Continuing our Halloween theme, we now turn our attention to some of the business horrors facing organisations of all shapes and sizes and look at how PR can help resolve them. As a B2B PR agency, we’ve dipped into our PR cauldron to share with you some of tools and techniques we regularly use to help our clients turn their business nightmares into sweet dreams.
- Don’t be a ghostly figure….
So, business is booming. Sales are up and you’ve never been so busy, but you’re slightly worried as this new business flurry has come via customer recommendation, and although this is great, what will happen when this busy spell eventually passes? Where will your orders come from next? Because in spite of your recent sales peak, no-one really knows who you are as you’re not very good at shouting about your own success.
Don’t take your success for granted, telling the media about it or sharing thought leadership, company news or customer testimonials over your social media platforms can help breed brand awareness. And, when PR is integrated with your marketing objectives, it can help generate new sales leads too. What are you waiting for?
- Stop a crisis turning into a nightmare
No business is immune to a crisis – from faulty products through to a loose-lipped company spokesperson, a crisis situation can occur at any time and happen to any business, and if you’re not prepared, it can very quickly escalate into a far worse situation than it needs to be.
Working with your PR team to take control of any external communications at the start of a crisis means that you’re controlling the situation, rather than it controlling you. Your PR team can work with you to ensure you address the crisis situation proactively and handle all media enquiries effectively, helping the crisis to subside as quickly as it began. Don’t let your crises spiral out of control, talk to your PR agency about a crisis communications plan and training.
- Spooked out at the thought of speaking to the media?
Speaking to the media doesn’t have to be a scary experience. We frequently come across organisations that are concerned about talking to the media out of fear of saying the wrong thing or being misquoted. However, it doesn’t have to be a horror story. Your PR consultancy can help you overcome any pre-interviews nerves you may have and help you define your key messages so you know exactly what to say to the media. Media training can help arm your key spokespeople with an insight into what to expect and how to handle any tricky interview questions that a journalist might ask.
- Are you sat in the social media graveyard?
For many B2B organisations, social media can be seen as something that requires a lot of effort for little reward. However, used effectively, it can help you reach your target audiences, raise brand awareness and it also helps generate customer engagement. Working with PR agency will help you create compelling the content you need, in a variety of formats e.g. videos, blogs or infographics to can help you make the most of your social media channels.
- Is your news and your spokespeople sat gathering cobwebs?
You’re a great at what you. In fact, it’s fair to say that when it comes to your sector, you are the experts. You’re award-winning, you’ve been doing it for much longer than any of your competitors, and there’s nothing your team of specialists don’t know about what you do; so why then do you regularly see your competitors called upon for interviews, or to provide comments in articles in your top trade magazines? Chances are they have a PR team doing a great job for them, that’s why!
If you’d like to be seen as thought-leaders in your field, you need to make the media aware of who you are and be seen as a ‘go-to’ commentator on your topic. PR can help you achieve this by helping make you famous with your target publications and putting your field of expertise on the media agenda. Don’t consign your news stories and thought-leadership to the PR graveyard, let your PR agency reveal the natural stories and spokespeople that exist within your business.
- Is your content dead and buried?
Compelling content that engages with your target audiences is the holy grail for most marketers. But producing it on a regular basis is time consuming and it can often sink to the bottom of the ‘to do’ list during busy periods. Also, if writing blog copy isn’t your thing, or you’re struggling with ideas for new and interesting content, then keeping the content pipeline afloat can be a laborious task.
The B2B community is hungry for content and a blog programme offers the perfect opportunity for organisations to share their expertise and knowledge and prove their credentials as thought leaders in their sectors. Don’t just sit on the wealth of knowledge that sits within your organisation, let your B2B PR consultancy work with you to create your content in a variety of formats and then ensure it’s pushed out to the appropriate channels.
- Customer delight not fright!
You’ve got lots of happy customers who would gladly endorse your products and services but again, it’s yet another piece of content that needs producing and the sales team want them to be written in one way and you need them to be produced in a longer written format and also as videos to support your wider marketing requirements.
Your PR agency can help here too. Experienced at working with your customers to develop interesting case studies, useable in a variety of formats, PR pros can also use case study content to pitch to the media to showcase what you do and how it is benefiting your customers.
Don’t let your business and marketing challenges turn into a horror story, let your PR team put a magic spell on your issues and help them disappear.
