PR Mythbusters
February 8, 2019
Public relations has the power to bolster your brand by allowing you to develop a relationship with your audience, boosting brand awareness, finding loyal consumers and enhancing credibility.
As helpful as PR can be, there is quite a bit of misconception around its purpose. As an established San Francisco-based tech PR firm, we believe demystifying PR helps to better serve companies and set them up for long-term success.
Let’s bust five PR myths:
1. There’s No Such Thing as Bad PR
All press is good press, so the saying goes. But surely many companies would disagree over the years – Volkswagen, Uber, and even recent Facebook consumer privacy and data issues to name a few. Bad news and reports such as these can make or break a brand, especially a company that’s just getting started. Any sign of scandal and consumers can quickly lose trust in brands they once preferred, altering the success of the company almost instantly. Of course, even the most experienced PR professional can’t control the outcome of every press opportunity. Poor coverage and reviews happen from time to time. However, with experience, skill and finesse, PR pros can diffuse difficult situations and drive positive coverage on a regular basis.
2. PR Is The Same As Marketing or Advertising – and Can Be Measured the Same Way
Public relations is not advertising. Advertising is paid visibility while PR is earned visibility. PR leverages journalists or other influencers to write about and validate your company, its executives and its products from an editorial perspective – producing a broader and more diverse market.
Marketing focuses on promoting a company’s product, which leads to a rise in sales and revenue, however, PR focuses on building brand awareness and a good reputation. PR can work in conjunction with marketing and advertising, but it is important to note the difference in goals, strategy and execution between them.
Measuring the success of a PR program is not as cut and dried as measuring marketing or advertising where the standards are more clear, for example, page views, time on site, cost per click, open rates, CTR, unsubscribes, opt-ins, etc.
The measure of success with PR has typically been around the ability to place material in the media, rather than on the impact such coverage might have on shifting opinion, awareness, or moving markets, and signed business deals in play – all of which is built over time. PR is a force multiplier; thus, the measurement at month one or two will not look the same as it will at month six or month 12.
3. PR Results Are Immediate
A solid PR program takes time to build and grow. It’s akin in many ways to filling a bucket with water: turning on the faucet with a steady flow of water until the bucket is full or overflowing. Similarly, turn off the faucet and the water eventually evaporates and you have to start over again.
PR success builds from strength-to-strength with each press release, creative PR campaign, contributed content, social media engagement, analyst briefing, speaking engagement and award recognition. It’s important to remember PR is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. Having a steady flow of PR coverage that builds over time is one of the keys to building solid, lasting awareness in the market.
4. Good Products Don’t Need PR
No matter how impressive or innovative your product is, today’s market (and let’s face it, our world) is incredibly fast-paced, crowded and loud. A solid PR program is crucial for any product or company to break through this noise. Consumers need to learn about your products – not just from paid advertising, but from organic sources as well. If you have the world’s most fascinating story but no one has the chance to learn about and experience it outside of a typical advertisement, what‘s the point? PR can spread significant brand awareness while sharing your brand or product’s story with multiple audiences across as many holistic channels possible.
5. Create a Campaign and They Will Come
Many companies expect the press are waiting eagerly for their stories. Too often businesses think everyone will want their story just the way they want to tell it. A good journalist should challenge you – poke holes, question, look for comparisons and contrast, and dig deeper. This can sometimes be off-putting to companies, but it’s also what gives their stories balance. Understanding a reporter’s job and providing thoughtful, honest answers can help a journalist to shed new light on your business, which in turn, can bring in more clients, awareness and revenue.
PR is critical for anyone seeking to promote awareness, develop a larger and more loyal audience and ensure credibility for their brand and company. By revealing the truth behind these common PR myths, you can move forward, enlightened as to what PR is and how it can drive the success of companies, brands, products and services.
Hannah Martin
Account Coordinator
PR Mythbusters
February 8, 2019
Public relations has the power to bolster your brand by allowing you to develop a relationship with your audience, boosting brand awareness, finding loyal consumers and enhancing credibility.
As helpful as PR can be, there is quite a bit of misconception around its purpose. As an established San Francisco-based tech PR firm, we believe demystifying PR helps to better serve companies and set them up for long-term success.
Let’s bust five PR myths:
1.There’s No Such Thing as Bad PR
All press is good press, so the saying goes. But surely many companies would disagree over the years – Volkswagen, Uber, and even recent Facebook consumer privacy and data issues to name a few. Bad news and reports such as these can make or break a brand, especially a company that’s just getting started. Any sign of scandal and consumers can quickly lose trust in brands they once preferred, altering the success of the company almost instantly. Of course, even the most experienced PR professional can’t control the outcome of every press opportunity. Poor coverage and reviews happen from time to time. However, with experience, skill and finesse, PR pros can diffuse difficult situations and drive positive coverage on a regular basis.
2. PR Is The Same As Marketing or Advertising – and Can Be Measured the Same Way
Public relations is not advertising. Advertising is paid visibility while PR is earned visibility. PR leverages journalists or other influencers to write about and validate your company, its executives and its products from an editorial perspective – producing a broader and more diverse market.
Marketing focuses on promoting a company’s product, which leads to a rise in sales and revenue, however, PR focuses on building brand awareness and a good reputation. PR can work in conjunction with marketing and advertising, but it is important to note the difference in goals, strategy and execution between them.
Measuring the success of a PR program is not as cut and dried as measuring marketing or advertising where the standards are more clear, for example, page views, time on site, cost per click, open rates, CTR, unsubscribes, opt-ins, etc.
The measure of success with PR has typically been around the ability to place material in the media, rather than on the impact such coverage might have on shifting opinion, awareness, or moving markets, and signed business deals in play – all of which is built over time. PR is a force multiplier; thus, the measurement at month one or two will not look the same as it will at month six or month 12.
3. PR Results Are Immediate
A solid PR program takes time to build and grow. It’s akin in many ways to filling a bucket with water: turning on the faucet with a steady flow of water until the bucket is full or overflowing. Similarly, turn off the faucet and the water eventually evaporates and you have to start over again.
PR success builds from strength-to-strength with each press release, creative PR campaign, contributed content, social media engagement, analyst briefing, speaking engagement and award recognition. It’s important to remember PR is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. Having a steady flow of PR coverage that builds over time is one of the keys to building solid, lasting awareness in the market.
4. Good Products Don’t Need PR
No matter how impressive or innovative your product is, today’s market (and let’s face it, our world) is incredibly fast-paced, crowded and loud. A solid PR program is crucial for any product or company to break through this noise. Consumers need to learn about your products – not just from paid advertising, but from organic sources as well. If you have the world’s most fascinating story but no one has the chance to learn about and experience it outside of a typical advertisement, what‘s the point? PR can spread significant brand awareness while sharing your brand or product’s story with multiple audiences across as many holistic channels possible.
5. Create a Campaign and They Will Come
Many companies expect the press are waiting eagerly for their stories. Too often businesses think everyone will want their story just the way they want to tell it. A good journalist should challenge you – poke holes, question, look for comparisons and contrast, and dig deeper. This can sometimes be off-putting to companies, but it’s also what gives their stories balance. Understanding a reporter’s job and providing thoughtful, honest answers can help a journalist to shed new light on your business, which in turn, can bring in more clients, awareness and revenue.
PR is critical for anyone seeking to promote awareness, develop a larger and more loyal audience and ensure credibility for their brand and company. By revealing the truth behind these common PR myths, you can move forward, enlightened as to what PR is and how it can drive the success of companies, brands, products and services.
