When your in-house marketing team hears you’re thinking about bringing on a public relations agency, odds are they will be a bit nervous or potentially miffed. Even if they know that wider outreach and media relations are critical to your brand’s growth and public image, knowing your moving from a DIY to a professional PR approach can make marketing pros feel as if they are now having to bow down to a foreign company that doesn’t know the company and its brand like they do. 

This is entirely understandable. And, the truth remains that brands experience greater recognition, growth, and exposure when public relations and marketing teams work together. Helping your marketing team to understand this will be a symbiotic relationship and finding a PR agency that is compassionate and works in collaboration with your marketing team is key to the process. 

In a SpinSucks article about the importance of collaborative public relations and marketing efforts, author Jessica Canfield writes, “…[PR and marketing teams] share similar goals of building the brand and engaging audiences. And their complementary skills allow them to collaborate on rich, engaging content that drives results.” 

So, while they probably shouldn’t share an office, it is essential that they work together to achieve their overarching goals. 

Marketing Data Is Essential To Your Public Relations Efforts 

While this is not necessarily the priority for the PR team, we think appealing to the marketing team’s prowess is a smart way to go about the transition. If they have done a great job at tracking benchmarks, data, and analytics, they have already done so much to help the incoming PR team.  

A few years back, The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) co-hosted a Measurement Week in NYC where attendees listened to multiple industry leaders speak about how integral marketing professionals and their statistics are to the PR cause when it comes to measuring the results of our efforts. 

These statistics are invaluable for looking at where you are, helping your PR team to shape where you want to go or what you’d like to change, and then working together to get there. As the PR professionals work to generate new promotional outlets, reframe your story (if necessary), and to gain more media attention, your marketing team will be helping to share, promote, and celebrate the increased audience and will have the data to reflect whether or not “it is working.” 

Public relations professionals need to know: 

• Are they working? 
• Where they are working? 
• Which target audiences respond to, engage with, or share certain stories, events, or launches. 

Without your marketing team’s hard work and metric data to analyze, we would be firing blind. So, first and foremost, your marketing team should always feel essential to the PR cause. 

Engage with audience members across “the right” social media channels 

In a TrendKite article, PR and tech expert Lacy Miller wrote, “PR will always be about brand reputation and storytelling but that does not mean the technical aspects of the practice can be ignored,” emphasizing that public relations agencies will increasingly rely on marketing automation, social listening, SEO, measurement and PR tools throughout all campaigns.”  

This is a good segue from our former point about analytics because successful analytics rely on knowing which social media channels or platforms are the most useful at any particular moment and for specific campaigns and goals. 

A large majority of public relations professionals have a love of marketing and promotion but it is viewed through the lens of journalism and media. We are media relations whizzes, and we can amplify your story through our experience-driven connections. Your marketing team has similar “connections” in the technology world in the sense they typically have their fingers on the pulse of the most happening social media platforms of the moment. They also have a data-based awareness of where particular target audience members spend the most time. 

As we work to create different pitches and angles to frame your story – selling it to new prospects and building loyalty within your existing customer base – we rely heavily on your marketing team’s inside-scoop about which channels are the most active, which ones feel best for starting a particular conversation, the best voice or tone to use in the media, etc.  

Create a streamlined, value-driven content marketing strategy

Sure, some people sit down to watch the evening news, but most rely on their personal networks and the content-driven, 24-hours news feed to remain informed. Thus, traditional PR pitches fall flat because even the tried-and-true journalists know to only promote content that will inspire audience engagement. Similarly, content creation is what breathes life, energy, and continued engagement into successful campaigns. 

As a result, the Content is King mantra continues to prevail. Written content is the way most of us receive our information these days, and while your PR team can create content all day long, it’s always a major bonus to work with a savvy marketing team as we create streamlined, value-drive content marketing strategies in a synergizing way. In the aforementioned SpinSucks article, Jessical Miller states, “PR reaches new audiences and builds company credibility through third-party validation.” 

