Industry Awards – Are They Worth It?

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As we spring into the awards season, many businesses and teams may now be thinking of being recognised for all their hard work over the last year by entering an award. No matter the sector you work in, there will be an award category your business can enter.

As a PR agency, something we often get asked is whether awards are really worth entering? The short answer is YES! Although time and money goes into entering them, the potential rewards you and your business can reap make it all worthwhile. Plus, you can always look at hiring a company such as ourselves to help compile your award entries to make the process a whole lot easier!

Let’s delve into why your business should be entering industry awards!

From boosting your brand to improving your business’ reputation, entering industry awards is an essential part of marketing, and as PR professionals it’s something we encourage all our clients to get involved with.

We always say it’s not the winning that’s important, it’s the taking part and with industry awards, this couldn’t be truer! It’s all about recognition and getting your brand/business out there. When entering awards, more often than not the organisations will post shortlists of the finalists across their website, social media, and even in local the local press. So even before the final judgment call, your business has already had its fair share of exposure as a reputable candidate for an award. A win-win essentially!

Let’s take a further look at the benefits of entering industry awards…

Better brand credibility

Being nominated and winning an award is a great way of distinguishing your business from competitors, as well as serving as an effective and authentic brand endorsement.

We can’t help but associate ‘award-winning’ with an established, reliable business, so advertising your shortlists and wins across your websites and social platforms is a great way to promote your business to potential clients and customers as an industry winner, essentially being quality assured.

A great marketing tool

With winning an award comes sharing your successes. Shouting your gains is a fantastic way to earn more exposure and brand awareness. Being quality assured through the win will also likely gain a wider customers and clientele base as this new exposure is a quick and effective way to build a reputation or credibility in a sector.

Not just for big businesses!

Even if you run a small business never let that fact deter you from achieving recognition. No matter the company, big or small, everyone puts in a lot of hard work and determination to make their venture a successful one. Small businesses have equal opportunities and often specific categories that allow you to compete with the bigger businesses.  Being nominated, shortlisted or winning can also put you on the same level as the other businesses within the category.

 

At Source PR, we have had many years of experience working with clients both small and large and entering businesses into awards.  We are also pleased to have assisted many of our clients in gaining the recognition they deserve across a number of awarding bodies.

Interested in entering your business into industry awards? Introducing Source PR – where our team of skilled professionals can take your business to the next level. If you’d like to find out more about how Source PR can support you, drop our friendly team a line. We’re always happy to chat.

#CheshireDay… Our Cheshire Story

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Next week marks #CheshireDay, something we all like to get behind here at Source PR. Our business is based on the outskirts of Chester city centre, in Tattenhall – a lovely rural village, and most of our team have either lived or worked in the county for many years.

This year, the theme is ‘Your Cheshire Story’ so we thought it a great time to share not only Source’s, but some of our team’s too – and what makes Cheshire so special to them.

Our Cheshire Story – Source PR

A PR and social media agency just outside of Chester, Source has been Cheshire-based for its whole life – which is over 15 years! Our offices are currently in an old-converted school building on Tattenhall’s historic high street Our founder Louis has lived in the county for a large part of his life, and is what we would call an old Cheshire veteran… There aren’t many places he can walk into without knowing at least a couple of people!

Several of our clients are based in Cheshire or in the North West, and we’re proud to support businesses born and bred in the region including Three Wrens Gin, Combermere Abbey, Bear Inns and Meadow. We’ve helped local businesses right from their inception – such as Bradwall Bakehouse, right through to supporting established brands and growing their reputation both locally and nationally.

Cheshire will always hold a special place in our hearts, and so we like to give back to it where we can too. All of our team enjoy volunteering days where they can support charities and organisations of their choosing, and a couple of years ago we pledged to offer free PR support to the Hospice of the Good Shepherd, getting them featured on the likes of the BBC and ITV which we’re told made a huge difference to their fundraising during lockdown!

It’s not just Louis who’s lived and worked in Cheshire for many years, we’ve got team members who grew up here, studied here, or who’ve just come here to work for us! Being a flexible employer means we’ve been able to bring in talent from Merseyside, Shropshire and Staffordshire to join Source PR and offer their fantastic PR skills to Cheshire businesses and beyond. Let’s hear from them…

Their Cheshire Stories – The Team

Jessica Pardoe, Account Manager

“My first job in Cheshire was at Source, before that I’d lived and worked in both Liverpool and Manchester (despite being from Staffordshire – I get around I know!). I’ve been here coming up to 3 and a half years now, and I’m still as in love with the county as I was the day I first stepped through our office doors.

I’ll never get over the ‘I’m ever so lucky’ feeling when instead of sitting in traffic on the motorway, I’m driving through the countryside. I meet cows and sheep on my morning commute instead of angry drivers! I’ve had a lot to do with the Cheshire community since working at Source, from getting to know local influencers and journalists, to joining amazing groups such as the Cheshire Creatives Club and even giving talks there. There’s a great supportive community that are very welcoming to outsiders (though I don’t think I class myself as one anymore 😉).

