Coverage in the media will shape the
way your customers perceive you. Whether you’re a brand new company, or launching a new product, or you’re an
established player trying to challenge the monopoly of market leaders, media endorsement can make or break your business.
Whether you receive TV coverage or
column inches in a trade paper, the neutral, independent sanction of the press is far more powerful than the most emphatic
word of mouth recommendation.
Whilst advertising allows you to shape your own
message and gives you complete control over the way your brand is positioned. There is no doubt that when it comes down to
editorial you’re in the hands of the media.
PR professionals can ensure that your company and
its messages are communicated to the media in the most effective way, ensuring not only that the journalist covers you, but
also that the coverage reflects you in the best possible light.
PR is the most cost-effective marketing
vehicle
PR is a far more cost-effective tool than advertising,
database development and e-marketing through brokered lists. Yet PR support is available to you at a fraction of the spend
of traditional above-the-line communications. One positive endorsement in a high circulation – or highly targeted –
media title often produces a spike in traffic to your website or call centre. If you’re a trade operation, positive
coverage can stimulate direct enquiries, and will make your business targets more responsive to your sales and marketing campaigns.
PR is vital to online search
(SEO)
PR is now one of the most effective
weapons in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) or “natural search”, on search engines, and is proving to be one of
the most effective weapons in helping companies command the highest possible rankings.
Take up of your press announcements
by wires and websites creates online coverage which in turn quickly gets picked up by the search engines. This in turn will
see your business be ‘discovered’ by people using search engines in ways you would never previously have
imagined, because of the sheer weight of search terms that produce a result which points to your site.
For this reason, online PR is now becoming
a key element within PR companies’ strategies.