Content marketing keeps audience members engaged with your brand and that’s essential to continuing the good work the public agency will continue to do on your behalf. 

How public relations and marketing work together? 

The best way to ensure your PR and marketing teams work together is to build the bridge as fast as possible and continue to foster communication and relationship between the two departments.  

If you are contracting with a PR agency, they will have their own brick-and-mortar office, so sharing space isn’t an option. However, it is perfectly reasonable to bring the two teams together from the get-go as the PR firm begins to download the ins-and-outs and nuances of your brand. Once they are completely onboarded, keep the communication channels open and collaborative. Set the tone that this is a partnership or a symbiotic relationship and continue to make sure that’s the case. 

You can do this by including both teams in strategy meetings, having a monthly working lunch where they can share their experiences and throw out ideas, or hosting weekly team huddles (Zooming is always an option) with clear itineraries and goals. You’d be amazed at what a well-designed 30-minute meeting can bring about.

Public Relations And Marketing Make A Winning Team

Would you like to hire a PR firm that understands how invaluable it is for public relations and marketing to work together to achieve success? Contact us here at Segal Communications.

In the beginning, it was your words in simple print – your brand vision, your mission statement, your first launched website. Then there were the blogs and social media connections, not to mention hefty Google ad marketing expenses, that grew your network. From there, your products and services, as well as your in-house marketing efforts, continued to grow brand visibility and profits. 

Now, however, you’re ready for “The Next Level” of brand exposure, and that depends on high-quality (top tier) media coverage. 

PR Agencies Promote Top-Tier Visibility On Media Outlets 

Unless your small- to mid-size company has incredible connections or happens to create that one-in-a-million product or service that puts you on the nation’s radar, you’re going to need some professional PR help. 

Without developing the right connections with media outlets that go beyond your local area’s freebie or subscription newspapers, or occasional spots on a local radio station, you will struggle to garner published press releases, interviews, or – what we refer to as “top tier placement” – by more major media outlets.  

But what are those said media outlets, anyway? And how do you learn which media outlets are the best to get certain messages out, to a specific target market/audience, about a particular type of product, service, or good work you’ve done? That is easier said than done, and it requires an understanding of the various types of media outlets available to you, as well as which ones are best to work with for any given situation. 

Media Outlet Types: The Big Five 

There are five general categories of media outlets. We’ll go through each of them below, giving a general description and explaining how you can best use them to promote your brand.  

Again, even if you aren’t employing a full-time PR agency, contracting with a reputable firm exclusively to help you build media recognition is a smart and budget-savvy way to get a great bang for your PR bucks. 

Social Media 

The most powerful thing about social media is that it allows you to connect directly with your brand’s followers and prospects. This is a very personal way to communicate, and odds are that many of your long-term followers feel like “part of the family” if you actively engage with them via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and so on. 

Social media outlets are ideal for sharing: 

• Information about yourself AND others (don’t forget to share the wealth by sharing other, similarly aligned brands to gain bonus points) 
• Photos, videos, infographics, studies/research, etc. 
• Links to other media outlet features and spotlights 
• Your stories in vignette form (or long format in the case of YouTube video options) 
• Information galore (with blogs being a wonderful way to share longer-format pieces) 

Routine, frequent posts are the key to successful social media branding. Ideally, brands should be interacting at least three or more times a week (daily is ideal). Otherwise, it’s impossible to generate the level of momentum you need to expand your network. 

Newspapers 

Newspaper features offer both long- and short-format options for brands to make themselves known in the community, and the greater world-at-large. Even bigger regional, state and national newspapers still prefer to share news from a local- or community-based angle. 