So that’s my short but sweet Cheshire story. I hope I work here foreverrrrrr.”

Jill Mathers, Junior Account Executive

“After finishing my degree at John Moores University, Liverpool I had taken my first full-time role with Source PR, located in the beautiful Tattenhall. It was my first proper experience of the British countryside, and it was breathtaking!

I loved the area so much that I later moved to Chester where I spent many of my evenings after work beside the canal with a Cheshire ice cream in hand! Being from Ireland, it was scary to move somewhere new, but Cheshire has been the first place I have called home. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming it’s been a fantastic place to start my career.”

Jessica McDonnell, Senior Account Manager

“Though I have a CH postcode, Cheshire feels like a different world from where I live on the Wirral! Although I love living by the sea, it’s lovely to come into work in Cheshire for a change of scene and see the sheep knocking about in Tattenhall. Lunchtime walks are scenic, and the people always say hello, which is nice.” 

Adam Stanworth, Junior Account Executive

“I’ve lived in Cheshire for much of my life, having grown up in Chester, and the only way I can describe my relationship with my home county is like a teenager who’s embarrassed by their parents.

When people from elsewhere in the country ask where I’m from and I tell them I’m of Cheshire origins I’m usually met with accusations of being ‘posh’, despite my northern accent. Images of big cars, even bigger houses and spray tans are the stereotypes people tend to associate with the county. Hence the teenager embarrassed by their parents’ aspect. However, in this laboured simile, there remains the fact that fundamentally the teenager does love his parents, really. Yes, the jokes about being from Cheshire are inevitable but ultimately, I was extremely fortunate to have such a happy childhood, here and there are so many aspects of the county to be proud of.

Cheshire is filled with brilliant industries and businesses and is a central part of the wider North West economy. It boasts stunning landscapes and two brilliant rugby league teams in Widnes Vikings and Warrington Wolves. It’s the birthplace of Ian Curtis, Daniel Craig, Harry Styles and Lewis Carroll; it’s a tourist destination; a home for refugees and full of amazing people. Despite it being a source of ribbing and mild embarrassment, I’ve got a lot of love for my home county.”

Louis Hill, Managing Director

“I’ve always been a bit of a nomad.  I was born in Kent, grew up in Hampshire and spent teenage years living in America, Africa and then London. I’d never visited Cheshire until I came here for university but quickly fell in love with it.  When the opportunity came to return here after several years working in London, I was quick to jump at it.

I’ve always believed that life is all about balance – work hard, play hard and Cheshire provides an amazing space for both. Great countryside, pubs and community while also being an excellent place to work and set up a business. Having lived in the county for more than 20 years it’s now definitely home – which seems a little strange as I’ve always considered myself a soft southerner.”

How To Create A Successful B2B Campaign In 2023

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One of the reasons public relations (PR) is such an exciting role to work in is that to thrive in the industry you need to be dynamic and adaptable, and the same can be said for campaigns. When it comes to a B2B PR campaign, first and foremost, it’s vital to know your key messaging and desired outcomes before you even think about putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and brainstorming ideas. Let’s explore the fundamentals to creating a successful B2B campaign.

 

First of all, what is B2B PR?

B2B is short for business-to-business and B2B PR is essentially a way of one business communicating with another business. On the other hand, B2C means business to consumer.

So, when it comes to creating a successful B2B PR campaign, what do you need to know?

 

Set objectives

 As mentioned at the start of the blog, before you do anything else it’s important to examine what the desired outcome of the campaign is. Raising awareness of the business is likely to be part of the campaign KPIs, or perhaps it’s a specific issue or topic that the business would like to champion. Maybe you want to build-up your email database, generate interest in an event or up for a webinar or event or increase social media followers. Whatever the campaign objectives it is vital that they are clear from the start.

 

Know your audience and how to target them

Now you have your objectives set, it’s time to delve into your target audiences. For some clients, they may want to reach the key decision makers in a business, for others, maybe it’s a specific company department they need to get in front of. A recent example of this is a campaign we did here at Source for Evolve 4 where we had two very different target customers, food manufacturers and primary schools.

In order to establish exactly who those key audiences should be targeted and therefore how we could create a campaign to reach them, we gathered the team at Evolve and Source together and ran a persona workshop. Though these kinds of workshops can be lengthy, they are important as along with objectives they form the foundations of the campaign.

 

Research and brainstorming for a PR campaign

 The fun part! Now it’s time to gather your team and have a brainstorming session. There’s no one size fits all approach to researching and brainstorming and every agency or business will work individually. A good rule of thumb to live by here is that no idea is a bad idea, give everyone the space to gather their thoughts and ideas, air them, write them down on paper or type them out – whatever works best. This shouldn’t be confined to the office, though. Many of us get our best ideas when on a walk, in the shower or during a conversation with a friend.

