No business can succeed if people don’t know it exists. Publicity is all about raising awareness of your brand and the products you’re selling. The ultimate goal of your publicity plan is to generate more sales and increase your bottom line. A good publicity strategy also helps your brand maintain a strong image and build trust. Whether your business is small or big, here are four reasons you need to focus on publicity in 2019:
1. Build Brand Awareness and a Positive Image
Publicizing your brand involves projecting a strong image on social media. It’s also about notifying press outlets about how your business is improving people’s lives. If an unhappy customer posts online about a negative experience and it goes viral, you have a PR issue on your hands. With a good PR response, you can repair the damage to your brand. A great example is Amway—a direct sales company that quells disinformation by educating people who ask: is Amway a pyramid scheme? Company blog posts explain that Amway isn't the scam it’s sometimes made out to be, so that the company can build better awareness of its true mission.
2. Generate Strong Leads and Drive Sales
Publicizing your products tells your prospective buyers that they exist and can help drive more sales in your business. Getting your business’s unique selling proposition in front of media outlets helps you get in front of larger audiences. More eyes and ears means more people in your marketing funnel, which ultimately results in more leads and sales. Using press hits to generate buzz around your business also fuels word-of-mouth marketing.
3. Build Trust and Credibility
When your business gets a mention from a news outlet or an online influencer in your industry, you get social proof. Social proof is a lot different from direct marketing, because prospective buyers don’t have to take your word for it. Consumers trust editorial content more than they trust direct advertising. When people have an existing relationship with blog writers, podcast hosts or local news media, they’re more likely to trust these sources. That’s why you can’t rely only on yourself to project your company’s message. A good PR campaign is all about getting as much social proof as possible by pitching to media outlets that reach your target audience.
4. Target Your Ideal Customer
Publicity is an important way to target your ideal customer or client. If your product is for parents, for example, you can pitch to outlets like parenting magazines, mommy blogs and podcasts for parents. If you can get your message out to several different outlets that have the eyes and ears of parents, your target audience will receive your message again and again from different trusted intermediaries. If you don’t know your target audience, you can do some market research and collect data to determine the demographic makeup of your customers. Then, you can pair your demographic with media outlets that serve your target demographic. Likewise, you can plan your social media publicity strategy around the platforms your target demographic uses the most.
Bottom Line
Whether you’re new to your industry or you’re having a hard time standing out from your competition, pitching your company’s mission to outside parties is a great way to set your brand up for success. In the past, PR strategists relied on newspapers and television networks as their main outlets. Today, businesses need a firm footing in social media networks and well-read online magazines and blogs. The migration of consumer attention to online outlets has made it easy for anyone with an Internet connection to run a PR campaign and promote a business.
