours to confirm a true rumour, however as many as 14 to debunk a false one. This means that by having open two-way communication in place PR experts are able to immediately jump into any situation in order to address situations as they arise, rather than fire-fighting after the event.
Using PR social media allows for a two-way communication platform to be opened that many consumers are already comfortable with. It also offers a better platform for the short-form content that consumers are now more engaged with.

Why Outsource PR?

PR is a time-consuming task, even for professionals. While there is the initial time spent on content creation, there is also the time spent on outreach.
Outreach, where journalists and publications are contacted, can take a significant amount of time, not only with the initial outreach but also the formation and maintenance required to ensure publishing. With a growing number of digital PR experts or companies, journalists are inundated with countless stories and information to report on. This allows them to cherry-pick the best quality stories.
So while one publication may be the perfect one, reaching out to multiple offers an increased chance of the story being picked up. Not to mention that 73% of journalists actually look for their press releases online, meaning that your PR expert should be publishing the story on your own site first and foremost.
(99 Firms, Meltwater)

If you are looking for expert PR Birmingham, please contact the team at Netbiz who will be happy to discuss your requirements today. Compliment your PR with our excellent digital marketing and creative web design to see your rankings improve.