Align Your PR Strategy to Achieve Business Goals

Perhaps a placement in The New York Times is what you want for your company. But is it really what your business needs? As you are implementing your 2020 PR strategy, it’s important to examine how PR can help support where you want to grow your business. While there are numerous ways to achieve business growth through PR, here are a few considerations:

Media Demographics It is always nice to see your business in national outlets like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Today Show or others, but it’s important to understand the demographics of each media outlet and make sure it resonates with your target audience. For example, if your business strategy is to gain customers, donors or raise awareness in certain parts of the country, placements in national outlets like The New York Times might not move the needle the way you hope. A story in a local outlet may help raise more awareness and can help contribute to your goals more than coverage in a national outlet with broader demographics. Or, if you are looking to gain more exposure with a younger demographic, perhaps targeting Instagram influencers would be more beneficial than a placement in The Wall Street Journal.

Media Medium If another business goal is to drive visitors to your website and improve its SEO ranking, perhaps aiming for online coverage versus print or broadcast will help increase website visitation. Coverage Timing It’s also important to consider the timing of media coverage to help meet business objectives. If you are looking to sell tickets to an event or race, consider developing story angles and aim for coverage leading up to the event to help promote ticket sales. Or, if you are looking to increase sales or donations leading into a certain time of year, develop a seasonal media outreach plan to garner coverage leading up to your key business cycles.

Find the Coverage Gaps It’s important to examine where your competitors are in the news. And, where aren’t they? Where would you want to be? Finding gaps and targeting certain demographics or media outlets could help give your organization an advantage over competition. Taking a step back from your media coverage goals and examining how PR can help achieve business objectives is paramount to a successful PR plan.