 

Channels to use for your PR campaign

 If you work in PR, you’ll have likely heard of the staple PESO model. PESO stands for paid, earned, shared and owned media channels, all of which naturally overlap to generate that integrated campaign. Analysing this model can help to determine which channels you’ll be using for your campaign.

 

Image from spinsucks.com

 

Execution and measurement

Skipping straight to execution and measurement, once you’ve set out what channels you’ll be using during your campaign, you’ll need to actually do the work – that goes without saying! Draft and distribute the press releases, pitching in the feature articles, generate the video content, the list goes on.

Once your campaign is complete it’s time to measure results. Measuring results in PR is famously a sticky point and will depend on which channels you utilised for the campaign and the desired outcomes. At Source we have tools in place such as Ace Media which allows the team to capture and track print and online media coverage, as well as brand mentions, audience and lots more. This is just one example of how we measure success for our client’s B2B campaigns.

There we have it, that was B2B campaigns in a nutshell. If you think our team could help you with your next product launch, profile raising activity or social media content then get in touch.

6 Signs It’s Time To Hire A PR Agency

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It’s not always easy deciding when it’s the right time to hire a PR agency, especially if your business is an SME. Whether it’s thoughts about budget, or the hesitance to not hand your baby (your company!) over to someone else to share the load, the right time to bring in help can be difficult to pin point. Which is why we’re here to help. At Source, we’ve been working with smaller local businesses, right up to multi-national companies since 2008, and our team members have experience in marketing that far precedes that too.

Here are your 6 signs that it’s time to hire a PR agency, and why you’ll be glad you did.

When Should You Hire A PR Agency?

1. The Owner Is Managing Marketing

One of the biggest signs that your business is probably ready to hire a PR agency, is if the owner or CEO is doing all the PR and marketing – and it’s starting to have an impact on day-to-day operations. Any company with ambitions to grow should recognise the value of outsourcing work and leaving certain aspects to the professionals in the field, instead of trying to take it all on – which can lead to severe burnout!

Why you’ll be glad to have hired an agency: you’re an expert at running YOUR business, we’re experts in PR and social media. PR agencies are full of teams with experience from all different industries, that kind of knowledge injected into your business usually can’t be replicated by one person.  Most importantly however, most business owners have enough on their plate so appointing a PR agency will free your time to focus on your business knowing your marketing, PR and social media is all being taken care of.

2. You Have Budget To Invest In Growth

The best thing PR can do for your business is to nurture and encourage its growth. We’ve worked with several businesses who we’ve supported for over a decade, and we’ve been a part of their evolution from very early on. Such as Meadow, one of our longest retained clients that’s recently undergone a full re-brand and change of top-level management. If you’ve got profits that you’re willing to re-invest for the greater good of your company, then it’s time to give a PR agency a call.

Why you’ll be glad to have hired an agency: PR is all about building a great long-term reputation, so if you have the patience and time to invest in it, you’ll reap the rewards further down the line.

3. You Want Your Business To ‘Do’ Better

One thing we’re seeing more and more in PR, is companies wanting stronger ESG strategies and ensuring they’re carrying out regular ‘good work’. Whether that’s encouraging employees to join in on group voluntary sessions, lending services for free or simply donating to good causes and partnering with local groups – all of the above helps in strengthening both the reputation of your brand’s name, and what the local community thinks of you too. If you want your business to benefit from a strong CSR strategy, then it’s time to hire a PR agency that knows what they’re doing.

Why you’ll be glad to have hired an agency: charity and community work not only helps to improve and then maintain a strong presence, but it can also align to your wider business strategy and reputation.  You’ll also earn you some lovely local coverage too – which helps to get your business out there even more.

 

 

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4. Your Customers Aren’t Hearing From You Enough

Another time it might be right to hire a PR agency, is if you’re finding you’re not communicating to your stakeholders enough. Whether that’s through your social media channels, website, or external communications in the media. It’s not enough to be seen little and often, the best brands have a strategy that gives them consistent visibility. This is something a PR agency can certainly help with.

Why you’ll be glad to have hired an agency: having someone else manage your social media and website takes a lot of pressure off other team members and ensures there is a consistent and considered approach. It should keep your customers engaged and make your life easier.

5. Your Online Presence Isn’t Strong

It’s no longer enough to be in the Yellow Pages (was it ever?) or to just ‘have a website’, for your business to really grow, you’ll need to be visible across multiple online channels. One of the biggest things clients get wrong, is thinking that having a Facebook, or LinkedIn channel alone will convert them sales. A good PR strategy will combine social, web content, media relations and more to ensure you have a very strong online presence. When potential customers look you up – are they finding a strong brand with clear information about your company? If not, it’s time to hire a PR agency.

