If you’re weighing up where to spend your 2019 marketing budget and haven’t previously included PR as part of your strategy, the new financial year is a great opportunity to add it to the mix.
In an ideal world, your marketing activity should include a combination of promotional tools and techniques spanning a range of digital and print platforms. In other words, don’t put all your eggs in one basket by relying solely on one platform (e.g. digital) or marketing method. While social media is great (and relatively cheap, except for the drain on your time), not everyone is a fan – especially if you operate in the health and wellness market.
Ideally, you want to cover all bases and plan your marketing activity across a range of mediums, to include elements of online and traditional advertising, content marketing (e.g blogging), social media promotion, special offers and PR. The variables are endless but you should definitely include PR. Here are just a few of the reasons why…
What PR can do for your business:
- Raise awareness of what you do
- Build brand loyalty
- Reinforce a customer’s decision to use your product or services as the right one
- Give you extensive media coverage
- Raise your company’s profile in the local area
- Maintain relationships with key stakeholders, including your clients
- Resolve issues quickly and with minimal damage to your business
- Educate your publics (in other words, your audience) on local issues, best practice and the options available to them
- Drum up support for a particular cause or campaign
- Manage customer queries and complaints in a positive way
- Communicate effectively with your stakeholders in the event of a crisis
- Reach very large audiences easily and at minimal cost
- Boost your company’s image over your competitors
- Increase your online presence and search engine visibility
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg but PR is a very credible way to get your message across to multiple audiences at the same time and, of course, can span both print and digital platforms.
In short, a positive news story can speak volumes about what’s at the heart of your business in ways many other marketing methods can’t.
Lynda Hamilton Parker 