PR – or to give it its Sunday name, Public Relations – might just be the best trick you can pull out of the hat when marketing your business.
By its very definition, PR is the key tool which can help you build a more personable rapport with your stakeholders – whether that’s clients, investors or the local media.
It’s all about relations, or relationships, after all.
It’s one thing that – aside from the price you pay in terms of time and research, or if you employ a consultancy to do it for you – can’t be bought.
Good PR is about engaging with your audience and spreading the good word about your business, no matter how large or small.
In short, PR is for everyone.
Unlike direct mail, email campaigns and advertising, PR can help you build your business’s image, maintain its good reputation and speak volumes about the values of your company.
It’s more personable than other forms of marketing as it’s not about the hard sell.
PR, essentially, helps you manage your firm’s reputation and can influence the way stakeholders perceive what you do.
PR is very much a steady, organic approach to growing your business and, while it won’t raise your bottom line immediately, its effects will last the test of time.
It’s, by far, a more clever approach than some of the more aggressive forms of marketing and works via a drip-by-drip effect to endorse your business.
Its benefits can’t be appreciated overnight but it’s certainly a tangible long-term tool to utilise if you want your business to grow organically into a future-proof brand.
Lynda Hamilton Parker 