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Advocating for PR: Strategies to Win Over Sceptical Business Leaders
Jason Weekes, Commercial Director for UK & Europe at CARMA
Public relations (PR) plays a pivotal role in shaping reputation, fostering stakeholder relationships, and driving growth in every industry. Business leaders’ perception of PR and communications soared in 2022, according to the PRCA. However, this doesn’t stop communications professionals from battling daily against sceptical C-suite about the value of their trade.
As PR budgets shrink during the economic crisis, sacrifices for short-term gain lead to long-term impact. Data has never been more important to demonstrate why investing in PR is critical.
The lines are blurring with where and how consumers want to engage with brands. As social media becomes just as important as traditional media, measuring what matters loud and clear is the difference between diminished visibility and winning client trust.
Debunking PR myths
While the benefits of a well-executed PR strategy are evident to practitioners, misconceptions among business leaders often cast PR as fluff, lacking business results. These misconceptions become glaringly obvious when examining Dove’s Real Beauty campaign, which reshaped its brand reputation and yielded substantial, quantifiable results – heightened customer loyalty and increased sales. The Real Beauty campaign caused sales to jump from $2.5 to $4 billion in the first ten years.
Addressing misconceptions is crucial since PR efforts can directly influence business success and stakeholder engagement. Research shows technology start-up unicorn businesses in the UK with CEOs or founders active in the media were more financially successful in their investment rounds than those not. While sceptics might dismiss online brand mentions as inconsequential, increased online visibility leads tangible business results.
Film advertisers in the 1930s conceptualised the idea that consumers must see a brand message at least seven times before they commit to a purchase decision. Now, the idea is still relevant as the more brand exposure and visibility, the more opportunity to build lasting consumer relationships. This isn’t the only benefit. High-authority site backlinks from PR coverage can significantly improve SEO website rankings, resulting in greater business credibility.
Crafting narratives in the digital age
Over the last 20 years, social media has fundamentally transformed how organisations communicate and shape their narratives. The unconventional approach employed by Tesla, which utilises Elon Musk’s Twitter account for product launches, delays, and milestones, stands as a testament to the impact of alternative approaches. This strategy ensures direct engagement with the audience, amplifies media attention and builds trust. This innovative approach has triggered a ripple effect across industries, with many companies now jumping at the opportunity to profile themselves – and emulate similar engagement-driven models for their businesses.
As digital platforms transition into important means of communication, strategic PR efforts that harness the power of social media have become crucial. The unparalleled reach and instant engagement capabilities of social media platforms highlight the evolving nature of the contemporary PR landscape. To practically implement social media into organisational narratives, PR professionals can start by aligning their content with the way users interact with the platform and audience content preferences. Crafting stories that deliver key brand messages and are the type of content platform users want to see can result in effective cross-channel communications and another bite of the PR cherry.
Measuring the impact of PR efforts on social media involves tracking KPIs such as engagement rates, shares, comments, and website traffic generated through social links. Advanced analytics tools can provide insights into audience sentiment and demographics, helping PR teams refine their strategies based on real-time data.
Shifting perception and proving value with data
This digital era, characterised by data and analytics, makes going beyond the numbers on a page to showcase the effectiveness of PR paramount. Using specific quantitative and qualitative data points demonstrates how a partnership, integrated campaign or steady drum beat of executive profiling drove real impact over time on business outcomes.
To achieve this, PR professionals can employ a range of critical metrics, including search trends and behaviour analytics. These metrics offer insights into how PR initiatives influence consumer behaviour, brand perception, and the bottom line. For instance, tracking web search trends post-campaigns, correlating media coverage with spikes in online purchases, or strategically generating high-quality backlinks can provide measurable evidence of PR’s effectiveness.
Finally, reporting and presenting data brings PR activity full circle. This involves translating raw data into insightful narratives portraying the cause-and-effect relationship between PR actions and measurable outcomes to decision-makers. Visual representations like graphs, charts, and case studies can make complex data simple.
What does your CEO really want?
Cutting through the saturated modern media is tough. PRs are experts at putting businesses on the map, and data shows the long-term impact is fruitful. However, a rumbling scepticism remains that PRs navigate daily when proving the value of their work.
Overcoming reservations involves breaking down misconceptions and embracing data-driven reporting. By providing concrete evidence of PR’s contributions and harnessing innovative tools such as sentiment analysis to measure its impact, PRs can bridge the gap between perception and reality.
Data fosters a powerful partnership between PR teams and the C-suite. Use it? The ability of PR to tell meaningful stories that drive results remains undisputed.
