[Photography : Catherine Losing, Riposte Magazine]
If you visit our blog on the regular then you've probably already heard the news of our snazzy new office space in The Office Group. One of the many (many!) benefits joining the TOG space is access to tonnes of talks, workshops, networking events and other clever learning opportunities for our team.
Last week the A-Team attended a fun fact filled workshop all about 'Developing your Digital PR Strategy' presented by Vicky Taylor from Koozai. We learned A LOT, so thought it was only fair for us to share some of this new knowledge with you.
Here goes...
PR works hand in hand with your digital marketing strategy to achieve your goals. It's especially useful in representing your brand as a thought leader in your industry, sharing your brand personality, increasing awareness or shifting perspectives.
As part of your marketing strategy Araminta Marketing will help to define your brand values & tone of voice both of which are instrumental in your PR strategy too so if you need some support with this step drop us a line.
Once these key elements or your brand have been defined you can move on to the next phase...
The first steps in developing your PR Strategy
1. Define your communications objectives
2. Select your audience
3. Know your brand guidelines
What does this really mean?
Your communications Objectives:
- these should be in line with your business goals
- they should align with your brand values
- and represent your brand’s unique selling points
Utilise your brand champions:
Every brand has a community surrounding it. Make sure you know who these brand champions are and use them to support your PR campaigns. Brand champions are anyone that can help to 'big up' your brand, whether its the founders, your ambassadors, your staff and other employees or just influential members of your community.
Look beyond the obvious:
- Explore a range of speaker topics beyond the most obvious. Perhaps your brand has a founder with a big family who can talk about balancing work and family life.
- Always look for a human angle in your press articles if you're trying to sell furniture don't talk about the dining table talk about the friends that gather around the table.
- Ensure that your whole team have a social presence and a digital footprint that is on brand. No one really wants to see those 'night before' pics of the business founder plastered at 2am in the club.
Get your assets in check:
Make sure you have a stock of brand assets to use for PR, these can include...
- an image library
- video content
- infographics
- research, white papers
- blog posts
- logos, fonts, brand colours
- freelance photographer / designer for key events
Utilize a PR events calendar and tie articles to key dates
- lucky for you the A-Team share their marketing calendar every month in our delightful little newsletter, so you can find all your key dates in one place. #yourewelcome
- set up news alerts (Google Alerts is a great free tool that we at AM are a little obsessed with)
And finally, PR is about developing long term relationships with key media contacts in your industry. Our top tip is: never ever send a mass email to a huge press database, ensure you personalise each communication and prioritise your targets and make the most of your contacts.