5 routine business activities that you could be using as a PR opportunity

 I’ve picked out 5 here but there are many more. The idea of this article is to encourage you to think about all the things that you and your company do on a routine basis that could form the backbone of an external press release. Issuing regular press releases (we advise our clients to plan one every 4-6 weeks) increases awareness, provides good digital content, drives traffic to your website and generally, helps keep you firmly in the eye of your target audience. We often find that our clients don’t realise how a quality news story can be born from what to them, is every-day activity.

1: Contracts awarded or orders won

This is an obvious major news item for any company but announcing success can often be overlooked in the excitement of winning an order and then realising you’ve got to deliver it! As well as the major wins, we also advise our clients to announce key milestones in the bidding process for example; being down-selected in a PQQ, submitting a major bid or forming a team in order to bid. A press release hooked on the back of such a milestone is a great way to promulgate your key messages that support the bidding activity, at an important time.

2: New product or service news

we often see fantastic new products or services emerging in companies yet the important part of telling the world all about them has been overlooked. A coordinated product launch (use some stage management and timing) is a really good thing to be issuing a press release about. We advise our clients to synchronise the announcement of their new product or service development with major exhibitions. If it’s a big one, consider running your own by invitation, media-only product launch event too. It doesn’t have to be a shiny new product to be news-worthy either, an incremental improvement, for example, is also something you should be telling the world about, using your PR agent to best effect.

3: Investments made

We all know that success breeds success. A successful company that is overtly investing in new facilities, products or services is more attractive to potential customers. Investment news tells everyone that you’re on the up and it is an interesting story for most publications. We find that regional media particularly like investment news as it is often linked to job opportunities. If you’re doing something new, tell everyone about it. Be proud and consider organising a formal opening ceremony to use as a hook to get your news out there.

4: Staff recruited

We often use this one as a “gap-filler” when other business news is a bit sparse but key recruitments are another opportunity to increase awareness and drive traffic back to your website. Anything that involves “people” is easy for the recipient to associate with so recruitment news is normally well-received and generates good traffic as a result. If you’re hiring new staff, you’re also (normally) doing well so it’s a positive news story in that regard. 

5: Exhibitions attended

We issue a press release the week before every major event that our clients are exhibiting at. It gets your event news out there in advance and allow journalists to plan their time at the show to include a visit to your stand to learn all about the new products and services on offer (see point 2 above). At Chamois we follow up our pre-event press releases with personal calls to key media to book appointments at the event the following week. We are also there on the ground to generate further interest and to handle media enquiries.

Finally

There are a few examples here but there are lots more news stories that can be used as “hooks” to tell the world what you’re doing and remind everyone of who you are and what you have to offer. At Chamois we plan the news together with our clients in advance to ensure there is a positive, regular flow and then we constantly question them to ensure nothing is missed in terms of an additional PR opportunity. We also provide a hands-off drafting and issuing service, multi-channel, to an extensive and tailored media list.

If you think you could benefit from having a proactive PR agent on account then please do give us a call. www.chamois-consulting.com