Why you’ll be glad to have hired an agency: having one centralised management system for your online presence ensures that everything is on brand and working well together, which really comes across to anyone searching you up online.

6. Time Is Being Lost In Other Departments

Finally, even if it’s not your CEO or owner managing your PR, even having another member of the team or even a department looking after it, when it isn’t their core area of expertise, can be impactful to your business operations. Sales teams can run the risk of messages being too driven by a need to convert, which can lose the faith of your customers, whereas operations staff may put marketing on the backburner because they need their time to keep things running smoothly day to day. If you’re finding that you’re losing valuable time from your team, then it’s time to bring in help.

Why you’ll be glad to have hired an agency: some staff members really love getting stuck into PR and social media for their businesses, others would rather focus on what they were brought on board to do – let a PR agency work with your business and become an extension of your team, and you’ll keep everyone happy!

If we’ve convinced you that you’re ready to hire a PR agency and you’d like to find out more about how Source PR can support you, drop our friendly team a line. We’re always happy to chat.

How To Best Use Influencer Marketing

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Influencer marketing is increasingly being used by businesses and brands to extend their range and reach into new and lucrative markets.  Although the marketing tactic has been used for several years, influencer marketing is set for exponential growth in 2023.

PR agencies have always been the preferred partner for businesses looking to engage in influencer marketing.  From the more traditional media briefings in which companies sought to inspire editors and the media agenda, through to brand collaborations when the reputation of an established brand is used to leverage exposure for a new or emerging brand – the right PR agency can help reach and influence new audiences like no other marketing medium.

Today however influencer marketing primarily refers to collaborations between brands and ‘influencers’ on digital platforms whether social media, blogs or other digital channels. The question often asked by clients is ‘what is an influencer?’ and how to gauge whether they have a genuine ‘influence’ amongst target audiences.

Influencer Marketing – Breaking It Down

One common mistake is to not differentiate between a celebrity and an online influencer. Admittedly many celebrities can extend into the role of influencer but in many cases, they are quite separate entities.

Most influencers have built a loyal and enthusiastic audience by posting relevant and engaging content that resonates with their followers.  People organically elect to follow these influencers based on their content, which in turn can vary from quite generic topics such as food & drink, parenting and travel right down to very specific subjects such as photography, wellness or types of gin (and everything in-between!).

Influencer marketing is not limited to consumer brands as an influencer can be a well-read business expert or blogger who tweets relevant content, or a respected marketing executive on LinkedIn with insightful views and opinions. Within any industry, there are influential people—you just need to find them – and that’s where working with a PR agency can help.

Some influencers have hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of followers but there are also plenty who seem more like ordinary people. They may have less than 10,000 followers but they have developed a reputation for being the experts in their field. They are the go-to people who are trusted to provide the answers to people’s questions. Depending on their sphere of expertise, they can often be the people who make the most engaging social posts on their specialist topics. They share the best pictures, make the most entertaining videos, and run the most informative online discussions.

It’s important to realise that the influencer’s audiences don’t really care about brands specifically, more the opinions of the influencer towards the brand.  It’s therefore important to work with the influencer rather than push your rules, ‘brand guidelines’ or business practices into their actions as they can simply walk away, taking their followers with them or worse still become antagonistic.

The growth of influencer marketing

The statistics speak for themselves.  In 2016, influencer marketing was a $1.7bn industry worldwide, while last year (2022) it had grown to more than $16.4bn.  According to an influencer marketing hub report,  90% of survey respondents believe influencer marketing is an effective form of marketing and currently more than two thirds (67%) of brands use Instagram for influencer marketing.

The growth is set to continue as 75% of the survey respondents suggested that they would be dedicating a budget to influencer marketing in 2023. This rate is up substantially from the 37% who claimed they would allocate a budget to it just 6 years ago in 2017.

Tips for influencer marketing

So, for brands or businesses looking to engage with influencer marketing, we’d suggest that to be most effective, start with a plan that includes objectives, target markets and a budget and then begin careful research into who would be a good fit and provide you with a platform for targeted exposure.

When researching influencers, don’t be overtly swayed by their follower numbers but instead look at their levels of engagement.  How many people like their posts, comment or share as these are the key metrics to consider.  Often big name influencers may not be right for a brand or too commercial to develop genuine and lasting relationships.

Decide also how you are going to find and approach the influencer.  This can be time consuming so working with a PR agency that works with influencers can be a big help as often they may have existing relationship or the resource to target them organically.

When you have found the perfect partner, work with them and develop a schedule of activities.  Consider how their posts can integrate with your existing social media or content marketing schedule, what agreements are in place to ensure the right number of posts, reels or blogs are included in exchange for a product or service.  Is money changing hands and, if so, are the right contracts in place? Also remember the influencer must declare if a financial agreement or if a product has been gifted.

