It’s a new year. The early days of January are a hopeful time to look at how you and your organisation can achieve great results in 2016.
Here are five ways to improve your PR results.
1. Up your PR productivity
One of the big problems with public relations is that people don’t do enough of it. Despite the notion that there are too many press releases issued, most organisations only send a handful of press releases each year.
To develop a professional public relations approach you need to be sharing a new message with a different audience at least once a week. Yes you heard me correctly, once a week. There are several hundred opportunities every week. MediaHQ.com has over 7,500 individual contacts – over saturation is almost impossible.
The key is to share a new message with a different audience. It doesn’t always have to be a national press release, you could issue to your local media or to your trade press. Just get busy and start issuing.
2. Build a new audience
You shouldn’t be overly reliant on one audience. Use 2016 to build a new channel of communication for yourself. In the digital age it is essential that you have nurtured many audiences for your message. Resources are always an issue so it is important that you pick your new tools wisely. The rule here is to invest in tools where your audience IS spending their time.
If you are selling to businesses Twitter and LinkedIn are great. If you’re involved in a consumer business then Facebook is essential. Instagram and Snapchat are good for younger audiences and Pinterest is very useful for creative businesses. At MediaHQ.com we use blogging, podcasting, Twitter, LinkedIn and email to engage with our audiences.
3. Focus on a few small things.
You don’t have to do everything. Focus on a few PR tools and don’t spread your limited resources to thinly. Be aware of the talent in your team and use it wisely. Be motivated by the maxim “What is the one PR thing we could do this week that would improve our results.” Have a weekly activity list and measure your success, assess what worked and what didn’t.
4. Pitch a story to a journalist in your area.
Work on a great story idea about your topic. Write on a raw idea and write as many headlines as you can for it. Keep tweaking and changing until you have at least 15. Run them by a colleague with good judgment and pick one. Then pick an influential journalist who covers your area to pitch it to. Start with an email pitch. Put the story headline in the subject line and write a short email about it, and why you’re the best person to talk about it. Put a time limit on it and offer exclusivity. Follow up with a call.
5. Learn a new communications skill
What new skill would improve you and your communications team in 2016? I’m going to learn advanced audio editing skills to improve our podcast.
Maybe you’d like to learn how to write a better press release, pitch to a journalist or perform better in media interviews? You can check out the full list of 2016 courses at www.mediahq.com
