What does it take to put great PR behind a new product or service?

What does it take to put great PR behind a new product or service?

You need to tell the story of your business and a PR strategy is a great way to do it. When it comes to a successful PR, the most important thing is to not get ahead of yourself. Too many businesses focus on telling the world that they are the best, especially the increasingly competitive software solutions market. The reality is, nobody cares! They want to hear about something valuable – whether it’s fresh new research, a compelling customer success story or a unique perspective. When beginning a PR campaign, don’t ask yourself, what do I want to say, instead ask what is my target audience interested in hearing?

Also, from the day that you launch, one of the main goals should be how to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry? Ideally, you started your business because you are solving a problem that the market currently lacks. Share you solution, by starting a blog, staying active on social media, appearing in podcasts and by introducing yourself to other thought leaders – collaboration is always a powerful ‘tool’.

Here’s some tips on how to create a PR strategy, these are:

1. Review previous PR activity – start by evaluating the last year’s coverage, did you get media attention and if so, where? Did it impact your business in any way? Was the coverage positive or negative and how does it compare to the competition? After this review, you’ll be able to benchmark against your competitors.
2. Create measurable PR goals – use SMART goals, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Most importantly, your PR goals should tie into your overall corporate strategy.
3. Define your target audiences – start by asking some questions, who would be interested in hearing about my business?  Where would you learn about my market? Why would you take action to buy my product or service?
4. Analyse the macro and micro environments affecting your business – the macro environment is major external uncontrollable factors that influence decision making such as economic, demographic or technological changes. While micro environments consider customers, competitors, suppliers, employees, investors and the media.
5. Create key messages for each audience – messaging is one of the most important aspects of crafting a PR strategy, to begin start by asking what do your target audiences want to know about my business? What is my company’s mission and why should these audiences care?
6. Plan the PR tactics – it’s now time to decide on which tactics to use from earned media such as news generation, thought leaderships pieces, analyst relations, product reviews and awards, paid such as sponsored posts, lead generation and advertising, shared via social media platforms and owned such as employee stories, case studies, webinars and podcasts.
7. Measure the results – for PR we use digital measurement ‘tool’ that summarises online readership, social shares, estimated coverage views and links from the coverage to your website, all metrics that makes sense to marketeers.