The importance of PR from an ex-PR consultant — Review
By: Ayesha Rahman
Tags: Growth Mindset, Cxl Institute, Growth Marketing, Public Relations, Growth Hacking

Continuing on CXL Institute’s Growth Marketing course, I’m still in the subject of learning the various marketing channel options that are available for companies to explore. In this week’s article, I’ll delve into a channel that I’m highly well versed in — public relations (PR).

Disclaimer — these insights are purely my own and may be slightly outdated given that I left the PR world in October 2018.

What the heck is PR anyways?

I had a lot of people ask me this exact question and to be frank, for many years, I didn’t quite know how to answer it. It’s an entire spectrum of marketing work that people don’t necessarily understand nor see the value in, but it really is an investment that reaps in long term benefits when used right. The mainstream definition is that PR is a strategic communication process that helps to build and maintain a positive public image of a company in order to increase brand awareness. The vehicle is predominantly through media — be it television programs, newspapers or online publications. For me, PR is harnessing the power of authentic storytelling in order to craft a narrative that’s relevant to your target audience. This helps to build a company’s brand image and subsequently, brand equity with all stakeholders be it the media, customers, investors and even your own company.

Is PR the same as advertising?

Definitely not. Unlike advertising which tells stories through paid methods, PR does so through unpaid or unearned media. This essentially means that the news you put out as a company needs to be enticing enough for media to feel compelled to run it at risk of missing out on the bandwagon should they fail to report said news. In millennial terms, it means to create compelling stories that would make media feel #FOMO for not reporting it.

Why do PR in the first place?

Build trust and credibility — Being featured by stakeholders is just about the best kind of endorsement your company can receive. Nothing builds confidence among your target audience better than them seeing your name plastered across media publications that they regularly come across. Boosts brand visibility — The more frequently your company is seen, spoken about or both, the higher the chances of consumers being able to recognise your brand. This does wonders for your brand equity. Creates meaningful long-term relationships — The most important reason to embark on publicity activities is to create meaningful relationships with your stakeholders. Your company would be nothing without the buy in of your stakeholders, so PR is often used as a communication vehicle to acknowledge their support and make known your good intentions.

Is there such a thing as bad publicity?

You may have heard the saying “all publicity is good publicity” or “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” but contrary to that, I beg to differ. Seeing as PR is used to foster a positive brand image, negative publicity would naturally inhibit this objective. Just because people are talking about you, doesn’t always mean its with good intentions. Take for example Toyota who had to recall 3.37 million vehicles over two defects back in 2016. This led to a decrease in sales by nearly 10% which opened the doors for its competitors to make huge sales. Not only did their revenue get slashed, it also discredited Toyota’s credibility of their products and dampened relationships with previous Toyota loyalists who lost confidence in the brand. So yes, there is such thing as bad publicity.

What exactly does the PR process entail?

The first starting point is constructing a strategic plan for your communications campaign. It’s important to analyse the problem, uncover hidden or missed opportunities and put together a strategic and tactical plan to address the problem in order to capitalise on the opportunities. This involves research to gather information that’s most relevant to your unique business challenge. Researched is then used to better understand the situation and help formulate effective strategies. Research can be done in a variety of ways including running surveys and gathering testimonials.

Once the planning phase is done, it’s time to develop your key communication objectives and strategies. Bear in mind that communication versus sales versus digital marketing objectives and strategies all differ. The primary objective of PR is to generate talk-ability and build brand awareness. This needs to be made very clear to all potential clients so as to manage their expectations on the expected outcomes. With clear objectives and strategies in mind, you can then plan out the more tactical applications. One way you can approach how you can draw out your communications story is to draw out a messaging house which is an exercise that helps you curate your key messages. This is to ensure that the right message gets delivered to the right audience. This can be done using a messaging house exercise which covers three main areas:

Brand statement / umbrella message — This is the top of house message that aligns the content to your core business objectives and company vision. Key messages — This is the core message building blocks that aims to profile the target audience, build your target persona and create relevant messages to your respective target audience. Evidence/proof points/support — This is to validate your key messages to double as proof points to your key messages.

Once the messaging has been drawn out and tactical strategies have been determined, it’s time to implement the strategies. The implementation phase involves selecting communication tools that can contribute towards reaching the communication objectives. PR tools range from press interviews, press release dissemination, influencer engagement, executing a media event and so on. The tools you choose to utilise is highly dependant on the type of business you’re in as different industries have different environments.

Upon implementation, the most important and crucial step is to measure the outcome of the strategies you put in place. This can then serve as a bench mark and point of comparison against other PR campaigns and marketing-related activities.

So should I invest in PR?

Absolutely. These days, there are many options for companies to consider enlisting help with their PR activities including freelance PR consultants, platforms like Fiverr and entry-level PR executives. Early and mid stage startups don’t necessarily need an agency as the process is cumbersome and expensive which startups don’t have the resources for.

Case Study: Ice Bucket Challenge

If you haven’t come across this challenge before, it was a viral social media campaign in order raise awareness for a little known charity which propelled to global fame with just one campaign. The activity involves pouring a bucket of ice water over a person’s head, either by another person or self-administered to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) which is also know as motor neurone / Lour Gehrig’s disease. The campaign was seeding out via social media platforms including Instagram. It raised millions in funds and gained celebrity backers including the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. More than 1.2 million videos were shared and the event was even mentioned more than 2.2 million times on Twitter in the span of slightly over two weeks.

There’s so much more to unearth regarding the wonderments of PR. I’ve only just scratched the surface of what PR is and the power it holds. If you’re keen to know more, drop me an email at farahnabilaayesha@gmail.com.