The Public Relations Blog

A great proposal starts with a great RFP

Public relations is critical to the success of a company. Your company’s unique needs are important, and finding a partner provider who can solve your problems is critical. A strong, clear request for proposals is the best way to help providers propose creative, relevant, and cost effective business solutions for you.

The PR Council offers a free RFP guide to help your company build an RFP that brings you proposals. These proposals work to solve your business challenges, not create more problems and a complicated process. We think it’s a good resource, and we wanted to share it with you here. Before you submit a Request for Proposals, make sure you're working with a proper PR agency. 

Why is being included in a news story so important for companies?

One reason is because positive news coverage improves your company’s reputation. Another is news stories about your company put it at the forefront of prospective customers’ minds.

As consumers are inundated with options, many may not know about your company and its offerings until they see your company included in a story as a thought leader.

So how do home service companies like plumbers, A/C repair companies, flooring, electricians, pool service providers, home warranty companies, and more get in the news?

There’s no time like the present to grow your company’s outreach

Did you know that positive news coverage helps to improve your construction company’s reputation? It also helps to place your company at the forefront of many of your prospective customers’ minds.

Far too often, customers don’t know which company to turn to when they have a construction need because all of them seem the same. Luckily, earned media coverage assists in creating a thought leader and puts your company at the forefront of people’s minds when they need to make a building and construction decision. 

Say you’ve tried to get your company in the news, such as print, online, or broadcast coverage, without luck. We’re here to help!

The year 2020 started with a focus on the latest public relations trends. Niche targeting, live streaming, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Big Data integrations generated the most buzz, and they continue to do so. Although they haven’t faded in the background, the focus on how to use them has drastically shifted.

Brands have started to actively market to a niche audience through influencers, self-publishing platforms, social media, and informative content. The top players from brands have started to use live streaming to get in front of the audience. 

Artificial Intelligence and big data have become the go-to source for brands to monitor social media platforms, predict consumer needs, and develop targeted content based on causes impacting their audience. Handling it all from behind the curtain is an experienced public relations agency. 

Public relations agencies are well-aware of the changing times and have doubled down on their efforts to point brands in the right direction. We want to highlight how PR has changed in 2020 and what to do about it.

Sending a perfect media pitch can feel like a balancing act. Structure and timing are everything. To avoid becoming a mere drop in an ocean of emails, here are nine media pitching tips directly from journalists, according to PR software Muck Rack’s research.

SERP is a buzzword used in the digital marketing space. Do you know what it means?

Search Engine Results Page is the web page rendered by search engines like Google to the searchers with a list of relevant URLs answering their search queries.

The search engine algorithm walks through millions of websites to generate the SERP with best-matching results. The idea is to present search results that are in close sync with the user’s search intent.

Every search engine has a unique algorithm and displays two primary types of search results on the SERP.

Do advertising firms have the focus on PR you need?

A while ago, I was talking with a public relations agent working in an advertising agency. During our conversation, she discussed her experiences, which stuck out to me. 

Work smarter, not harder, to let prospective customers know about your company

News media coverage is important for companies, especially for franchises.

Franchises rely on the local community in which they reside to see success, and positive news media coverage helps to build a franchisor’s brand and improve the specific franchisee’s reputation. News media coverage also places your business at the forefront of prospective customers’ minds. Media coverage that includes the parent franchise also helps to bring awareness to the brand for those looking for franchise opportunities, especially in local areas where your franchise doesn’t have a footprint.

If you are a franchisor or franchisee, you may now be asking yourself how you get your franchise in the news.

This is one story in our series about COVID-19. Read 8 ways your PR agency can assist you during COVID-19 for more.

The business landscape, disrupted by COVID-19, has transformed almost overnight and triggered talks of recession. As many companies look to reduce spending, keep in mind that increasing (or maintaining) your marketing and public relations spend during a recession can result in long-term gains. No marketing strategy would be complete without PR, and especially during economic contractions, so PR must be an integral part of that plan. 

Although it may be tempting to hit pause on your PR program due to the economy, now is not the time. It’s time to be even more strategic. Speed is the most important commodity in times of crisis. Don’t wait and risk missing the opportunity. 

Explore the benefits of an outside PR agency versus managing an in-house PR department

Admit it. At some point over the years, you’ve received a proposal from a public relations agency and thought, “I can hire someone in-house for that!”

And even if you didn’t think that, someone else in your organization did. I often find this to be the case among junior level staff or even senior staff who don’t have access to the full operating costs of a company. In which case, it’s important to understand the true costs of employment and the value of outsourcing.