Yes, Your Business Needs a Public Relations Strategy

Regardless of the size of your business or which industry you are in, it’s important to have a public relations strategy. Not only is having a sound PR strategy essential for creating brand awareness and lead generation, but it can also save your company when it comes to a crisis management situation. 

Public relations is one of the most effective methods to communicate to your target audience. If properly executed, your PR efforts will enhance your company’s reputation by increasing trust in your brand. This can be accomplished through a variety of marketing tactics such as news release distribution, pitching on-air interviews, influencer marketing, donations to charity, promotional discounts, special events, sponsorships, grassroots efforts, and more. A customer is more likely to buy from a brand they trust and admire, so increasing visibility through these avenues can prove to be very lucrative for businesses.

Furthermore, if you have a solid PR strategy in place it can help enhance your company’s search engine optimization (SEO). If you can get your brand mentioned in any sort of coverage—whether it be news coverage, articles, or other online content—you are associating important keywords with your brand.  Even better is if one of these outlets links your website as a reference in their content. Getting backlinks to your website is one of the most important ranking factors for search engines.  They signal to Google that another resource finds your content valuable enough to link to it within their own content, which will help rank your site higher in search queries than those of your competitors.

Adding a news page to your website where you can showcase positive news coverage is another way to add instant credibility to your brand.  By utilizing a great PR strategy, you can score coverage on a magazine or a local website, which will greatly elevate your SEO performance.

Unfortunately, almost every business will experience an emergency at some point. Part of public relations is effectively dealing with negative news and events related to your business. Whether it be large and devastating, or small and tedious, if not handled properly, crises can potentially jeopardize your business and irrevocably damage your brand’s reputation. While you may not be able to prevent a crisis, you can always be prepared to handle one with your PR strategy.

While creating a PR strategy for your business may seem like a daunting task, hiring a professional PR firm can help. Dion Marketing Company was named Top 5 Best Public Relations Agencies in Jacksonville. We can help maximize the success of your public relations efforts and help your business gain the media coverage it needs.  Learn more about our PR services here.