Public relations tactics are supposed to be cost-effective, but all too often, programs seem to come at a high price tag with questionable returns. This is often due to the fact that too many public relations functions are inefficient and too many programs are not targeted.
Creating a more productive public relations program, at any budget level, can be done by looking at how to deliver the biggest impact for the amount of time, effort and money you have. Here are several approaches every public relations department should be considering.
Increase the productivity of programs
The most basic step every department and professional should take is to see if they are saving time by focusing on results instead of planning. Often, this ratio falls too far on the side of planning. Staff members should commit to spending a certain number of hours every day focusing only on activities that deliver results. For example, try to avoid scheduling meetings in the morning and other times when contacts are more reachable. Instead, have everyone pitching and following up with journalists, analysts, conference planners and other influential people during those times. Then use the afternoons to figure out what outreach will be done the following day.
Next, look at the public relations programs in place and measure its impact on your public relations goals. If you're a consumer company, you may find that results and reputation impact are coming mainly from events at local malls and local media relations. A business-to-business company may find that speaking engagements and trade media efforts have the biggest payoff. Think about increasing efforts on the most effective programs.
Leverage current company marketing investments for PR purposes
Work with the marketing department to leverage current marketing investments into public relations opportunities. For example, marketing and PR can use advertising in publications (trade and certain soft-news consumer publications) to generate editorial material such as product placement, bylined articles and even features. Be sure to get to know the publication's guidelines and talk with the publisher to see what is and is not allowed. The same approach can be used in other areas, such as leveraging sponsorships to develop speaking opportunities.
Company memberships in trade associations can be a great source of cost-effective opportunities for business-to-business companies. Associations are highly concentrated gatherings of target audiences. Vendor membership often provides multiple communication opportunities, such as media relations through newsletters, speaking opportunities at events, leadership roles in working groups and direct mail through mailing lists. Make sure memberships are fully utilized to reach your target audience through these multiple touch points.
Use online public relations to increase traffic and deliver messages to target audiences
This is where too many companies still fall short. All public relations content, including press releases, should be both visible to search engines on the Web and should contain links to other relevant areas of the site. In addition, listing information releases on a blog-based site will allow the company to link to relevant blogs and allow the blogs to link back, leading to increased traffic. While the optimization can help bring the right visitor to the site, the internal links and design make sure they stay there and take action. For example, a product release should link to a product page, which then links to areas where the product can be purchased.
Using pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on search engines should also be considered. Today, consumers and executives often turn to search engines first when looking for information. By matching specific keywords to ads, companies can make sure key messages appear in ads when searches are conducted, and then lead the searcher back to the relevant PR information.
Also, stop thinking of press releases as information for media (which they often ignore) and start thinking of them as releases of information directly to the public, or information releases. Thanks to various online distribution tools, it is highly cost-effective to distribute releases directly to target audiences through services like PR Newswire or PR Web. These services will also help ensure that the release is indexed by search engines, news aggregrators (so people interested in relevant news topics will see the release pop up), and research databases. The cost of all of this? Depending on the size of the release, it can easily be less than US$1,000.
Measure the impact in all areas
As you implement these approaches, be sure to take before and after measurements. Showing an increase in results by raising the productivity of the PR team, leveraging marketing investments and raising online traffic will highlight the cost-effectiveness of public relations programs. Then don't be surprised if companies want to actually invest more to get an even larger return.
Ephraim Cohen is a partner at The Fortex Group, a business communication agency. He can be reached at +1 212.631.5823 or cohen@fortexgroup.com.
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