Have you ever felt connected to a brand, stopped using a product because you heard something negative about it, or used a product because it was recommended? It all boils down to the power of public relation. Therefore, in this very precise article, we shall be exploring advantages of public relation to business brands can’t afford to ignore.
Public relations is that angle of a business that you can connect with. It’s your go-to for gists and updates about what a business is doing. It’s your informant; it helps you understand a brand and what it stands for.
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What Public Relation (PR)?
The Public Relations Society of America defines PR as a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their public. An organization’s public is its customers, clients, the media, and employees.
Public relations involve all forms of activities geared toward building a brand’s public image, reputation, and perception. Perception is dicey. It is largely based on past experiences, expectations, cultural beliefs, and the upbringing of your public. Imagine someone hating your business because the name sounds like something they hate. Crazy right?
To succeed as a business, there must be a lot of talking. Be ready to talk about what your logo and color(s) stand for, why the business is structured the way it is, and what services you’ll be rendering; literally everything you won’t want to be misunderstood.
Advantages of Public Relation to Business:
Whether you’re a small business or a well-established business owner, there are varieties of advantages of public relation to business for you.
1. Press release/ press statement
The first on our list advantages of public relation to business you can’t afford to ignore is press release and press statement. A press release is written as a news story and sent to the media for the sole purpose of promoting the business or a product or notifying them of a major event (like a CSR). The idea is that the media publishes the press release like it’s their own story. This helps to achieve third-party endorsement.
A press statement is an official report released to the media. Remember the statements politicians or celebrities send out in response to a big issue? Exactly!
2. Enhanced media relations
The benefit of public relations in marketing is that it builds connections and relationships with media agents. Journalists and publicists focused on your industry will be more open to regular engagement with you when you present them with frequent and newsworthy content. In PR, the priority is maintaining good dynamics with media agents who prioritize your stories above your competitors.
Managing social media relationship of your brand is another advantage of public relation to business you can’t afford to ignore. This involves a business engaging with its social media community. It is a less expensive form of Public Relations. You can relate to this right?
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3. Third-party endorsement
Being published by a third-party endorser is very important when you want to demonstrate the credibility of your brand. This is why PR works to strategically place your news in front of lucrative audiences. When a third-party writes or speaks positively about your brand, they endorse your company’s expertise and leadership, often creating more consumer value than paid advertising.
4. Reputation maintenance
This is another advantage of public relation to business you can’t afford to ignore. Bear in mind that most public relation strategies are developed with a long-term goal in mind, as the PR team works to build and maintain a positive brand reputation that consumer trust. This doesn’t happen overnight. PR is a highly effective tool in long-term reputation management.
5. Educational tool
Educating the public is one of the most important advantages of public relations. It’s about value creation and sharing informative content with the public about products and services that genuinely help with a pain point. For example, thought leadership is one method PR employs to inform the public about the brand via the knowledge and credibility of its authoritative industry figure. With this, consumers can learn more about a brand and what it stands for.
The key benefit is that it helps build your credibility and reputation by elevating awareness and working with third-party endorsers who can support you.
6. Sponsorship
Another mouth-watering advantages of public relation to business you can’t afford to ignore is sponsorship. This involves sponsoring an event that the press will likely be interested in. The public is made aware of the sponsor and sees the sponsor in a positive light. A good example is in Nigeria where MTN, a telecommunication giant is sponsoring one of the biggest TV Shows ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’.
7. Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
CSR are activities a business does in recognition of its obligations to the community. It involves contributing to the community where the business is located, monetarily or by executing projects. This also is another benefit of public relation to business on our list you can’t afford to ignore as an entrepreneur.
8. Build trust/credibility
If a business lacks credibility, all its communication and advertising efforts will be useless. The irony is that people don’t trust easily, they are usually skeptical about products they haven’t used before. A percentage of the public will stick to a product they’ve known, used, and seen to work for them even if there’s a cheaper one in the market. Why? Over time, they’ve built trust in that product or in the brand.
PR will reemphasize your brand or business until it registers in the mind of your audience. With third-person authorization, your audience can be sure you know what you’re doing. Public relations activities are more trustworthy because it’s executed without profit in mind.
9. External communications/internal communications
Communications internally and externally is another advantage of public relation to business you can’t afford to ignore. External communications are messages to the business’ external audience through paid media or otherwise while internal communications are sent to employees through channels like newsletters, posters, and bulletin boards.
10. Paid advertising
Public relation can also be in the form of paid advertising. It involves placing planned communication or messages in selected print, broadcast, online or social media to further the interest of an organization or person.
11. Build brand awareness
A lot of businesses spend months building their brand awareness even before making profit. That’s how important brand awareness is.
Public relations, through activities like CSR and media releases, keep the public abreast of what is going on in the business.
12. Boost marketing and advertising efforts
Some studies have shown that Public Relations does more for a business than advertising. When the public is aware of your business and what it stands for, marketing and advertising become easy and more productive.
Companies engage in activities like CSR, not only as a way of giving back to society but also so that their public can view them in a positive light. Good PR is evangelism to a business. It converts customers as much as advertising would and with a lesser budget.
13. Help generate leads
PR is a good tool for both long-term and short-term lead generation. A form of short-term lead generation is PR events and social media. Long-term lead generation is an advantage of the print medium. Print medium has to do with newspapers, books, brochures, and magazines. Since the medium allows for the long-term keeping of records or information, a potential customer can read about the company years after publication and possibly convert.
14. Manage crisis
PR is a good tool for mitigating crises. Though a lot can be predicted and controlled in a business, there’s still that little uncertainty that may birth a crisis. One advantage of building trust is that it reduces the impact crisis has on your business. This is because the public has been able to trust the business. In cases of crisis, they’ll rather sympathize than out rightly condemn or disassociate with the business. Besides, if you have good relations with the media, you can be told about a crisis beforehand and stop it before it explodes.
15. Humanize the business
The last but not the least on our list of advantages of public relation to business you can’t afford to ignore is business humanization. PR is to a business what personification is to an object. It gives human qualities and presents an emotional side of the business. With this, your business doesn’t look like a ‘money hunter’ to your audience, rather your audience see it as a friend, a solution-provider.
Public Relations is necessary for businesses that wish to resonate in the mind of their audience. Whether small or large scale, there is a PR activity for every size of business. It could be as little as good customer service, calling customers on special occasions, or as huge as a press event. Basically, every business needs a connecting point with their audience, and that’s PR
