PR-tools. The List for 2020.
Use them now. And every day.
The longer I have been working in PR, the more I get immersed myself at business processes and became engaged in integrated marketing communications. This includes all types of content from the time-table of a showroom to a text and visual plans for all social networks; from key-worded and linked-anchored SEO texts to chatting on forums in the name of guerrilla marketing.
No “ping pong”. Also, there is no “lot of work” or “little work”. There are only a client and business aims. That`s all. And it greatly simplifies a deal.
But all of this “sugar-coating” higher aims to show what a frantic life is in every business. PR and customers bring mad energy.
PR Tools List 2020 for PR specialists, marketers, promoters, communicators.
These tools give joy to my customers and me, automatically. These methods of promotion are suitable for everyone — beginners, market leaders, PR-students and gurus, for products businesses as well for services and NGOs.
Insta-Stories. Especially for those who hate Instagram and everything connected with it. For those who have never done stories. Make it, and you will grow a halo for yourself!, I promise :) My “suffering” with IGTV, stories, SMM-planners, Insta shops, Insta supports almost led me to the path of downshifting, but I stayed in PR!
Quality photos and videos of products. You can customize your smartphone for photos in a brand’s social network as you like, but this won`t replace a high-quality studio photo-, video shooting. Once I have come to my job at 8 am, the boos presented me a new full-time designer, gave a pack of jewelry pieces which are our brand`s products, and delegated going to to the nearest spruce park for taking Mary Christmas photos. Photos were too amateurish, so I was against showing them, anyone. It would be better to post my photos, how I have been decorating “Christmas trees” in the park with tinsel :)
EDM (email direct mailing). You can do it more often. You can do it more unexpected. You can add everything that your email database is not ready for: some new pictures, new calls-to-actions, discounts, crazy speech patterns, gestures of unexpected generosity or greed. Insert videos, links to guides and books, maps, social media, surveys, etc. Make sure everything loads quickly and looks good from the mobile and desktop versions. Do tests before the final sending to your audiences. Long story short, do not deny yourself anything.
More marketing in PR. LiveDune, Google Analytics, Trends, SimilarWeb — lets please these guys with our attendance. Scope and engagement rate statistics on social networks and their correlation with subscriptions, and the subscriptions correlations with sales. A PR-specialist tests the content and the reaction to it, as well as builds hypothesizes what works best, when, why.
Client Service Support & Google Business Reviews. Do you have the access to chats, correspondence with customers, do you see their comments, questions, complaints, thanks? Saying from myself, it is a big pleasure to be a PR-specialist who assists clients in their products or services choice in real-time. I love to know a brand’s products so well that I can sell them to customers. And I usually do it. When a call center is far away or offline, but we receive a request on any social network concerning any subtleties and wishes and pricing, I can write a clear and accurate answer in a minute, calculate the minimum and maximum prices on a request, indicate the pros and cons of a choice, orient by date manufacturing, shipping, warranties, sizes, and thousand more nuances. If it is necessary, I contact a brand representative abroad and clarify all the missing puzzles for an accurate answer. But the bot’s response, “Thank you for the request. We’ll contact you ever-never…”, is an ingredient from the “Big No-No” box.
WEB-SITE, and everything connected with it. Not a solo of social networks. How a company description is presented on a web-site, contacts easy access, product attractiveness, and their accurate description, uninterrupted work of all the sections, footers-headers, banners, maps, pop-up ads, switches. etc. How it works, looks, turns, makes you stay. A very important element is the website blog. A blog is like God. An SEO specialist is a blog guardian angel who takes care of its “keys” and links. You need to communicate with SEO. More than you thought at the start. Therefore, there is a better idea — you need to make friendship with SEO.
Crowd marketing. Quora, Medium — anywhere safe and popular web-place you can talk and show your thoughts, answer questions, ask your ones, look at statistics, and, of course, make the influence. Having been on Quora with your brand for even a week, you will already have a much better understanding of what your target audience wants, what are its main headaches, who and how helps most often, what answers make an audience angry. Then you can easily predict questions, publish complete interesting answers to your website’s blog, pack them in guides, place and promote them on ISSUU or any other suitable platform.
Bloggers. Understanding who and why we should contact; what are their interests — what are our capabilities — and what is the common ground. I managed on the first negotiations to get the consent of several bloggers to advertise by barter in their accounts. The number of their followers are from 80K to 180K. Some of them even agreed on things unusual for bloggers, such as free planning of a concrete date of a post. How to archive fine results on the online negotiations with bloggers? You should be specific, add friendly arguments, and present a brand briefly, capaciously, transparently and promisingly. Concerning the last one, I mean why a blogger will win from this collaboration too, especially when we talk about a barter format of advertising.
Media Relations. The good old ones. When the tones of digital marketing come up, it is a special joy for me to create a traditional media plan, call journalists, buy print ads or, at least, on a magazine’s website for a year, write press releases and backgrounds, schedule an interview… Such nostalgia brings tears to my eyes. I love media marketing because this is the first area which I entered with PR activity. And the traditional media still works. More, by choosing the right media and not fu#king up with content, it works for the million (whether the million of profit or subscribers, it is up to you:)
Do not lose sight of these PR tools list in 2020. Let PR come with us!
