An effective PR campaign is more than just a press release on a new product or a fundraiser to raise brand awareness. To create a remarkably effective PR campaign, you need to take some big extra steps.

If done right, your PR campaign can attract national (and positive) media attention, boost sales drastically, and create a positive relationship between your company and the public for years to come. To help you reach these heights with your next PR campaign, we’ve compiled ten effective tips.

What Is a PR Campaign?

A public relations campaign has a clear objective, such as raising awareness of a product, informing the public of company news, reaching a larger audience, or improving the brand’s reputation. It uses strategic messaging to communicate with one’s audience and successfully reach this objective.

10 Pro Tips for Running an Effective PR Campaign

Before Releasing Your Message

1. Set a Goal, its Limitations, and Metric of Success:

It’s important to start with a big-picture goal. What do you hope to achieve with your campaign? Do you want to reach a new audience? Do you want to boost sales on a product? Do you want to build a positive relationship with the public?

Once you’ve chosen a big-picture goal, narrow it down further — for which product do you want to boost sales? For what do you want your brand to be known? Take into account how big your budget is and whether there should be a deadline. By laying a campaign roadmap, you’re giving yourself a focused metric to measure your success.

2. Know Your Audience
Before you can choose how you want to deliver your PR message, you must decide who you want to receive it. Take the time to establish which customer persona you want this campaign to reach. For instance, if you’re targeting families, you might want to create a campaign that expresses a family-first message or demonstrates why the brand cares how its product affects loved ones.

3. Choose the Right Platform
Once you’ve decided on a target persona, you’ll want to choose your preferred platform for delivering your message — for instance, does your ideal audience prefer TV or radio? A press release or a press conference? This information will help you strategize everything else.

4. Find Your Creative Angle
No one says you can’t run a successful campaign on small news, like a company award, but your story must be interesting to the public. Luckily, every story has a creative angle. Look at it from the public’s point of view. Why should they care? If your business just won the award, “Best Cycle Studio in Brooklyn,” ask yourself what about this award is important to your customers. The right editorial hook is often what makes someone want to learn more. For example, “We Won Best Cycle Studio in Brooklyn, Beating Out Big-Names like Soul Cycle, Only 6-Months After Opening.”

5. Write an Exceptional Press Release
If you want journalists to help you, you need to help them. Rather than writing a press release like a promotion, i.e. “Our New Phone Is Now Available,” write one with a strong news angle: “One Local Cell Phone Shop Hopes to Compete with Apple’s iPhone.” See the difference? The first press release option is just an advertisement. The second option is a story. Include relevant quotes from employees or industry leaders and include all the necessary information a journalist might need.

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