The global pandemic has had a major impact on the UK economy, with a lot of industries being forced to close for several months during the peak of the outbreak. The retail, hospitality, leisure and tourism industries have been significantly affected. We have also seen a major shift in consumer spending habits with more people buying online and less people shopping on the High Street.
As we ease out of lockdown, a lot of companies are now looking at how they can market their business to boost sales to help them get back on track and recover from the economic effects of the global pandemic.
PR is a vital tool for promoting your business to create brand awareness and raise your company profile. It is essential that your customers know that you are still here and open for business. With a lot of companies being forced to shut temporarily, whilst other companies operate at a limited capacity due to staff being furloughed or choose to remain closed, it is vital that you create a major buzz to let your customers know that you are ready for business. PR can help you communicate these key messages in a targeted way.
What are the main benefits of PR?
Credibility
When a consumer sees editorial coverage of a product or service it has a much stronger impact than a traditional advert. Generally, consumers view editorial coverage as an independent and objective evaluation of your company. Editorial coverage has much more credibility and is trusted, as opposed to running an advertisement with a strong sales message. When a journalist recommends a product or service in an editorial feature, consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on the editorial recommendation rather than an advertisement.
Generates Brand Awareness
PR is an effective tool to get your brand name, product or service in front of your target customers. Editorial coverage helps potential customers understand what you do and why they should choose you from a credible trusted third-party source.
Stand Out From The Competition
PR creates an identity that can help you stand out from your competitors. PR gives you the opportunity for you to tell your own unique brand story. Press coverage achieved via PR can also help you to develop a ‘voice’ and gives you the opportunity to position yourself as an expert or a leading authority in your industry.
Audience Reach
The sky is the limit when it comes to PR reach. A strong editorial placement, whether it is in a national newspaper, consumer magazine, regional publication, trade publication, online e-zine or blog can put your brand or company in front of a huge audience.
Enhanced SEO
In today’s digital age, generating natural links from trusted and respected websites is one of the most important ranking factors for search engines. Gaining press coverage online via Digital PR online can significantly enhance your SEO performance, provide brand recognition on trusted third-party websites and improve your visibility online. As your brand is mentioned more regularly online, more people will start to visit your website.
Online Reviews
The chances are the last time a consumer made a purchase they used an online search engine, such as Google to undertake some research, whether it was a price comparison or an online review. PR can help you capitalise on this process, by generating press coverage and positive online reviews from trusted third-party websites. This will drive traffic to your website, increasing the number of website hits and page views, as well as improving your Google ranking if the articles include direct links to your website.
Lead Generation
Good press coverage may lead to a rise in traffic on your website, which may convert into sales. You may also see an increase in the number of social media followers, as more people read about your brand. Online press coverage achieved via Digital PR may include a direct link to your website, which may benefit your SEO strategy and encourage users to click on the direct link in the article to visit your website.
Targeted PR Campaigns
PR allows you to create targeted PR Campaigns that are specific to your target audience. For example, if your target market is consumers that buy vegan beauty products, you and your PR Company can create a specific Beauty PR campaign that targets vegan publications and journalists that cover vegan beauty products, as well as targeting vegan beauty bloggers and social media influencers. You can also undertake collaborations with key experts, link with industry organisations, attend vegan beauty related events, as well as creating relevant, authoritative and engaging vegan blog posts to support your SEO strategy and drive traffic to your website.
Reputation Management
One of the major benefits of PR is being able to manage a crisis situation and resolve complicated issues that may have a major impact on your company or brand reputation. In times of crisis, most PR Agencies will have a PR professional that will act as your Media Spokesperson who can liaise with the media and issue a press statement on your behalf.
Cost Effectiveness
Public Relations can be much more cost effective than traditional paid for advertising. Advertising is known as ‘paid media’, whilst Public Relations is known as ‘earned media’. Media coverage achieved through PR is likely to be more extensive than that which you would achieve through advertising. In addition, one good piece of editorial coverage can lead to an uplift in sales. Many small businesses have a unique and newsworthy story to tell, which are generally of interest to the media.
Conclusion
PR is a powerful tool to promote your business, it can boost awareness and enhance your credibility to help you stand out from your competitors and drive sales. PR provides a cost-effective method to reach your target audience to communicate your own unique brand story. Gaining press coverage via PR online can significantly enhance your SEO performance, provide brand recognition on trusted third-party websites and improve your visibility online.
How can we help support your business?
If you are interested in seeing how PR can benefit your business, please get in touch with our experienced team at Peak Results PR & Marketing, where we can have an informal chat to discuss your PR and Marketing needs.
We are a Sheffield PR Agency that specialises in Public Relations, Digital and Content Marketing for SME’s and global brands in the beauty, leisure, lifestyle, retail consumer, manufacturing and corporate sectors. We listen to our client’s needs to develop bespoke integrated PR & Marketing campaigns across digital and print to meet their business objectives, within a range of budgets. We provide a ‘hands on’ approach and only work with a select number of clients to ensure we give you our full attention at a senior level and provide a valuable service. We are flexible to your requirements and can work on a monthly retainer, project basis or daily rate to provide PR support.
For more information about our PR Services, please visit: https://www.peakresultspr.co.uk/