It’s also worth considering what doesn’t work.  Buying influence does not work as many influencers have spent time building their following and so wont risk tarnishing their reputation by selling out and promoting products they don’t like, relate to, or would not recommend to their followers.

It’s also not necessarily about quick results and fast sales.  Although this can be the case (most famously when Delia Smith recommends a kitchen product, they sell out fast!) the main objectives of influencer marketing is building the exposure of your product, its reputation and taking it to new potential audiences through the strength of third party endorsement.

Remember also to be specific as one size does not fit all.  Spend time to find the right fit with an influencer and when that’s achieved it’s proven to pay dividends.

For more information on influencer marketing, contact a member of the Source PR team and let us help build you reputation, product awareness and take your brand or business into new and exciting areas.

Our Predictions For 2023 Marketing And PR Trends

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As we all return to work after a lovely festive break, we picked the refreshed brains of our team to find out what each of them believe will be the key trends in marketing and PR for the coming year. 

Jess McDonnell

The continued focus on CSR  

“With the current state of the country (and the world) I think social consciousness is increasing, which means businesses need to take CSR activities to the next level and avoid greenwashing.

This could lead to great opportunities to build that positive organic presence on owned media channels.

PR and comms experts need to champion research and data-driven campaigns and stories in order to achieve coverage in tier-one publications and national media as both businesses and consumers are now savvier than ever to ‘fake news’.”

Bridie Buckingham

Affiliate marketing for the win 

“Many people have been plotting its demise for years now but affiliate marketing continues to grow from strength to strength. Especially in the wake of the pandemic and the MONUMENTAL shift to digital marketing and e-commerce, the choice to adopt the affiliate marketing model is more popular than ever with 8 out of 10 brands running an affiliate scheme. In fact, 84% of marketers claim that affiliate marketing alone has increased their ROI by 20% since 2019. 

“Setting up an affiliate marketing scheme can boost brand awareness and augment sales without spending a huge amount on advertising. However, it is worth keeping in mind that success in this area requires selecting brand affiliates that share the same niche or target profile as you. Oftentimes, these influencers will come to you as they know the benefits affiliate links can provide for their income!” 

Jessica Pardoe

Links with purpose 

“As the last few years have passed us by, digital PR and its importance in marketing is now unavoidable. As search engines get smarter and their influence on people only continue to grow, every good PR should be thinking about how they can consider this within their strategy. Having worked particularly in SEO and digital PR in the past, I came into a more traditional role here at Source as I hated the idea of chasing links for links sake!  

 “However, in 2023 I hope to see more of a shift to PR with purpose in digital, and I think that’s where we can help! It’s important to think of the PR benefits of any coverage or online activity first, but then ensure links are considered as a very important afterthought. I think more PRs will begin to understand the value of sending out solid, relevant stories and building a good rapport with journalists, and that in turn will win them backlinks for SEO benefits, AS WELL AS gain lots of lovely PR coverage which is beneficial to brands in far more ways than one.” 

Jill Mathers

Podcasts are the future 

2023 Marketing And PR Trends

“With the rise in demand for video and audio content, it is no surprise that this is an integral part of the future of PR. We hope to see a demand for podcasts (both audio and video) in 2023 as it allows for brands to give a unique, in-depth look at the people behind business that you wouldn’t normally see on fast moving, image-based platforms like Instagram. 

“In addition, younger audiences are moving away from highly curated feeds towards raw, real-time platforms like BeReal and TikTok, in part because they feel more authentic than their overly produced counterparts. Podcasting fits into the realm of channels that offer realism which many people want to see, as well as deep diving into topics that just can’t be covered on the ‘gram.” 

Louis Hill

Don’t blindly follow the crowd  

“As the digital marketing world continues to grow at an exponential rate, it is important companies don’t get carried away with the latest fad but remain focussed on their core strategy.  

 “Too often companies focus on the latest marketing tools or trends to get themselves noticed.  Before you even consider what delivery tactics are needed, look at the strategy first – who are you, what do you stand for, what are you great at, who do you want to influence and what space do you want to own? 

Once that’s determined, assess the tools and tactics available to best achieve it.”  

Adam Stanworth

Greater use of video in B2B 

“It’s already near-ubiquitous elsewhere, but in B2B PR video content is largely neglected and still not used as widely as it could be.

In 2023, however, video should become more prevalent in the B2B world and businesses will increasingly see their stories told through this medium whether that’s on LinkedIn, Twitter or even TikTok.   

“Fundamentally, businesses are made up of consumers and consumers find video content on social media more engaging than the written word so B2B must adapt to incorporate this type of content into its social media strategy.

Video stops the scroll, and with TikToks and Reels firmly embedded within online advertising and marketing, it’s a medium that can no longer be neglected by B2B.” 

