PR Agency Saint Peters - Customized PR Strategies for Success

Ultimately, consumers choose brands or businesses they know and feel they can trust. PR can help businesses build that trust by building upon a brand’s reputation and credibility to make attracting and retaining customers much easier. 

Similarly, a business’s internal workforce has a say in how the rest of the public perceives it. When the internal workforce is unhappy and dissatisfied, they will under-deliver, jeopardizing customer experiences. Effective internal PR can boost morale and ensure that the staff is happy as they will feel valued and listened to. And we all know that a satisfied workforce means increased productivity and staff retention.

Yes, PR is a credible and cost-effective method, but it also has challenges. Some of them include:

• Having no direct control over how the media portray your business or how the public perceives it, where and when your message will be featured, etc.
• The results are not 100% guaranteed. There’s a possibility that you will spend alot of time and resources getting through to journalists and different, but you can’t put an exact amount on your ROI.
• Evaluating and measuring the effectiveness of your PR activities can be difficult. You can’t necessarily count media or influencer mentions and featured stories. Certainly, you can’t measure PR’s impact on your target audience.

It is expected as a business to have disgruntled and unhappy customers, employees, crises and accidents. These can generate negative stories around your brand, which can be fatal if not dealt with effectively. Here are some recommendations to help you manage bad publicity:

• Ensure that there are specific authorized personnel or employees who refer to journalist’s queries
• When a journalist contacts you, carefully construct thoughtful responses and give feedback on time
• Actively participate in trying to find solutions to a problem. Do not shut out the media or be quiet in the face of a crisis.
• Be vigilant while giving any response. You should remember that anything and everything you say carries legal implications. In the worst-case scenarios, seek legal advice before making any statements– better to address the media through your legal representatives. 

The first step in getting media coverage is knowing your target audience and what media you want to use to reach them. As a local business, it’s better to look at:

• Your local newspapers or magazines
• Your local television and radio
• Digital media
• Local bloggers and influencers
• Online media

Public relations isn’t a waste of money. It is an important marketing tool and can be used alongside advertising and sales promotion. There’s alot your business can gain from PR, including increased sales, reputation management, brand visibility, cost-effective solutions, etc., every business needs PR, and in the long run, you will see that your investment was worth it.