Depending on whether you are promoting upcoming events, volunteering or community giving experiences, post-event recaps/coverage, new or re-launched products, and services, or your solutions to current events or issues, the newspaper offers perfectly segmented opportunities to share. Those include: 

• General assignment/general news 
• Lifestyle/Features   
• Op-Ed page/Letters to the Editor 
• Health  Business 
• Consumer  Education 
• Calendar of Events/Events  Political 
• Photo Desk 

The general news is typically fielded by the city or managing editor. You can find their information, as well as the section editors’ and beat reporters’ information on the newspaper’s website.  

It’s essential to pay close attention to how they want to learn about your event, deadlines for submittals (often weeks ahead of deadlines), etc. Not following their instructions to the letter means not getting your information through their outlet.   

Also, odds are – unless you’re already “famous,” they will not invest in available staff to take pictures or cover your events. Cover your own events with professional photographic/videographic style so you have compelling visual content to round out your submissions. 

Television 

Again, like their larger newspaper counterparts, television journalists know that stories with heart are the way to win an audience. Television networks work hard to create angles that generate feelings in their audience through the combination of text/scripts, visuals, editing, and music/sound.  

Television segments can run the gamut from standard commercials (expensive) to spots on specialty programs positioning you as the “expert” in your field. In that case, your brand’s representative should be completely comfortable in front of the camera, having the ability to remain calm, answer off-the–cuff questions, and to make tech/science/complex concepts easily comprehensible to the audience. The ability to share quick and compelling soundbites, succinct information that gets to the point, or your brand representatives’ ability to be captivating in their appearance, attitude, or voice is a bonus. 

If you are able to generate enough interest that a TV station is willing to cover your event, more power to you. That’s a wonderful way to share your brand with thousands or even millions of viewers, especially if audience members respond positively. That puts you in position for more features by them in the future. 

Like newspapers, TV stations need at least two to three weeks warning, possibly more, as they are always working ahead. News releases and media alerts should follow the station’s guidelines, available on their website. And, as you can imagine, the bigger the TV network the better connections it is to have if you want to catch a glimmer of their spotlight. 

Radio

The great news about radio is that your spots can be ultra-short and sweet (think 10 to 30 seconds), repeatable (because they are recorded and re-used in breaks between songs and segments, or they can be on the longer side as you sit in as an expert interviewee or the radio station chooses to broadcast live from your sponsored event. 

Again, those who present on your behalf via radio stations should be personable, warm, and have a voice that soothes rather than grates on the audience members’ ears. Depending on the station or the event, your audience may be smaller and niche-oriented, or you may make yourself visible (or, shall we say, “audible”) to thousands. If you’re a small business, and none of your key players have a “radio voice” it can be worth it to pay for voice-overs for commercials or promotional spots that don’t require an “expert” on hand. 

Words and scripts are essential because unlike newspaper or TV spots, where visuals are as important more so than the text, radio depends on words and expressive voices to tell your brand’s story.  

Not surprisingly, radio stations typically prefer a lead time of three weeks or longer. 

Magazines 

Magazines are a niche audience dream market for advertisers. The only people who pick up and/or subscribe to magazines are those who are aligned with the magazine’s core values or features. Magazines are a fantastic collaboration of print and visual content and give you the ability to reach both your local market as well as national or international niche/trade publications. 

Unlike the two– to three week lead time required by newspapers, TV, and radio stations, magazine issues are planned months in advance. You’ll want to begin communicating with key editors/writers (again, you’ll find these on the magazines’ websites) at least three to six months in advance unless specified otherwise. Also, rather than a typical press release or similar, AP-style content, magazines will also respond to high-quality photos or graphics that support the content so they can get an idea of whether it’s a good fit for their brand and style. 

There’s no doubt that the right network connections (and a history of successful features) pave the way to top tier media coverage. Working to make those connections will pay off, but if high-quality media exposure is a goal for your next level of brand development, you are better served by forging a partnership with a good PR agency. 

Is Your Business In Need Of More Exposure?

Looking to forge a partnership with a media-savvy PR agency that gets results? Contact us here at Segal Communications. We can’t wait to tell your story.