10 reasons why companies need PR in 2018
16 Feb 2018
16 Feb 2018
Every business manager is constantly on the lookout for new avenues of promoting their brand among its stakeholders. However in a vast country like India, PR is often ignored as an option for branding. This is typically because of the limited knowledge with respect to this engaging and effective platform. While in reality, brands that have embraced PR sing paeans about its impact on their businesses.
The points below outline the benefits of hiring a PR firm to support you with your communication. This should nudge you along nicely to help you take that decision to work with a PR firm to complement your marketing efforts.
Developing Strategy: PR professionals are adept at developing a strategic approach for your brand. They constantly think big picture and relate to those insightful strategies that can elevate your brand to the next level. As a third party, a PR agency will be able to provide you with a fresh approach to your brand while approaching it, outside in.
Messages: Key messages are to PR as an instrument is to a musician. PR consultants can help you develop key messages that resonate with the influencer community. The messages are simplistic in nature but pack a punch when delivered. Engaging a PR firm will help you craft messaging that accentuates your brand in the eyes of its stakeholders.
Storytelling: How do you make ideas stick? This is the biggest challenge that brands face today in a growingly competitive environment. Story telling is a tool used effectively by PR teams to communicate messages in an engaging manner. Story telling also presents the opportunity to take audiences on a journey while engaging with them succinctly at different points of time.
Discover Opportunities: PR teams typically work around the clock and are always on the lookout for ideas. The PR team finds new ways to tell a story hitherto never thought of by companies. An agency can find merit in opportunities that you probably thought were of no value to marketing.
Negotiations: Since PR firms work with several companies, they are in a position to secure good deals in hotels, advertising, event sponsorships, etc. Hence agencies are a good complement to companies in their marketing efforts.
Industry analysts: The PR teams are typically completely hands on when it comes to its clients. This makes them spend considerable time on the brands and their competition while monitoring and studying them. As a result this becomes your reference point for industry insights, trends, competition, and other communication phenomena that are impacting your sector. In a nutshell the PR team is a store house of information as they are continually thinking about your brand.
Extended team: A PR team once hired becomes an extension of your marketing team. With the diverse backgrounds of PR professionals typically ranging from Journalism to communication to events and digital marketing, the extended team becomes an added boost to your arsenal of marketing tools. The combined years of experience from the PR team also adds diversity and immense learning that helps your efforts. It can be contextualised with getting the support of an entire team for the cost of just one full time resource.
Crisis and Reputation Management: A crisis is the most feared phenomenon by companies. This is simply because you don’t know when it hits and then it has the potential to cause irreparable damage to the brand and its reputation. A PR team is one of the most important and effective tools to combat a crisis situation. The PR team is on constant alert and can provide you with valuable insights and counsel to tide over such situations. Furthermore, the relationships previously built with influencers by the PR team can also be leveraged to contain damage to the brand. The PR team will be an extension of your company and can represent you when engaging with external audiences such as traditional media and social media.
Reporting and Monitoring: The PR company will be in a position to provide you with useful reports on a regular basis. These reports should help you understand as to where you stand in the industry and how you fare amidst competition. The agency should be able to help you monitor ROI in PR, Impact of your campaigns and constantly providing suggestions to aid in your own campaign planning.
Trusted Advisor: The PR team can act as a trusted advisor that you can fall back on whenever you need any advice with respect to positioning your brand. The very fact that this bunch of marketing professionals are looking out for and constantly debating and discussing your brand makes them ably poised to provide you with meaningful counsel. They can often discover solutions to your problems from a refreshing and fresh perspective.
To sum it up, a PR team is an able and professional team of marketing communication professionals who can help you with your marketing campaigns. As you might be aware PR is probably the most effective tool to deliver credibility in todays competitive world. Furthermore with the growth of digital, your PR efforts will yield substantial results by helping you build your online presence and leaving an indelible digital footprint for your brand or campaign.
