The Public Relations Blog

Learn the true benefits of PR for saving money and increasing profits

Super Bowl ads cost an astonishing $4 million for a 30-second spot. All that, and you still have to hope that most of your target audience isn’t using the bathroom when the commercial airs.

For a lot less money, you could hire a good PR firm to analyze customer behavior, help build relationships with customers and get your message to your target audiences throughout the entire year. When you learn all the true benefits of PR over advertising, you may find that you can use it to better maximize your budget and increase both customer engagement and brand recognition for your company.

Historically, headline-seeking journalists have struggled with reaching live spokespersons for interviews and with extracting necessary facts from press releases shared in newsrooms. Happily, though, times have changed, spurred on by the burgeoning digital realm and the creation of the online newsroom.

Big and small businesses alike can turn website real estate into useful bits and bytes for the press. Downloadable videos, news releases, photographs/executive headshots, biographies, movie trailers, application reviews and the like appear with ease online for immediate viewing and download. It is this website subsection that we refer to as the online newsroom.

If you ignore the gay market, you may be doing so at your company’s peril

There once was a time when companies didn’t go out of their way to attract African Americans or teenagers. To ignore these markets today seems almost unthinkable.

Today, some companies have come under fire for creating policies and crafting campaigns that appear hostile to the gay community. Now more than ever, it’s crucial to ensure that your messages are inclusive and that the gay market feels welcome doing business with your company. You can adopt these strategies immediately to make sure you’re not unknowingly excluding any prospective gay customers.

Learn how AP style relates to your company’s success

You want to give your CEO recognition by citing his title every time his name is mentioned in an article or press release but your PR advisor nixes it. Her only reason: “It’s not AP style.” If you aren’t a journalist or PR professional, most likely you have no idea what AP style is or why it has the power to stop you from writing as you please.

PR can help you give journalists what they want

Press releases are a necessity. Without them, the only way to get the media interested in covering your company would be for you to walk into a newsroom and scream at the top of your voice for someone to listen to you.

Many companies know the value of a press release but still get it wrong and wind up not getting coverage. To be more effective and get results, let PR show you what you can do to make your information more appealing.

By Jason Mudd, APR

One key phrase oft repeated inside newsrooms is “If it bleeds, it leads.”

To those outside the communications profession, that may sound utterly offensive, but realistically, news editors, writers, journalists and programming directors know that when it comes to news, people listen and watch more intently when it’s negative. In fact, bad news far outweighs good news by as much as 17 negative news stories for every one positive one. Scholars have studied the psychology behind this, too. The human brain evolved in a hunter-gatherer environment where dramatic events required immediate attention for the sake of survival, and we still care (worry/fear) more about the threat of bad things affecting us than hearing about good things. When the news is negative, people take notice.

Use PR to improve your media relations strategies

Many companies spend countless hours crafting press releases, only to have them thoroughly rejected by the media. If only you could know what journalists want and how to capture their attention to get news coverage for your company.

At a recent Public Relations Society of America conference, in a panel discussion that Nasdaq Corporate Solutions hosted, several journalists were on hand to explain exactly what they want to see in news releases and pitches. By following this advice, you can increase your chances of acquiring positive media coverage.

Use PR to answer your most pressing media relations inquiries

The subject of media relations can get confusing. Who receives news coverage and who doesn’t is often the subject of endless debate. Use PR to help make it all easier to understand.

Why won’t the media cover my company?

You have to put yourself in the journalists’ shoes. While you’re asking why they won’t cover your company, they’re asking, “What’s in it for me?” Your press release or pitch must answer that question.

Learn what they really think about your press releases

Have you ever wondered what happens to your press release after you send it off? Those who attended Axia Public Relations’ latest webinar, “Confessions of CNN Producers,” learned what the journalists and producers at this media giant really think about the information they receive. You can access a recording of the event here.

Getting your company on CNN may be difficult, competitive and challenging, but it is absolutely possible. You just have to know why many pitches fail and avoid making those same mistakes.

Take a minute to think about the best stories you’ve heard in your life – the ones that made you laugh out loud, brought tears to your eyes or elicited a happy sigh after reaching the end. What is it about storytelling that evokes these emotional responses and causes us to remember them for years on end? I know I can recall details of family trips, Grandma’s famous recipes and Grandpa’s scariest yarns. Storytelling utilizes a specific formula to entice us to pay closer attention, and the stories that make the deepest impact are the ones that resonate most personally with each of us.