Janet Hare

The rise of AI 

“2023 is surely going to be the year of expedited development in AI technology and its application. In December last year, we saw the launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI and it was immediately heralded as impressive and human-like in its ability to create content by the world of PR and marketing and in the media. Even Elon Musk tweeted about its remarkable abilities – “ChatGPT is scary good. We are not far from dangerously strong AI” – and Google reportedly expressed concern internally about its abilities to disrupt the search engine business due to its unexpected strength.   

“As we start 2023, we in the PR and marketing industry are scrambling to test its abilities to see how we can harness its power as well as worry about its potential threat to our bread-and-butter activity of writing content and how we stay ahead of the curve. Meanwhile, the potentially negative uses of the chatbot are starting to appear and the New York City education department has blocked the use of ChatGPT on the internet and devices within schools due to its worries about it leading to a wave of ‘cheating’ in essays and other schoolwork. 

“Whether it’s seen as a negative or positive tool, the fact remains that AI is only on its way up and we will see more applications of it as the year progresses in marketing and PR.” 

Skills You Need To Be A Successful PR In 2023

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It’s no secret that working in public relations and managing successful PR campaigns can be a stressful yet rewarding at times. One day you could be pitching in a hot new client story to the media, the next you could find yourself in Milan conducting a video shoot (okay, that doesn’t happen all that often, but it did for me recently, so I had to mention it!). Working in PR, means you get to add many strings to your bow and here, we explore the essential skills that’ll help you to enjoy a thriving career in PR.

 

Strong copywriting skills

Possibly the cornerstone of any role in PR and comms is solid copywriting skills. A huge part of the role, you’ll need to turn your hand to writing blogs, white papers, reports, press releases, case studies…the list goes on. If you’re in an agency role with several clients, it’s important to nail the tone of voice for each client and have the ability to digest sometimes complex information before drafting it up in an easily readable and understood manner.

 

An eye for news

A must-have skill in PR is knowing which story is going to hit the sweet spot with the media. In meetings or interviews, being able to pick out those golden key pieces of information that will leave journalists wanting to know more isn’t a knack that should be taken for granted.

 

Passion

Passion is what gets us through on the hardest days. Maybe you’re struggling to get in touch with a journalist, your social post isn’t performing how you wanted it to, or your event sign up numbers aren’t as high as anticipated – these things can really put you on a downer after weeks or even months of planning and hard work. A dash of passion and desire to do your best work is what is needed to get us through those tricky days!

 

A thick skin

Unfortunately, like many industries, delivering successful PR isn’t for the faint hearted. You may come across a cranky  (we all have bad days), challenging crisis comms work, or get some unexpected feedback on an article you poured your heart and soul into and it can be dis-heartening. Feeling this way isn’t a bad thing, it just shows we care!

Adaptability

“But that’s how we’ve always done it” isn’t a welcome phrase in our industry. As professionals, it’s important to be able to adapt, change and embrace new trends, techniques and technology. Gone are the days of cutting out individual press clippings and compiling them into a book to then send in the post to clients – and aren’t we glad of that!? If PRs had ignored this new method of communication called social media 10 years ago, then I wonder where we’d be now. Arguably, SEO only became a thing in the late 90s, and look how much that has evolved over the years. For me, there will always be a place for genuine content and print media, but there’s also plenty of room for the newer stuff too!

 

The team at Source PR have all of these skills in abundance, to find out how we could help you and your business, get in touch.

How To Maintain Your Brand During A Recession

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“Should I be spending as much on PR and marketing when I’m having to cut costs to keep my business as profitable as possible?” This is a question you may be asking as 2022 comes to a close and the start of 2023 looks set to be marred by the ongoing UK recession.

Quite often I find, PR and marketing is at the bottom of many company ‘to do’ lists during a recession. It’s regularly seen as a soft business priority rather than an essential. A nice to have, rather than a need to have.

It’s also sometimes a low priority when it comes to allocating spend to. Which, during these times of economic downturn and spending squeezes, is often why promotional budgets are the first to go. But, here are 5 reasons why it’s important to invest in marketing during an economic downturn.

How To Maintain Your Brand During A Recession

  1. When household and business budgets are tight due to a recession, people are going to seek out the cheapest option instead of the best option. This is why the more you keep your brand front of mind for your customers, the more likely they are to still buy from you. If you turn off your PR and marketing activity, you will become less visible to them and there will be no reminders of the product they bought and loved when money was more freely available. This is also a good time to steal a march on possible competitors who are not so bold in their approach to PR and marketing.
  2. You do not want to lose your brand loyalty. Brand building takes time. A lot of time. Like mostly years. Starting from scratch again at a later date is a painful, and expensive, thought. On social media, for example, your followers are used to you being active. Take that away and you will lose them.
  3. PR itself, as part of the whole marketing mix, is actually one of the more cost-effective activities you can be doing right now to promote your business. The results that your PR team or agency will be producing for you is earned rather than paid for, so a large advertising budget or marketing spend is not needed to get your brand out there.
  4. You can use PR and marketing activities to show your company in a different light to demonstrate your knowledge of the struggles that others are facing. That could be through CSR activities, giving back to your local community, or through your internal comms making sure you’re listening and taking action where you can to address the worries your employees may have. Of course, as always, be aware of ‘CSR washing’ and make sure your actions are driven by genuine compassion and not to gain column inches.
  5. Lastly, when times are hard it’s even more important to celebrate and shout about your successes during a recession. You want customers and potential customers to know that you are still operating. You want your employees to feel proud of where they work and not worry about how the difficult times might affect the company they work for and their jobs.

