How to grow awareness for your business with PR
Growing brand awareness and driving sales is clearer than ever, argues PR specialist Simon Corbett from Jargon PR.
How do we take our brand and sales to the next level? It’s a question the head of marketing has often been asked. Today there is a dizzying array of tactics on offer from paid search, social media, trade shows and more.
Marketing today can be broadly placed in one of four groups – Paid, Earned, Shared or Owned – which should be seen as four overlapping circles.
PR sits at the heart of this and is there to inform, educate and engage your target audience with your brand, to drive interest, awareness and ultimately sales.
A PR strategy isn’t a ‘one size fits all approach’ and needs to be tailored to the long-term goals of your business, promoting key services, depositioning competitors and communicating key messages.
Establish yourself as an industry expert
Your business is often as much about you as it as about your product or service. By making yourself known to your audience, whether it’s end-customers or partners, awareness for your company will be raised as a result.
Being active on social media and commenting on news stories and relevant topics to your industry demonstrates that you’re aware of what is happening within your sector. By providing insight into such topics will show your audience you have a certain level of knowledge for your industry.
Comment and insight can also be provided in the form of a thought leadership article, which is a more in-depth insight into a particular topic. An article providing your opinion on a certain issue is a great way to be featured in key media and open up a conversation in the press. If you can establish yourself as an expert in your industry, potential clients and customers will inherently trust you more, making them more likely to choose your business over a competitor.
Promoting company news
Whether it’s a new product release, investment or recent partnership, your company’s announcements deserve to get noticed. Regular blogs for your company website are a great way to keep target customers updated and acknowledge recent achievements. Blogs are generally shorter than a full article, and one of the main benefits is that you have total control over the message you want to promote in the blog, as well as having a more informal tone.
Writing a press release to promote your announcement is also the perfect tool to get these accomplishments featured in the target press. However, writing the perfect press release which breaks through the noise to catch the attention of the media and your audience can be a difficult task. The key is to think about what your company’s goal is before crafting the press release and its key messages around this.
Award-winning business
To become a winner within your space, industry awards can showcase your recent achievements and put your business ahead of its competitors by showing it as the best within your sector.
Winning an award, or even being shortlisted, can boost credibility for your business showcasing the brand as an industry expert. An award showcases the value of a product, service or expertise an organisation can offer potential and existing customers. The interest and awareness generated can also be extremely beneficial to a company’s sales and marketing efforts.
If you have any questions about PR or want to discuss a tailored PR programme which can ensure you and your business can raise its profile, then get in touch with me on:
0118 9739370
