BMC blog: The mighty power of PR

05 Sep BMC blog: The mighty power of PR

No matter what your business, nothing beats the power of positive publicity.

Sure, you can promote what you do in plenty of other ways, but if you want to reach out to as many people as possible you need mass media support.

For starters, PR is what is called ‘earned’ marketing – you only get the airtime and column inches you deserve, which is usually based on editorial merit and therefore the strength of your story. This is wholly different to ‘owned’ marketing activity which, writ-large, is stuff we do (e.g. social media).

If you think advertising or golf days are good PR, you’re missing the point. The clue is in the name – your public relations should relate to the public. Who cares about corporate jollies? You and your mates, maybe. The wider public? Nah.

As for advertising, you often need to throw lots against the wall for your message to stick i.e., big budgets and big bucks. Good luck with that.

As a poacher-turned-gamekeeper communications consultant I’m often asked what makes a good news story.

The aim of the game is usually to generate positive publicity – a shout out for your cause, company, maybe even industry or profession, so you need a compelling story that is newsworthy – worth being in the news.

By this, I mean something relevant and real to your audience – not a ‘tall’ story or one so gilded it makes no sense.

Also working with the media is a must and something of a double dance. First you need to hold your hand out to publications and broadcasters you want to feature your story, then flip sides to jig with your ideal audience.

Indeed, the media are mere conduits also trying to create news stories that appeal to their audience so if you dance in harmony, you can sashay to the same success.

‘Good’ news stories tick off as many of the who, where, why, what, when and how questions as possible. You won’t always meet each of these needs but they are a good starting point to shaping a press release – the all-essential industry standard document you’ll need to create to circulate your story to the media.

That means time (immediacy, maybe) and place (where the action is happening). The gist of the story (what), the reason or purpose behind it (why) and the mechanics of it that will work, happen, be, develop (how).

Crucially, it should feature people (who) involved in the story – ‘voices’ representing different angles, from spokespeople for an organisation or enterprise to people we can ‘hear’ from – be they customers, users, representatives of other bodies etc.

This last point can be hugely significant. With limited time and resource, journalists are often scrabbling around for alternative voices on all manner of subjects – but finding ‘real’ people can prove difficult. In building your ‘good’ PR story, the easier you make it for media folks to feature you, the more publicity – and greater depth of coverage – you are likely to receive.

And that’s what good PR is ultimately about – not just brand recognition but raising your reputation, trust and integrity.

Indeed, the better you get at building media relationships, the more likely they are to come to you for comment (not just vice versa). The better you get at giving good quotes, the greater trust you’ll build with your audience.

This is high stakes stuff. The more professional you are with your PR (and – I would say this wouldn’t I – why not consider hiring PR agents who know their onions?) and the better you get at saying the things you want to communicate (ditto media training) the more successful and sustained your public relations will be.

That’s why PR matters more than any other form of marketing.

The Mighty Power of PR is the topic of September’s Business Media Club meeting on Friday, September 30 from 10am to midday.

For further information visit our Business Media Club page.

To book your seat for this meeting visit our Eventbrite page.