The TikTok Tidal Wave – Is It About To Overtake Our Marketing Strategies?

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This time last year, TikTok officially surpassed Google as the world’s most popular site. The perfect storm of lockdown boredom, a Vine-shaped hole in our hearts to fill and the demise of other social media platforms saw this relatively new idea rocket past its competitors. To date, there are over 1.5 billion active monthly users on the app, just under 20% of the entire population of the globe. Let that sink in.

With such colossal usage figures and endless potential, many are now questioning whether TikTok will overtake the likes of Google as the go-to search engine, as well as whether it will replace traditional news outlets, and basically become our one-stop shop for all things social in 2023 and beyond. It’s an interesting idea that everyone in the PR and comms industry should take seriously. Let’s look into this a little more.

Will TikTok Replace Google?

I’ll start by saying that personally, I don’t believe TikTok, nor any other site will ever come close to replacing Google and its influence on the searching world. I think I could approach anyone in the street and ask them to look something up for me, and the first thing they’d do is open up their web browser – not TikTok. I’m sure most in the industry would agree with me on this too.

But that being said, I understand the sentiment of those who believe that TikTok *could* become the next big search engine. Because it churns out a lot more inspirational content. For example, if you were looking for Christmas present inspiration or NYE party outfit ideas, you might be more likely to look this up on social than via a web search due to the quality of the results.

Presently, 92% of all searches are conducted on Google – and despite TikTok stealing a march on the site’s traffic – that’s a stat that’s going to be nearly impossible to chip away at. I completely understand the value of TikTok for idea-motivated searches, but realistically, what percentage of all searches fit into this box? I imagine not all that many, meaning that whilst TikTok probably does pose a genuine threat to some of Google’s users, the number of those searches in the grander scheme of things is probably very, very small.

But this is still important for PRs to take note of.

We all know how important SEO is to any good marketing campaign. Being visible on SERPs can bring in a lot of traffic, be it navigational, transactional, or informational – most users are valuable to your business in one way or another. In this industry, we can find ourselves spending a lot of time writing for and optimising for Google, so if TikTok is stealing some of that traffic – shouldn’t we be considering augmenting it too?

In my opinion yes. But not in the traditional SEO methods you may be used to. TikTok is all about inspiration. So where you may work on a blog to provide information to a user or optimise a landing page to enhance conversions – I think SEO on TikTok is all about creating genuinely engaging content that can stir and enthuse a watcher. I’m sure there’s no harm in creating content specifically for potentially high-volume searches such as “UK staycation inspiration” or “first date outfit ideas”, but I’d concur that the best method is to create a post that not only answers the user’s question but offers them choice, vision and above all – inspiration. What that looks like specifically is really up to the individual user or business on TikTok but figuring it out is all part of the fun!

What About The News Sites?

Another argument is that TikTok is becoming our news source, and more traditional outlets are losing out as a result. Ofcom did find it to be the fastest-growing source of current affairs for adults this year, but I think this is another statistic to take with a pinch of salt. Personally, I get a great deal of my ‘bitesize’ news from social media, for example through Twitter Trending or I might even hear about something for the first time on my TikTok ‘for you page’. BUT… I’ll go and search online to find out more – and this nearly always takes me to one of the nationals or regionals depending on the context.

Image: Guardian / TikTok

This means that there’s absolutely still value in traditional PR and communicating your news through the channels we’re used to – because they’re still incredibly valuable, a better source for conveying long-form content, AND, you have to consider that not all of your audiences are going to be on TikTok and other social media channels. The best strategies will cover all bases. The latest research by Statista still shows the BBC and ITV trump the rest of their competition in terms of being the leading news source, and even Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram sit far higher than TikTok.

Is TikTok Going To Overtake Anything?

I don’t necessarily think that TikTok is going to replace any site or social platform in the coming months and years – because I think it’s entirely established in its own right. Ever since we lost Vine, there’s been a great big gap in the market for a social based around short-form video content; and TikTok managed to fill it right up just before Instagram came in with Reels. The fact that both are now thriving shows that there was a demand for this particular kind of USP and suggests to me that there’s no need to speculate what TikTok will replace – as it can co-exist with all other existing platforms and still do as well as it is doing currently. Isn’t that a nice thought?

