PR - One of the Most Powerful Tools in Your Marketing Arsenal

Posted on November 30, 2007

PR often gets a bad rep. Like it’s cousin marketing, it is sometimes seen as a ‘black art’ which carries unfair connotations of untruthfulness. In fact, the truth behind PR is more prosaic - and good, effective PR can only work if it is based on the truth. So how can PR help your business?

At the most basic level, a PR company will help you disseminate information about your business. Whether you’ve got a new product line or an exciting story of growth, your PR agency will work to create a story which they then distribute to newspapers, magazines and other such publications. Many PR practitioners are ex-journalists and maintain a healthy “contact book” of key people in the media who they can contact in a bid to get a story into publication. If a story is compelling enough publishers will be keen to use it to help fill their pages.

If you take a long term view, a public relations agency can help develop a ’storyline’ for your company. If you wish to be seen as a dynamic, quickly growing firm your agency can develop a schedule which will tell that story over a period of months. Potential customers become accustomed to seeing your name in a positive context in the press and are more likely to remember your name and deal with you in future.

They will also help you identify the correct context for your stories. If you are hiring new staff, then this is often an excellent little story for local interest publications but won’t raise a ripple in the national press unless you’re hiring in the thousands. If your product is aimed at a very specific sector, then your PR company will find specialist outlets for your story where it will have the greatest chance of being published and will resonate most strongly with an audience.

Sometimes, it is worth remembering that your company can gain bad press as well. Adverse trading conditions beyond your control, or a breakdown in relations with an important customer can find your business making headlines for all the wrong reasons. A good PR agency can help ameliorate the negative effects of such news using a variety of techniques.

If you sell a specific product, it may be possible to foresee potential problems and prepare a strategy in advance in case of certain events. A good agency will also be able to offer training in case you yourself need to answer questions for the press. Journalists will often ask loaded questions during an interview to tempt you to give an answer that they can use to paint a particular picture. Because of their understanding of these techniques, your PR company can either handle press enquiries on your behalf or brief you on how to effectively deal with them. An agency will also be on the lookout for more positive stories they can create to counteract the negative ones.

This is just a brief overview of the benefit that PR can bring to your business. If you’re unsure if it’s the right choice for you, pick up the phone to an agency and ask to speak to them.

Paul Carpenter is an website marketing expert from Leeds in Yorkshire, with a strong interest in PR and the work carried out by PR company

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