Top Tools of Public Relations

Think of your brand as an art piece hung in a gallery. While the quality of your product or service offering should inform the artistic merit, value isn’t always one to one. In fact, public perception can dramatically influence the appraisal of your art piece (i.e., the financial value of your brand).

And in the business world, to shape an audience’s perspective, brands must utilize PR tools.

So, what are the essential tools behind a successful PR campaign? And why are certain stratagems more effective than others?

Leave the Picasso behind and read on for the top tools of public relations.

#1 Press Kits
Perhaps the most essential public relation tool in your PR toolbelt: your company’s press kit. So, what is a press kit?

A press kit offers the public an overview of who you are, what you offer, and why your brand brings value to the people who support it. Your press kit should be as informative as it is eye-catching. Collaborate with your design team on how to make a press kit to create something that looks professional and is easy to follow.

What’s included in a press kit?

Your press kit should include everything from links to your website and social media to your company’s origin story. Just remember to be concise. You want to balance highlighting all the important facts with staying succinct.

A carefully crafted press kit emphasizes:

1. Your company’s history and core team members
2. How you can be contacted
3. Compelling details about your product or service
4. High-quality brand images
5. Awards and accolades earned in recent years
6. Testimonials from satisfied customers

#2 Video Releases
We’re living in a highly visual world, and the ability to craft a compelling video release is a must when it comes to PR tools.

As many as 66% of people say they’d rather learn about a product or service via video content instead of a text-based alternative.1 When numbers talk, it’s hard not to listen—that goes double if it’s in video format.

Make sure your video release is appropriate for the audience you’re trying to reach and that it engages viewers right from the start. This is an excellent opportunity to not only tell your audience why your product or service is one-of-a-kind but to show it to them in action. Make it a high-quality video that tells a strong story from start to finish.

#3 Audio Releases
After putting together an engaging video release, consider sharing another layer of your PR campaign via an audio release. Despite the demands of the visual era, there has been a notable increase in podcast popularity in recent years, making a compelling case for the use of audio marketing content.

Partner with a podcast that may reach a similar audience to the one you’re hoping to target and share the news of a new product or exclusive discount. Plus, when a listener’s favorite podcast host is endorsing your product or service, it may make them more inclined to look into your brand.

#4 Fact Sheets
Facts sheets are where you put your blossoming startup, an exciting new product, or some impressive statistics on display. They are one of the tools of public relations that can stand on its own, or they can be incorporated along with awards, company history, and product images in your press kit.

Again, brevity is key when it comes to fact sheets. Educate your audience about how a new product works or entice potential investors with some compelling tidbits about the direction your startup is headed, but don’t drag on every detail. And whatever you choose to include, don’t forget the importance of intuitive design.

Informational material such as this needs to be visually digestible and easy for readers to follow.

#5 Newsletters
Take elements of your fact sheet and pair them with your company profile, eye-catching images, and staff bios, and mold them into one engaging newsletter.

The best part about this PR tool?

You won’t have to worry about whether or not it lands. Sending a newsletter puts you in direct contact with your target audience via email. More so even than social media. Social media trends are ever-evolving, but email seems to have earned more staying power as a reliable marketing tool.

In fact, 4 out of every 5 marketers say they’d choose email over social media if asked to choose between the two.2 If you’re sharing an update to your services or plan to run a seasonal sale, make sure to let your customer base know via newsletter. Then, track the success of your public relations campaign by monitoring email open rates and click-through rates.

#6 Events
Getting your business out into the world sometimes means actually getting out there.

Whether you’re launching a new product or opening the doors to a new boutique, host a PR outreach event—online or in-person—that gathers your target audience and appropriate contacts into one place.

Media tastings and speaking engagements are great types of public relation events that brands can benefit from. Media tastings can be a more casual soiree—complete with cocktails, mingling, and giveaways. Invite those in your media list. This includes any media outlet of interest, investors, or influencers looking to partner with your brand. Or take advantage of a speaking engagement for a formal networking event that allows you to boost brand awareness, improve public opinion, and to showcase your expertise in your field.

#7 Online Newsrooms
Sometimes it’s challenging to gather everyone in one place for an in-person event. That’s why online newsrooms are an effective way to reach people anytime, anywhere. They’re also a complementary device with which to pair other strategies. People who were intrigued by a video release, for example, may come to an online newsroom looking for the full story.

Either way, a digital newsroom is an indispensable way of building your brand’s awareness, controlling your company’s narrative, and driving traffic to your website or social media channels.

If you want to learn more about digital newsrooms, check out our latest guide on the digital newsroom structure.

What to Do Before You Launch
Now that you’re better equipped with the tools you need to run a successful PR campaign, let’s go over a few more items you’ll need to add to your to-do list before you launch. You might have all the right mechanisms to boost the quality of your campaign, but if the public relations campaign itself doesn’t have a clear focus, how effective will it be? Don’t forget about these essential elements that should be considered every time you develop a new media campaign.

1. Define your goals – Is your PR campaign built to boost brand awareness? To announce the unboxing of a new product or service? Start by guiding your efforts in one specific direction. From there, you can specify your aims even further. How many website visits are you hoping to attract? How many sales do you expect it to result in? Be clear on what you’re trying to accomplish and adjust your strategy accordingly. That way, you can measure your strategy’s effectiveness with clearly defined metrics.
2. Define your audience – Who, exactly, are you talking to? Perhaps this campaign is targeting a similar audience to the one you already have. Or maybe you’re using this opportunity to attract a new demographic. Whoever you’re speaking to, make sure each element of your campaign is tailored in a way that makes sense to the people who’ll be receiving it. What are your audience’s interests? Why should they listen to what you have to say? Consider these questions carefully before setting up your strategy for a campaign that is well-intentioned and on the mark.
3. Set up metrics of success – Once your campaign goes live, how will you know if you’ve met, exceeded, or missed the goals you set up at the start? Just as you should be specific with defining your objectives, so should you be with setting up units of measurement for the performance of your campaign. Look to metrics like social media shares, website traffic, brand mentions, or keyword rankings. Define which ones are most useful for your analysis and check in with them before and after you launch.

Utilize All Your Tools and Strengthen Your PR Campaign with ACCESSWIRE
By now, you’re in a good position to start taking actionable steps towards a sharper, higher-performing PR strategy. Whether you’re working on polishing up some of your existing public relation tools or adding a few new PR strategy tools into the mix, refer back to this article anytime you need inspiration and guidance.

If you’ve got a story to share right now and are looking for the best place to generate buzz about it in the corporate world, you’re in the right place. Here at ACCESSWIRE, we offer global distribution, press release services, and connections with new stakeholders—and it’s never been easier or more cost-effective.

Your message is an important one to hear. ACCESSWIRE helps to make sure the right people are listening.

Meet your communication goals with us today.

Sources:
Commpro. 10 Methods to Measure the Success of a PR Campaign.
Explain Ninja. Top Video Marketing Statistics 2021.
Hubspot. The Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats for 2021.