Print, Design & Websites
Posted: July 20, 2012 • Posted in: Marketing Tips
Whenever you launch a new product, win a prestigious contract, or sponsor an event or charity, there’s much to be gained by communicating to potential customers. Advertising is one method of spreading the word about your business.
However, relying solely on advertising can be an expensive strategy and, as British business customers and consumers can often have a fairly sophisticated view of advertising, PR can help to verify the claims expressed within adverts. Somehow, what readers see in an article or editorial – in a magazine, newspaper or web-based publication – can seem to have a little more weight… perhaps because the words are credited to an independent journalist. So, advertising has a definite role to play in most markets – helping to raise awareness of a business’s products and capabilities. However, it’s often best to combine PR and advertising, so that they work to support each other in communicating key messages to a business’s target audience.
It’s also worth remembering that, whereas there’s a direct cost for booking space for an advert – in addition to your design and copywriting costs… for PR, you’ll often only have to bear the costs of generating copy, producing photographs and liaising with the press. For PR there’s usually no cost for the actual space.
Having decided to use PR as part of your marketing communications strategy, you should devote time to defining the core messages and values that you want potential customers to understand about your business. Every subsequent press release or press briefing that you produce should then help to support these core values and the general image you wish to convey about your business.
Depending on your target audience, you may want to secure PR coverage in trade magazines, websites or national newspapers. Initially, local press may not feature on your list of target publications. However, quite apart from the potential to boost sales to local customers, coverage in your local press can offer benefits – including helping to raise awareness, which can help support employee recruitment and also give existing employees a greater sense of pride in the business they work for.