Image: photo via YourNikonMan / GettyImages Remix by Jason Reed & The Daily Dot

How PRs Can Use TikTok To Their Advantage

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about TikTok, and I’d wager it won’t be the last. Any good PR will always have their curiosity piqued by an upcoming social platform or idea (go ahead and ask me how many of the Source PR team downloaded Mastodon a few weeks ago!) and it’s important in comms to always keep one eye on the things that are evolving.

You can read my blog on why you should consider using TikTok for your brand on our website, but in short, the premise is that it’s always about whether you have something of value to add to the conversation – and not just hopping on trends for the sake of it. Give my other blog a read, and as always, we’d love to know your thoughts. You can reach us on all the social media platforms including Twitter and LinkedIn (and TikTok, of course 😉)

If you’d like to find out more about how Source PR can support your social media strategy (and maybe even experiment with a few TikToks with you!) feel free to drop our friendly team a line. We’re always happy to chat.

Crisis PR Management & Another Lesson From KFC

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No brand or business is immune to the challenges presented when a PR crisis erupts.  Equally, in today’s digital world, no company can guarantee that a PR crisis won’t happen to them, as such all companies should at least have plans in place to prepare for the unexpected.

Crises typically fall into two camps – internal crises, generated by a business decision, action or fault, or those developed externally either by a changing consumer landscape, political issue or an unforeseen issue with a product or service.

Hopefully effective business planning and preparation should mitigate a PR crisis erupting, so it must be particularly frustrating when an ‘own goal’ is scored by simply being careless and taking your eye off the ball.

This point is perfectly highlighted by the recent PR crisis to envelop KFC.  Earlier this month, KFC sent a promotional message to German customers encouraging them to celebrate Kristallnacht by having extra cheese on their tender pieces of chicken:

“It’s memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!”

The issue is that Kristallnacht is widely seen as being the start of the holocaust when in 1938 the Nazis led a series of attacks on Jewish businesses and community that left more than 90 people dead, and widespread destruction of Jewish properties and places of worship.

Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass) is remembered on the 9 November and marked with numerous memorial events and discussions to reflect the Nazis’ murder of more than six million Jewish people.

The PR issue was placed firmly at the doors of their automated push notification that sent the message directly to their customers without human intervention.  The system effectively identifies significant days in the calendar and attaches a promotion to them, before sending to customers.

Daniel Sugarman, Director of Public Affairs at the Board of Deputies of British Jews described the original KFC message as “absolutely hideous” and left KFC having to quickly apologise and re-examine their internal systems to prevent the company from having to manage future PR crises.

The company’s tried and tested crisis PR procedures quickly kicked into place but despite the rapid response, the issue had spread to online national and international news outlets.  The issue was quickly amplified via social platforms, illustrating the speed that a PR crisis can spread in today’s digital world.

This was an unnecessary and bad own goal by KFC.  Even if the business managed to convince its audiences that it was not actually in favour of celebrating Kristallnacht with extra cheese, it exposed the business at the very least as being uncaring, poorly run and single-mindedly promoting sales without due care.

We should really have expected better from KFC, particularly after they were able to turn an externally influenced issue into a master class of crisis PR management.

Back in February 2018, the company’s biggest nightmare turned into a reality when the restaurant ran out of chicken due to supplier issues. The net result was that the company was forced to shut down more than half of the stores in the UK.

How to manage a PR crisis

With a crisis PR team, plans and creative thinking in place they were able to turn the issue into a positive PR campaign – saving not only the brand’s reputation but also building relationships with customers and maintaining their trust.  How to manage a PR crisis? They simply followed the plan.

  1. To start, they apologised and made themselves accountable for the crisis.  Rather than attempt to shift blame they apologised to the customers directly via social media channels and newspapers
  2. Secondly, they kept communication open and honest. KFC was very effective at using social media to address customer questions or concerns, even using twitter to share customer Q&As
  3. Finally, by being transparent with the issue, and how they are dealing with it, KFC showed they were taking steps to bring the operations back to normal, with web links sharing information.

The company was also humble and showed gratitude towards its customers for bearing with them and apologised / thanked all the stakeholders for their patience.  Throughout the crisis PR management they kept the emotional balance right.  This involved being apologetic when things went wrong, professional when showing they had the matter under control and yet maintaining a sense of humour in their messaging.

A sense of humour when managing a PR crisis

Finally, they were consistent with their communications and ensured that the issue went to the very top with all messages on social media coming from the fictional KFC’s founder, Colonel Sanders, himself.

It’s clear that PR crises can come quickly out of the blue, from a simple slip up or from an issue that has developed gradually over time.  In today’s digital age, they can erupt more quickly than ever so it’s important to have plans in place.  KFC had a visible presence on social media prior to the crisis and made sure they used it to reach the affected parties.

If you find yourself in crisis or in a similar situation, contact Source PR as we can provide you with hands-on crisis management support or better still help you put a robust crisis management plan in place before an issue arises.