PR isn’t just about large corporations, but is an essential part of marketing for any company. PR is a different kind of marketing than other types. Where most marketing strategies are about promoting your products and services and generating leads, PR is about building trust and credibility.
Why PR is Important By Hugues Joublin
According to Hugues Joublin, PR is important because having a good reputation is what will help you in a crisis – not your sales. PR is about your reputation, and about keeping the press informed on what your business is doing, what you stand for, what efforts you’re making to improve the value of your offering.
Depending on how people respond to your PR tactics, your business can grow very fast.
Business PR Tactics by Hugues Joublin
Tell Your Story
Every business has a story behind it – whether it’s a dream, an accident or something that keeps you going. People love stories, so having a heart-touching one to share with your audience is a great way to bring people in and make them trust you.
You have to be careful about it, though. Make sure you know what details you want to share with your audience, and how to connect everything together. According to Hugues Joublin, your story has to be memorable, and one that the average person can relate to. Your story can shape people’s perception about your brand.
Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis is, as the name suggests, analyzing the sentiments people have about your brand online. You can do this by keeping track of keywords related to your brand – like the name, your tagline, recent ad campaigns, etc.
See what kind of things people are saying about you and figure out what you’re doing right or wrong to make most of your comments lean towards a positive reputation than a negative one.
Hugues Joublin emphasizes that countering negative perceptions is very important because most people will believe a bad reviewer over the brand unless they have had a positive experience themselves.
Build Community
An important part of your PR strategy is building a community and keeping them satisfied. This doesn’t just mean addressing them on social media, but showing people that your brand cares about more than just the business. For example, making efforts towards charity or environmental friendliness can go a long way in making your audience trust you.
Hugues Joublin emphasizes that most community welfare efforts aren’t scalable, but that shouldn’t hold you back. The impact still remains very large, and the relationships you make through these kinds of projects are most likely to help you when you get into a tough spot.
Be Prepared
No matter how great your PR efforts are, you should always be prepared for a crisis situation. One way to do this is to have a fill-in-the-blanks statement ready for you to fill out and deliver as soon as something happens. Another way is to consider all the negative outcomes for any situation and keep in mind what you’d do if they were to happen.
An important thing is to remember that PR is not about covering up flaws, but about giving your audience reason to trust you. Authenticity is very important – don’t take your audience to be fools; they’d know if you’re faking it.