Completing the PR Puzzle – How Smart Advertising Leads to Next Level PR
If you follow the Caster blog, you should already know how important a good PR strategy is to your brand’s success. If not, let me give you a quick rundown on why PR matters. Public Relations is all about communicating the right messages about your brand to the right people (potential and existing customers, business partners, etc.) in order to build your brand’s visibility and credibility, which will ideally lead to increased leads, sales, and profits.
Allocating a healthy budget for PR and working with a solid PR agency with the right relationships and tactics – insert Caster Communications plug here – are all major keys to your brand’s success. However, there is one more important piece of the puzzle that many companies do not consider, and it’s one that will take your brand’s PR strategy to the next level.
Support the publications that support your brand and brand identity
That’s right. Even if your PR agency has solid relationships with the right media and has become a go-to resource for them when writing articles, quotes, product reviews, brand mentions etc. – which by the way, they should be – there are only so many articles, quotes, product reviews, and mentions a single publication can give to a single brand in any given year. And, that number is even less when there aren’t any marketing dollars to support them. Hear me out…
I am not for a second suggesting your brand should pay to play because that doesn’t make for good, honest journalism. But consider this… there has been a substantial decrease in media and media outlets over the past handful of years. And why do you think that is? Journalists need to get paid, and media outlets depend on their advertisers to fund the overall machine – including writer salaries. And when there aren’t enough dollars coming in, publications are forced to reduce budgets for research and resources, or worse, cut staff and fold all together. If there are less paid journalists writing for less publications overall, that equals fewer opportunities for your brand to be written about – especially well-researched, unique, and meaningful stories.
It’s simple. Good journalism depends on solid brand support.
So, to help keep good journalism alive, and to ensure your brand gets the love it deserves, not to mention the quantity of well-written stories that actually move the needle, do what we repeatedly tell all of our clients to do; don’t just prioritize PR, prioritize having a smart advertising plan and budget to support your PR goals. Not only is it another laneway to drive brand awareness and relevant messaging, but it will also take your PR to the next level. I promise.
Have questions or advice to offer on your PR strategy? Hit me up on Twitter at @erinmktgpr.
