What Is a PR Strategy, and Why Do You Need One?

The power of public relations is well-known in the modern business world, and all companies and startups put at least some effort into PR.

However, often such efforts don’t bring the expected results, despite considerable expenses of time, money, and other resources. In most cases, the reason for that is the lack of a well-thought-out PR strategy closely linked to the company’s overall business strategy.

Simply put, a company that just tries to “do something for PR” will always lose the battle for the customers’ attention to a company that executes a good strategy, regardless of their respective budgets.

However, “What is a good PR strategy?” is a pretty complicated question, so before we dive in, let’s answer some popular questions.

PR Strategy: Basic Questions

PR Strategy vs. Marketing Strategy?

There is an overlap between PR strategies and marketing strategies. After all, working on brand awareness is a core component of a long-term PR strategy. 

However, effective marketing is impossible without effective handling of media relations, and PR covers not only interactions with customers and sales but the public image of the company and even its relations with authorities in some cases.

So PR and marketing strategies should complement each other.

PR vs. Branding

Both branding and public relations strive to improve the audience’s awareness of the company. However, they achieve this goal in different ways.

While branding primarily focuses on visual or audio-visual recognition, such as logos, color schemes, UI design solutions, and so on, public relations are about communications.

Why Is PR Strategy Important?

It is impossible to work on public relations without a clear and well-defined goal, and it is also impossible to work cost-effectively on achieving a goal without a comprehensive and well-thought-out plan on how to reach it. 

Reactive and sporadic work on public relations won’t bring satisfying results and will lead to inefficient spending.

Thus, the development of a PR strategy is a cornerstone of all successful PR campaigns and, by extension, of any successful marketing strategy.

Is PR Strategy a Strictly Long-Term Matter?

Not at all. Public relations strategies are invaluable in crisis management situations. A proper response to a negative situation requires prompt development of a strategy for reaching the best possible outcome.

In some cases, it is possible to not only mitigate the losses but even improve the company’s image if a proper strategy is implemented promptly. 

Thus, do not think that public relations strategies are rigid and inflexible – it is possible to stay flexible and adjust your plans on the fly so they are relevant to the current situation.

Is It Possible to Promptly Develop a Strategy in Response to Negativity?

For an in-house PR team with limited resources, the task may indeed be quite overwhelming, especially since the response should be fast and precise, and there is no room for error. But for a large and experienced PR agency, it is a habitual task.

Here is a breakdown of how the ICODA marketing agency worked to mitigate negativity in a very short time.

What Is a Strategic PR Plan?

It is a set of tools, methods, and tactics that will be used to achieve public relations goals, as well as how they will be used.

It is the part of the overall PR strategy that defines how the defined goals will be achieved.

How Does One Develop a PR Strategy?

PR strategy development is a complicated multi-step process that varies a lot on a case-to-case basis. However, we can provide you with a framework that will cover all the basics of a good PR strategy.

Competition Analysis

Analyze how your competitors take care of public relations: what works in your market segment and what doesn’t. After all, any good idea deserves to be stolen.

Results of Your Previous PR Efforts

Analyze the past year of your business’ PR efforts and see what was efficient and what wasn’t. Here are some metrics that determine the efficiency of your efforts:

• Mentions in media
• Trafic KPIs
• Social media posts engagement
• Results of influencer marketing

Audience Analysis

Precisely determine your actual audience. Misunderstanding the actual current audience is a very common mistake for businesses.

Leave Your Biases Behind

Never trust your “gut feeling” or presume that something is “self-evident” – use only actual data. 

The optimal solution is to outsource research to a professional team, such as ICODA. This way, you can be sure that the researchers were objective and thorough.

PR Goals Should Be Aligned With Your Business Goals

Public relations are an integral element of business and should assist the company in achieving its overall goals.

For example, if the company wants to become a market leader for blockchain node validator software, the PR strategy objective should be to establish the company as the most reliable and innovative software provider in the minds of major node validators.

SMART Goals

The so-called “SMART method” is a very old but still very effective approach to setting your PR goals. ‘SMART” is an abbreviation of what your goals should be.

• Specific. Your goals should be directly linked with your target audience, your market segment, and your business.
• Measurable. There should be a clear metric (or several metrics) for every goal, so it is possible to objectively determine whether it was achieved.
• Achievable. The resources your company has available are always limited. There is nothing wrong with being ambitious, but you also have to be realistic.
• Relevant. The goals you set should remain relevant after the strategy has been implemented.
• Time-based. Set up specific timeframes for every goal of your PR strategy. Without such timeframes, it wouldn’t be possible to correctly assess the strategy’s effectiveness.

