Should you be doing PR for your brand?

We don’t consider ourselves to be a PR agency, but we’ve been speaking with clients about PR a LOT over the last few months. Why?! Who knows! But I think that PR has been ramped up by many brands now and during this uncertain time, many are left thinking – do we also need PR?

For those of who are already thinking… wait – I thought Complex Creative?was?a PR agency! Or, they saw “full-service” creative and thought… surely PR comes under “full-service”. Well, maybe you’re right, but do check out our article on?PR v digital marketing?so you can first of all check out the differences.

So, what exactly is PR?

This was covered in the article above, but let’s pretend you didn’t read that, and we will cover it briefly here. PR stands for?public relations?and is all about putting your business in a positive light. So, this could be a whole load of different things – media relations, investor relations, customer relations or even government relations!

To most people, PR is all about getting featured in a magazine, or the TV/radio. These things are not easy to do and you will need a good PR agency to help you with this. And guess what… it won’t be cheap!

So, we’re here to discuss?digital PR, as that’s what we’re helping our clients with at the moment.?

What does digital PR include?

Unsurprisingly, there’s going to be huge crossover between digital PR and digital marketing, as a lot of digital PR is trying to get backlinks to your website. Therefore, this will?boost your SEO.??

Common examples of digital PR include:

Press Releases:?whether this is journalists writing about your brand in a news outlet or your own submissions to a news outlet, your brand will get mentioned in publications that get seen by thousands. Traditional PR will see these in magazines and newspapers, but there are now plenty of online news outlets which announce stories on a daily basis. These track back to your website, reach thousands of people and help increase brand awareness.?

Influencer Marketing:?many will consider this to be a form of digital marketing, but having a positive review about your brand on someone else’s profile/website is definitely PR. You pay influencers, just like you’d pay a TV channel to feature your brand, so it’s still PR!

Podcasts:?A hugely trendy form of PR is now podcasts.?There are now over 2.4 million podcasts, which means getting featured on one shouldn’t be too hard. We recommend finding one that has the same target audience as your brand and get an interview.?

In fact, we even have a podcast episode with Jo Caruana , founder of PR Agency Finesse Group , where she discusses how to put yourself out there with PR. The short snippet is below, but the full episode can be found on the YouTube Channel for N0BS Podcasts

If you’re looking to start your own podcast, then you can check out Sabrina Chevannes’?article on Entrepreneur.com about How to start a podcast on a budget, which was released for International Podcast Day!

So, should I being doing PR for my own brand?

This will depend on your size and your journey, but since PR now doesn’t need to have massive budgets, it’s something you should look into much earlier in your business journey.?

You may want to rule out getting out a TV ad or trying to feature on the cover of magazines, but you can start thinking about a digital PR strategy.?

If you already have a marketing agency in place, they can also help you with your PR strategy, as there is definitely some crossover.?

While you’re managing your social media profiles, have a look which influencers could help you promote your brand. Or perhaps when doing SEO and thinking about backlinks, think about which online news outlets may be a good fit for the brand too.?

Podcasts are super popular now, but you can jump on as a guest to multiple podcasts without it being too much stress. You won’t need to worry about any editing – just give up an hour of your time to record the episode. Then, use their video/audio assets to promote on your own social profiles so you have marketing content too.?

Digital marketing agencies these days?should?be looking at PR ideas if they want to be fully effective.?

What about personal branding/PR for owners?

The problem with digital marketing is that there is almost no end to it. You can keep going and going, finding ways to promote a brand.?

These days, customers are very much interested in who is behind the brand and that is why personal branding has become such a big deal. Sabrina also touches on this in?her article on Entrepreneur about how to stay authentic when branding.

The fact of the matter is, it cannot hurt if you are also promoting the leader of the business. If they have a positive online reputation, then so will the brand. But this is additional work and it takes time. But business owners can start to think about how they are showing up online – are they posting things that reflect their company well? Are they sharing thought leadership posts in their network?

If someone Googled their name, would they be happy with what they saw? If the answer is no, then some personal branding and personal PR may be required.?

At the end of the day, any positive press is going to be good; it’s just whether you think it’s worth putting the effort in for it.?