Notes

The Importance of PR In your Marketing Mix
What is the importance of public relations? Most small businesses do not invest in pr (PR); however as a small business owner, you must commit to a PR program for the business growth. What's the return on investment for public relations? Building a stronger brand identity will result in more awareness and credibility for the business and its products or services. Higher awareness will help you to gain market interest and market credibility.

What is a definition of public relations?

PR is about using communication tools and strategies to build relationships with various "publics", such as the business community, customers, suppliers, media, government levels and more. Traditionally that is done through press releases, radio, television, newspapers and magazines. In today's digital online environment however social media and social networking have become part of a pr program. PR can influence people's perceptions and opinions.

Your PR plan needs to focus on building knowing of, and image for, your business and its services and products by:

Producing stories and articles for media outlets (both online and offline); Making connections with local media;
Monitoring relevant media channels (such as for example social media marketing monitoring) for public comment about your organization, your marketplace and even your competition;
Developing a crisis communication plan and managing crises that arise and threaten your business and/or product image;
Getting involved with the community and target market through special programs and participation in events;
Developing a social media plan to connect with online networks (there are more than 300 however the main networks are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn); including social media news releases, blogs and forums.
Most public relations plans concentrate on first identifying the challenge, then building the objectives of the campaign, next building the communication tactics and messages, and finally monitoring results and revising as necessary. This work has to be ongoing: first one challenge (such as for example brand recognition), then another challenge (such as for example brand credibility), then another challenge (such as new product introduction), and so on.

In the current digital environment, PR campaigns could be rolled out very quickly, and the impact of the campaign can be very quickly measured. Public relations can help you launch social networking programs. Learning how to use PR in your enterprise is key: social media marketing and social networking gives you low priced communication channels nevertheless, you still need to learn what things to say, and how to say it or you can hurt your brand identity.

Successful small businesses focus on a mix of pr, social media, online and offline advertising, direct marketing, and personal selling as part of their marketing efforts for building their brand. Strengthen your marketing plan with the addition of PR to the plan and ensuring that you build measurements into the campaigns: you need to know what works, and what doesn't work in communicating with your market sufficient reason for your public.

Kris Bovay are the owners of Voice Marketing Inc, a business and marketing services company.
Kris has 25 years of experience in leading large, medium and small businesses. Find and use more marketing resources and strategies linked to marketing mix. And for more info , visit More for Small Business. read more (c) 2010 Voice Marketing Inc.
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