To get your company noticed by your target market / audience, you should first try to understand who the target audience is (a PR company can help you to do this). It’s only when you are able to narrow down who you’re trying to target, that you can decide how is best to reach and market to them.
As a PR company, we know how important it is to pinpoint your audience so you can plan and deliver communication activities, using a range of channels, that will actually be effective.
In regards to channels, this includes what media outlets will be approached to try and get them to feature your business. Of course, this depends on the type of company and the audiences that want to be targeted. For instance, if you’re a beauty brand, you might want to appear in women’s lifestyle media like Grazia, Cosmopolitan and Vogue. Otherwise, if you manufacture car parts, you’ll want to get your company into trade magazines like CAT, Aftermarket and Professional Motor Mechanic.
PR falls within the remit of marketing (which you can read more about here) and whereas there is a lot of choice in a marketer’s toolkit (from advertising to email newsletters), PR has more specific tactics it will use.
The most common tactics a PR company will use are:
- Press releases: a PR company / agency will come up news hooks and angles, work these into a press release, and reach out to titles (that are consumed by your audience) in the hope they will cover it. A news story about your business might include company news, a new product or service launch or something focused on your own data or research. At Radioactive PR, it’s our bread and butter delivering creative PR stories to generate lots of valuable coverage for our clients – an example campaign is here.
- Case studies: This is a more of a niche pitch. Whereas a press release can be sent to everyone relevant, a case study is usually pitched on an exclusive basis to a journalist who covers your sector, whether that be childcare, motoring or fashion for instance. A case study is when a customer of yours has an interesting story to tell and your company is usually a solution to that problem.
- Features: The media will run features about a wider topic and will ask companies to contribute to these (often via it’s PR agency if the business uses one) with additional information or a quote – and this is another great way of getting your company features and in front of its target audience. Otherwise, a company (or its PR agency) will pitch a feature idea proactively to a journalist (that includes the opportunity for the business to be featured).
- Social media: Social media can be handled by a PR company (but sometimes by a social media or digital marketing agency). Social media is a great tool to connect with your current and potential customer base. You can run competitions, promote your products, share knowledge to your audience and use ads to grow your online following.
- Influencers: Using influencers is another way of connecting to an audience. Again, influencer engagement is not always managed by a PR agency (in fact, there are specific influencer agencies that brands can use). At Radioactive PR, we offer influencer engagement as we know it’s a valuable way to reach a loyal audience base. Nowadays, a company will need to pay for the influencer’s support as well as offer some product to them to promote or review. It’s really valuable to get third-party endorsement from an influencer for a brand as it enhances credibility – in the same way as if a business gets coverage in a respected media outlet.
These are just a few ways you can get your business noticed by your target audience and get them interested in your company. If you’d be interested in knowing how our PR company can support you, please get in touch!