Why you should give PR a try in 2023

From the outside looking in, public relations can sometimes appear expensive, hoity toity and like a service reserved for celebrities and multi-million-dollar businesses.

Red carpets and fancy launch events may be how the industry is perceived, but the reality is very different.

PR is all about generating favourable publicity for free.

Its benefits are numerous, but here are the top three:

• Credibility

• Increased brand awareness

• Targeted.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines publicity as “the activity of making certain that someone or something attracts a lot of interest or attention from many people, or the attention received as a result of this activity”.

PR differs from advertising, which requires payment in exchange for placement.

A company’s banner ad at the top of the news.com.au homepage has been paid for, however, an article about its record profit is the result of a successful PR campaign.

So just how do the journalists know to write that story?

Well, that’s where we as PR professionals come in.

We know and understand the media and how to successfully pitch your business to journalists to get coverage.

We work with you to identify the audience you’re trying to target, and how to best reach them.

It could be getting featured on the nightly news, or in a story in the Australian Financial Review.

Or it could be getting interviewed on your local radio station, where you’re given an opportunity to speak directly to your customers.

That’s one of the misconceptions about PR, it doesn’t have to be a massive, national campaign that costs the earth.

If your business services southeast Queensland, or even just the Sunshine Coast, you want to promote yourself there and there only, because that’s where your audience is.

PR also doesn’t have to be ongoing.

While some bigger firms only take retainer clients, we and others offer one-off PR campaigns.

So if you’re about to launch or have a big announcement on the cards in 2023, why not dip your toe into the world of PR and see what it can do for your business.