Some new business owners may wonder why they should allocate precious marketing budget dollars to public relations. Perhaps they don’t think their company is large enough to require full-blown PR, or maybe they have a PR strategy they’re considering implementing on their own to save money. The truth is, however, PR is not a luxury or a nice-to-have for today’s businesses. No matter what size it may be or stage of growth it might be in, every organization needs to foster good relations with the public.
Aside from helping companies gain positive publicity, strong PR allows them to set the narrative in communications with customers, prospects, investors, and current and potential employees. To learn more about why PR is so essential for new businesses, check out the insights from members of Forbes Agency Council below. Here, 14 members share the elevator pitch they would use to explain the purpose and benefits of public relations to a brand-new business owner.
Forbes Agency Council members share reasons why PR is so essential for new businesses.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. You Need To Establish Deep Stakeholder Relationships
Relationships can make or break a business. To increase the chances of finding business success, it is necessary to work toward cultivating trust and credibility among your key stakeholders. Strategic PR initiatives founded on authenticity and tact can help business owners establish and deepen stakeholder relationships, which are critical in building a truly sustainable business ecosystem. – Lars Voedisch, PRecious Communications
2. Your Business Identity Must Be Consistent And Trustworthy
PR is the “golden mouthpiece” of your business identity—it gives you an edge that allows you to thrive and monetize. It amplifies your purpose and explains how you serve consumers and meet their specific needs.While the messaging you provide to your respective stakeholders in the ecosystem (investors, partners, clients, employees) may differ, consistency and trustworthiness are always keys to growing sustainable relationships with your key stakeholders. – Rachel Ooi, Dentsu International
3. You Have A Chance To Create Your Desired Brand Narrative
Public relations is a way for a business to effectively convey its brand’s voice and to position the brand in the way it wants to be known to the public. It gives businesses the opportunity to build their brand and create the desired narrative about what their brand is. – Tony Pec, Y Not You Media
Recommended For You
4. You Have A Story, And You’d Better Tell It
Every company has a story, actions and important information that customers need to know when making their decision about whether to buy your product versus a competitor’s. Well-crafted PR makes sure your story gets through in a compelling and motivating way. Without PR, you allow that competitor to control the dialogue and define your reputation—and who wants that? – Jim Heininger, Dixon|James & Rebranding Experts
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. You Want To Connect With Audiences And Build Goodwill
Public relations helps you tell your story to your targeted audiences and the public through methods other than paid advertising. It helps you connect your key messages with your audiences through the news media, social media, emails, special events and speaking engagements. A great PR program helps build goodwill toward your business, so people know, like and trust your brand. – Nancy Marshall, Marshall Communications
6. Building Relationships In Unique Ways Strengthens Your Brand
Connection is the heart of public relations and should be the heart of a good business. Building and maintaining relationships in unique ways supports and strengthens the brand in ways that paid marketing does not always accomplish. A good PR team can also help on the digital front by setting up social media channels that communicate the brand’s personality and connect with its audience. – Russ Williams, Archer Malmo
7. You Can Save On Ad Spend And Build Your Brand’s Credibility
We work in the B2B technology space, and the way I explain PR is: “We make technology companies famous.” Good PR helps get the word out there about your brand across the right social, media and third-party channels. It helps you save on ad spend, builds your brand’s credibility and makes you look more established, attractive and successful in the eyes of your prospects. – Azadeh Williams, AZK Media
8. Building Trust Is Key To Differentiating And Promoting Your Brand
In digital media, trust is a critical element of every interaction. Brand mentions are essential to your brand appearing trustworthy to potential customers. Public relations firms do an outstanding job of helping you differentiate and promote your brand on media outlets and with influencers to help you build a reputation for being trustworthy. – Douglas Karr, Highbridge
9. Consumers Today Want Third-Party Validation Before Buying
PR is the most effective way to build a reputation. While this can be done through a balance of owned and shared media, earned media (the most relevant strategy in the PR chest) relies on a brand’s ability to gain an independent perspective about the brand and its products or services. And in the era of “fake news,” consumers and businesses want (and need) third-party validation before making a purchase. – Dean Trevelino, Trevelino/Keller
10. You Need To Build Credibility To Establish Your Expertise
Our job and goals with PR are to create brand awareness. To best utilize the placements and gain the best exposure, brand authenticity and reputation for reliability, we urge you to share your press on all platforms—social media, your website and so on. For experts, we strive to get you the credibility you need to be viewed as an expert in your industry. We don’t do fluff; if something is not working, we re-strategize to find that sweet spot. – Jessica Kopach, The JKO Agency
11. Giving Audiences Extra, Non-Ad Info Builds Trust
You have a marketing team, right? Imagine that people love your ads, but because they can’t find any extra information about you on Google, they go with your competitor. PR, by way of articles and podcasts, builds trust between you and your target audience. If I see that a business has been written about on a reputable site, I know it is a good place to spend my money. – Victoria Kennedy, Victorious PR
12. Earned Media Is Critical To Building A Trustworthy Reputation
A good balance of earned media combined with social, paid and owned media is necessary to create brand awareness. Combining efforts creates multifaceted outreach strategies that amplify the message further than relying on a single channel would. For newly launched brands, earned media is the most critical facet of building a trustworthy reputation. – Goran Paun, ArtVersion
13. PR Helps With Growth More Than Other Marketing Activity
Trust, validation, awareness, credibility and animation will all help to make it easier for a business to grow. No other marketing activity achieves each of these as powerfully as public relations can. – Richard Cook, Champion Communications Ltd.
14. PR Helps Predispose Potential Customers To Believe You
The purpose of public relations—especially publicity, the heart of PR—is to establish the credibility of a person or organization. In other words, it helps predispose potential customers to believe you when you approach them. – Jeff Bradford, Dalton Agency
Go to Source
Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member
