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4 Ways PR Can Elevate Your Brand

How can PR elevate your brand in 2019? PR is moving fast, and what might have worked brilliantly for your brand in the past might not be enough in the present.

While marketing activities like advertising look to achieve direct revenue, traditionally PR seeks to create a positive reputation for a brand in the market. However, PR is evolving into a sales role by some definitions, leading customers to directly shop the products they see online and in physical stores.

We take a look at four ways that PR can support your brand.

1. Effective PR creates a positive brand image

With new media outlets appearing all the time, many companies are choosing to outsource PR to agencies. These have the media contacts, know what they want and how to package it up.

Within the corporate sector, PR frequently sits under sales and marketing to support revenue generating activity. That’s because effective PR comes down to excellent written and visual communication, pushed out through different media channels. The aim is to create a positive image that shapes perceptions, often through story telling and relating of experiences.

There are many approaches to create that positive image, all of which hinge on creative execution and a well-planned strategy that looks outside the box to drive a message home.

2. It achieves exposure in multiple places

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Many will tell you that traditional PR, in the sense of bulk sending a press release to journalists, isn’t enough any longer.

Sending information to the media is still important, and so is traditional coverage like a double-page spread in the weekend paper. But newspapers are less read as the world turns digital. Coupled with competition in a saturated market, traditional PR doesn’t have the impact it used to.

Today, brands need coverage in multiple places inclusive of print, digital, social media, partnerships/collaborations, and podcasts as the market chooses where to receive content.

So what kind of event can you create as a brand that will make enough impact for people to post about it, and share it? What can you do that’s unique to secure coverage, even at a local level?

Ironically in such a digital market, print magazines still have a place in PR too. A beautifully curated magazine carries a level of exclusivity that a website just doesn’t. Many companies are doing their own print magazines, and lifestyle magazines are still a major source of inspiration for designers, creatives and brands.

3. It encourages a brand to reinvent itself

Today, PR is experiential and uses creativity, stunts and events as part of strategic campaigns to gain notice. Most of the work lies in presenting the information in a custom way, and pushing it out to the right contacts. For example, if you are holding a launch event for a new bakery, how good is an invitation with a branded coffee and doughnut? It creates an experience that an email invite just can’t match.

Any information that’s sent to the media has to be customised to every contact and pitched strategically. If it’s a product, it has to be packaged to stand out from the many press kits a journalist might receive in a day. It isn’t enough to place it in a box, attach a media pack and send. Companies today are also doing press summaries instead of full-length releases; these are shorter, harder hitting and more creative.

4. It pushes a brand to be shop-ready

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Not every brand is PR ready. The speed of the market means that everything has to be ready for purchase at the moment your PR swings into action. There’s little point in landing exposure if the customer can’t shop the product. After annoying them, it will  just drop off their radar, wasting your time and effort. Implementing PR for a product or service is a great way to line up everything up in your business, so it’s ready to be interacted with and shopped across platforms.

At the point of PR, a business should have all  key messages in place and the facts straight – not just in case the media asks but so that the market can feel confident to transact once PR brings them to purchase point.

Effective PR can elevate a brand by creating a positive image to shape perception in the market, achieving exposure in multiple places and pushing a brand to reinvent itself in new and creative ways.

Article Writers Australia is a Sydney-based content marketing agency where we create content customised to brands. For more content like this, and the latest content marketing strategy tips, subscribe to our newsletter.

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