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Ronn Torossian 5WPR Founder On Public Relations Strategies in 2022

According to public relations executive Ronn Torossian, companies that are looking to achieve success with their public relations and digital marketing efforts should be working across a variety of channels where they can showcase their brand personality and authenticity in a way that highlights the brand and its messaging. They also need to expand beyond using technical language from PR or marketing and become more transparent in their messaging while still providing valuable content to both media outlets and their target audience. Since no two companies are the same, different public relations strategies tend to work for different businesses, but there are certain ones that practically every business can use and achieve success. One of them is establishing trust through valuable content so that a business can generate more positive media coverage from relevant outlets.

Data, insights, and analytics in public relations

In the past, plenty of businesses didn't know how they could best measure the performance or the impact of their public relations efforts. Most of the efforts they utilized to improve their digital reputation used to be a mystery in terms of how they worked, so they did a lot of guessing based on hunches when deciding which strategies these companies needed to use. In fact, the digital space used to be so mysterious that most of the time, companies simply issued their announcements, or published their press releases, and just had to hope for the best. Fortunately, that's no longer the case, and these days, companies can and do tend to expect a lot more from their public relations efforts. In fact, the public relations industry itself is expected to be worth nearly $130 billion by 2025.

Ronn Torossian adds that In the meantime, plenty of companies still have to rely on external professionals or agencies when it comes to figuring out if any of their efforts are making the right impacts or if they should start investing in something else. But with today's reporting technologies, tools, platforms, and analytics, data has started becoming an increasingly important element in every single PR effort that companies decide to pursue. These days, tracking the performance and the impact of a company's public relations efforts is essential, and businesses, at the very least, need some basic key performance indicators (KPIs) like social media engagement, website traffic, brand awareness, and favorability to better understand how their PR efforts are paying off.

Additionally, the increased need for companies to utilize the right public relations strategies means that plenty of businesses have started hiring their own, in-house PR professionals and teams. This is one of the most ideal choices for many companies because having these types of professionals in-house means companies will always have access to and a good understanding of their data and analytics when they need to make any sort of business or PR decision. Furthermore, having well-performing PR campaigns can help companies appeal to the leadership positions inside businesses regarding resource requests when they need to expand their PR budgets. Not only that, but having more data-driven insights into a company's public relations efforts can help businesses understand where and how they're impacting the target audiences, and this data can then be used to adjust or update the company's PR strategy, which can impact its long-term plans for growth.

Keeping things simple

While the world is becoming more and more complicated with every passing day, it's become a lot more difficult for companies to reach the right people at the right time. With attention spans decreasing, while anxieties are on the rise, the most effective form of communication is going to be very basic, and any company can rely on it. That's why one of the most important things in terms of PR these days is for companies to make their brand messages as simple as possible. With more people following the news cycle in a personalized fashion through different apps, newsletters, and algorithms, it's more important than ever for companies to have a short and concise message that explains to the public what a business does, and why the target audience needs to care about that.

This type of simple brand message is a lot easier for companies to share with vast amounts of people across a number of communications channels, as well as digital ads, marketing, and PR campaigns. While plenty of brands have started getting more long-winded in attempts to add more valuable language to their brand messages, shortening the story into a bite-sized message can help consumers immediately understand the gist of a business and connect with it faster.

Personalized, relevant, and inclusive pitching

Everyone is overwhelmed with work these days. And that includes journalists, reporters, editors, podcasters, and social media influencers. There's also so much noise coming from every communication channel, that companies need to figure out a different way to break through it, stand out from the crowd and grab the attention of the right people. A great way to do that is by making pitches shorter and more succinct. Starting with a great headline, companies can add short bullet points that provide the most important information regarding their pitch, including the who, what, when, where, and the why. The most important one out of those questions is the why - the reason why people should be interested in the pitch, and when companies are able to intrigue the outlets or the influencers, they tend to ask for more information. Additionally, adding hyperlinks to pitches where they can find information is also a great strategy, but there's no need for businesses to add additional text to the body of their pitches aside from stating the basic facts.

When creating a pitch, companies should also take the gender, political, social, environmental, and cultural sensitivities into account. Social issues have become increasingly popular with most people as they've started becoming more interested in brands that are willing to speak up on important issues, take a stand, and take action to solve problems. That means it's time for companies to do their homework and learn more about their target audiences, and figure out how to align themselves to issues that are important to the customers, while also sending out pitches in a considerate manner to build stronger, and more trusting relationships with the right people.

Finally, although many companies are aware they should be sending out email blasts with their pitches to everyone on their contact lists, for 2022, everyone needs to know that mass email pitches end up in the trash or spam folders. Journalists and reporters want to see personalized and exclusive pitches tailored specifically to them, and work with companies that can be helpful for expertise and sourcing information when the time comes. And with the blurred lines between earned and paid media while companies have started working with more influencers and editors as a way to get more promotions through social media platforms and coverage, companies should be creating more valuable content in collaboration with others. This way, not only will businesses themselves benefit from getting promoted by third parties and get in front of more potential customers, but the outlets and influencers will benefit from sharing valuable content with their audiences, monetizing their work, and giving more coverage to businesses they believe in.

Live events

The gradual return of live events has been long-awaited by practically everyone. The last couple of years have been marked with false starts in that area, with plenty of organizations and companies deciding to pursue either hybrid or virtual approaches to protect everyone involved from the pandemic. But, as the tide is turning and the pandemic seems to get under control somewhat, between vaccines, boosters, and rapid tests, the world seems to be finally putting an end to the Covid-19 virus and that might happen sooner than many expect. One of the most awaited and biggest elements of the events industry has been in-person business events, which have been a standard in the toolbox for many brands and corporations, and many people are excited about their gradual return.

Between industry conventions, trade shows, networking functions, and awards ceremonies, there are so many different types of live events that companies can use to grow their audience, get their message across and create partnerships, and all of them take place in person. Businesses can also sponsor events and get in-venue display promotions, and there are plenty of other tools and strategies they can leverage in front of an audience that's already captive. Although everyone has been getting into live streams, webinars, and podcasts to learn more about their respective industries while also focusing on other daily tasks, having in-depth face-to-face conversations and networking opportunities are finally coming back.

Ronn Torossian is Chairman of 5WPR.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes

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