Most company owners approach a PR agency to help grow their business. To help amplify their brand among their customer market, build a reputation for being brilliant at what they do, and improve their visibility online.
The more you stand out and establish yourself as a reliable, credible business, the more likely you will be the customer’s obvious first choice when they’re ready to buy. But the customer isn’t always ready to buy at the times you’re communicating to them. That’s why a great public relations campaign is about building and nurturing those relationships at every stage of their buying journey, so when they are ready to make that purchase, your business is front of mind.
Before we take a deeper dive however into how PR specifically helps generate leads, let’s first define exactly what is PR? It’s about managing and maintaining a positive image and reputation for your business through great communications and storytelling. Highly effective PR campaigns are a multi-channel approach to reach customers at every touch point from traditional press, social media, blogs, multi-media (video, podcasts etc) to PR for SEO.
So how do we use these channels to generate leads?
1. Generates media coverage
Using the power of the traditional press (from print, online, blogs, to TV and radio) to endorse your company generates lots of brand kudos among customers. This boosts brand credibility, trust and reputation as well as tons of exposure, driving traffic to your website and generating interest around your products or services. Just think about the last time you brought something, especially of high value. Typically, you’d lean towards the brand you are most familiar with as it instils confidence in the product or service. This also tends to make price a secondary consideration, as people are often willing to pay more for the comfort of knowing the brand.
2. Boosts SEO
A great PR agency will also strive to secure backlinks on as many credible press and news online platforms as possible. These platforms will have good domain authority (DA), many will have excellent DAs such as Yahoo News and The Daily Express. Not only will being featured in these news sites suddenly elevate your brand’s reputation and awareness to another level, but the more backlinks pointing back to your website, especially from such credible sources, the better you’ll rank on any search engine, boosting your website’s authority and brand’s online visibility for customers to be able to find you, when they’re ready to buy.
3. Builds relationships with customers and influencers
Effective PR campaigns use the power of the media, from social to traditional to visual and audio media, to connect with customers and influencers and to then nurture and build these relationships. PR is something that needs to be consistently maintained over time, not something that can be switched on and off. As with all great relationships, they take time to build, establishing trust between parties. You need to stay in touch and keep communicating to keep those bonds strong. It’s the same in PR. The power of social media means you can own and manage your own channels to stay connected and keep engaging with your customers and influencers to stay front of mind, and reminding them of ways to get in touch. While press coverage is evergreen, meaning you’re constantly visible in places your customers trust for insight and recommendations. So, whether your customer is in the consideration phase or ready to buy, your brand is the one that springs to mind.
4. Content for every stage of the customer journey
A great PR campaign will also incorporate various forms of content that meet customers’ needs at every stage of their buying journey. This is especially important for high value purchases or services, which needs more consideration or involves various parties in the buying process. From blogs with tips and tricks, white papers for insight and advice, social posts promoting podcasts and webinars, and press coverage announcing new products and services. All these forms of content will be directing people back to a source where either they can gather more advice, download additional information or get in touch, depending on where they are on their journey.
For any business looking to grow, content is king and this is where PR rules, ensuring that your brand is not only visible but rightly perceived as the industry authority. It’s not just about creating awareness – anyone can build awareness in today’s digital age – it’s also about building reputation and credibility which instils trust in your brand as the ‘chosen one’ to work with, all while leading people back to ways to find out more. So, if you’re looking for more customers and PR isn’t already part of your marketing strategy then now is the time to start or get in touch with us at HeadOn PR to find out more.
Get in touch with us at HeadOn PR to find out how we can support your business. Email hello@headonpr.co.uk or give us a call +44 (0) 1242 335246.