However, it is never a sound idea to alienate the user base you already have, so never forget about your loyal customers!

The target audience determines both the messages and the tools to get these messages across. So determining the target audience correctly is a key element of a PR strategy and its success.

The Best Way to Create a Key Message

Ask yourself three questions:

1. What impression of my company do I want the audience to have?
2. What is the mission of my company?
3. How is my company better than the competition?

The answer is your key message. But there are also a few additional requirements.

The Necessary Traits for a Key Message

• Targeted. The message should be tailored to your target audience specifically.
• Compelling. The audience should like the message and relate to it.
• Relevant. Your message should answer important questions or offer solutions to pressing issues for your audience.
• Simple. The shorter and simpler the message is, the higher its effectiveness becomes.
• Catchy. The message should stick with the audience. So get creative, and don’t be afraid to use humor.

Be Cooperative

It is sometimes tempting to use the image of a rebellious company that ruffles some feathers, but in practice, it is always more effective to collaborate and cooperate than to fight. So try to avoid open “wars” with other companies and avoid going against major trends in society or in your market niche. 

Owned Media, Paid Media, and Earned Media – What’s the Difference

Classification of media outlets as Owned media, Paid media, and Earned media is a very popular approach among PR professionals. However, it is not the only classification that should be taken into account. 

Owned Media

Owned media refers to outlets owned and operated by the company. These include the company’s website, blog, social media pages, Youtube channel, media platforms, etc.

Paid Media

This group includes all media outlets that are paid by the company to increase its exposure and reach. Typically paid media include influencer content, sponsored articles, videos, and other content, as well as advertisements.

Earned Media

Third-party outlets increase the company’s exposure and/or create content about the company without payment. This category includes mass-media mentions, social media posts, word-of-mouth recommendations, online reviews, and so on.

Naturally, any company wants as much positive attention from the earned media. However, your PR strategies must use all three groups of media outlets – their reach ways in which they reach and engage the audience are different, so they provide different opportunities.

People Still Trust Mass Media

Despite the immense popularity of social media platforms and influencers, it is still worthwhile to focus your efforts on “traditional” mass media.

75% of adults in the US trust local media outlets, 56% – trust national news networks but only 27% trust the information they get from social media posts, according to Pew Research Center.

Social Media: Hard to Reach Out to Your Target Audience, but Still Possible

While it may be difficult to earn your audience’s trust through social media, it is still a crucially important tool for engaging your audience and getting invaluable feedback. 

Moreover, if you’re targeting younger demographics, they display a higher level of trust in social media than older folks.

Industry-Specific Nuances

In addition to the aforementioned applications of social media, it is worth remembering that in some industries, social media platforms are the primary channels for promotion. The most pronounced example is the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. There are many causes for this: from the demographics of crypto users to mainstream media mistrust of crypto.

Industry Media

If you’re targeting industry leaders or active enthusiasts of a certain industry or market, it is worth it to focus on specialized media outlets. They can easily have a disproportionately great influence on your target audience.

For example, Cointelegraph has much more influence over the crypto community than, let’s say, CNN, despite the huge difference in the number of visitors.

In other words, be as creative as you can be, but back up your creativity with online monitoring and analytics.

Don’t Shy Away From Humor

Humor and memes can become your vehicle for success. For example, here is a detailed breakdown of a PEPE Token success story. And its success was based on sheer hilarity and great PR strategies.

Step 8. Monitor the Results

As was mentioned above, your goals should have clear, objective, and measurable metrics linked to them for you to analyze your strategy effectiveness, adjust it and develop plans for the future. 

Also, try to make sure to establish effective communication between your PR team and your business management, so both teams will be able to share data, respond to each other needs and see the results of their work.

It is also advisable to maintain communication with your partners to make collaborations even more efficient.

And, to be fair, monitoring a comprehensive PR campaign across the entire World Wide Web can be rather overwhelming. Fortunately, there are plenty of powerful tools that can help with this aspect.

What Are Digital PR Tools?

Digital public relations tools are software and online platforms that assist you in monitoring your online PR activities, collecting and analyzing data as well as launching advertising campaigns. 

Most of these tools are well-known among PR professionals. However, you’ll rarely see a person that has mastered all or even most of them. That’s why digital PR nowadays requires a dedicated team of experienced professionals.

Here are just a few examples of such tools:

Google Alerts

This is, perhaps, the most basic digital PR tool on the Web. It simply sends you an email alert when certain keywords, names, or links are mentioned on the Web and indexed by Google. It is limited but free, so it is well-suited for a small new company that only starts to grow.

Google Analytics

This tool allows you to track your website’s key metrics, engagement, and user behavior. It helps you to understand which aspects and sections of your websites work and which don’t.

Google Ads

Arguably, the most popular tool for managing digital ads in the world.

Google Search Console

Another tool from Google. This one helps you to keep track of the brand name mentions, clicks, transitions, and other KPIs.

Mentionlytics

Mentionlytics is a solution for tracking keywords and names in social media.

PR Fire

This is a professional tool for the distribution of press releases among journalists and monitoring their responses.

Determ 

Determ is a great tool for monitoring brand mentions online and finding suitable influencers for partnerships.

Buffer

Buffer is a platform for scheduling and managing posts on multiple social media platforms at once. 

SocialPilot

A platform for organizing posts and ads on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and a variety of other social media platforms.

Moz

A professional tool for keyword research and audit of websites

Yandex.Direct

A similar service to Google Ads, but focused on the Yandex search engine.

And please note: we’ve only scratched the surface. There are dozens upon dozens of digital PR tools on the market, each suitable for a specific task or situation.

Is It Worth It to Outsource Your PR Strategy?

Developing and executing a good PR strategy is a fairly complex task. So using the services of a PR firm looks like an obvious decision. Let the professionals take care of public relations while you are preoccupied with the other business aspects.

However, it would be a lie to say that keeping an in-house PR team doesn’t have its merits.

Pros of an In-House Team

Economy (In Some Cases)

Some PR tactics, such as preparing press releases or email newsletters, you can handle without a PR agency or even an extensive in-house team.

However, with your company’s growth, it is often cheaper to outsource your PR strategy entirely since the overhead costs of an in-house team can make its work cost-inefficient.

Easier to Find a Fit

With outsourcing of any kind, there is always a risk that the companies involved would simply fit badly. Friction in business processes, misunderstanding, and other similar issues can ruin even the most genuine and professional efforts at cooperation.

Higher-end PR agencies, however, usually can offer a lot of flexibility by making sure that the customer works with the employees they have the best fit with.

With an in-house team, it is easier to ensure that everybody works together as a team reasonably well. You hire these people yourself, so you have more control.

Pros of Outsourcing

Higher Level of Skill and Experience

There are plenty of extremely talented and experienced PR professionals in in-house teams, no doubt about it.

However, in specialized PR companies, you gain access to a higher level of expertise than the market average. PR firms hunt for high-level professionals with more fervor than most businesses. It is especially true for specialized niches, such as cryptocurrencies and fintech. 

Specialized Skills

Unless your company is a multi-billion dollar corporation, it is really hard to cover all the specialized PR knowledge in an in-house team. 

Expertise in the fields like crisis management in public relations or the use of very specific geos, tools, or media is rare on the market. Such specialists are usually concentrated in specialized firms. In such organizations, their expertise is in higher demand.

PR Training

PR agencies like ICODA offer training on public relations for both your personnel and management.

Things like:

• Preparing for a media interview
• Delivering key messages during interviews
• Responding to tough questions
• Post-interview conduct

And many others can’t be realistically handled by a PR firm. After all, the media always want to talk with CEOs and other officials directly, not with public relations personnel.

In addition, poorly handled communications, even by employees that aren’t supposed to interact with the audience, can have significant negative consequences.

Thus, media relations training should be taken very seriously.

Prepping

Events, media interactions, launches, AMA sessions, and various other events with the direct participation of the company’s executives are crucial for any PR strategy. It would be a huge mistake to participate in such an event unprepared. Take preparations for every event very seriously and work together with the PR agency on every case.

Information Supply

It doesn’t matter how good your PR agency is. Without information, it can’t do its job. PR professionals should know your overall goals.

In addition, it is advised to fulfill their request for information – professionals, in most cases, request only the data they need. Effective and prompt communication is a cornerstone of success and is the responsibility of both parties.

ICODA – A Comprehensive Approach

Both the development and the execution of a comprehensive public relations strategy are complex ventures that require methodical multi-faceted work over a prolonged period. 

ICODA is a PR and marketing agency specializing in the fintech, crypto, and decentralized finance markets. We provide a full spectrum of promotional services for both new startups and established companies. 

ICODA can take over the entire process of developing, implementing, and adjusting a strategy for your company promotion or provide specific services to cover gaps in your in-house capabilities. You will always get services of the highest quality.