An accomplished multi-tasking professional with diverse experience in delivering end-to-end solutions in business development and loyalty to the team. Dhanlaxmi Bhoir is a woman of substance and strong character. Her impressive and commendable performance as a leader and her contributions to the community is something that certainly needs to be acknowledged. Dhanlaxmi has had a long and distinguished career touching many different aspects of human resources, sales, Marketing, service, PR, logistics handling and more for a prolonged period of 6 and half years. Even in this short span of her career, she has many remarkable achievements under her name.
Anyone who is even remotely familiar with the business ecosystem has heard about Public Relations (PR). The common perception about PR is it is a valuable way to do marketing, but only a handful of companies and business leaders understand the actual extent of its benefits. For many businesses, especially emerging ones, the question ‘why some companies invest so much in PR’ remains in the air, but those who are veterans or have deep business acumen know that a brand cannot reach its maximum potential without PR.
PR is all about maintaining relations with the public. Some companies equate PR with marketing gimmicks, but it does more than just brand promotions. It is primarily about sharing the right information in the right place with the right people. Subsequently, a PR agency also helps companies tackle any harrowing situation that might jeopardise their image. When done correctly, PR can change the course of a business’s growth quickly and efficiently.
Against this backdrop, here are five critical reasons why PR is pertinent for modern-day companies:
1. Builds Credibility and Trust
In any business, consumers play the role of kings and queens. For a brand to continue having a successful streak, it is imperative to maintain cordial relationships with customers and create credibility among them. If not, the customer will likely move to another company (probably the competitor). Simply put, a lack of trust and credibility among customers can severely impact the retention rate, leading to decreased sales. In this regard, PR helps companies create a positive brand image. PR experts enhance a brand’s good reputation amidst the masses by leveraging various traditional and new-age approaches like thought leadership content, influencer marketing, networking strategies and others. Through PR, brands can also spread the word about their vision, mission, ethics and values so that audiences with similar ideas can resonate with them.
2. Damage control and reputation management
No business is perfect from the get-go. There are times when unsatisfied customers post nasty comments on social media, or there’s some other trouble that might hinder a company’s reputation, like hostile reception on some marketing campaign or advertisement. During these situations, the trusted media connections and approaches of PR experts can help companies steer clear of such hurdles or at least overcome them. PR executives always build positive reactions with the media as part of their relationship management aspect. Comments from the company or a press release can help bring down the tension and even clear the air in some cases, ensuring quick damage control.
3. Adding dazzle to marketing gigs
The fundamental purpose of marketing is to get consumers interested in the products and services of any company. And PR communications, by harnessing the power of compelling, creative and educational content, help marketing activities reach their desired goals. The common differential between marketing and PR is that while the former focuses on increasing sales and doing promotions, the latter inclines towards creating a context for the public to understand the need behind the products and services. To summarise, PR provides value addition in marketing gigs to make certain customers can relate with the product or service, thereby ensuring that the promotions or sales go beyond one time.
4. Boosting online presence
In today’s digital era, it is pivotal for brands to gain online visibility. And since digital content can remain forever, online content can create repeated exposure. Again, PR communications strategies and their media accessibility make them the perfect tool to attain a prominent presence. While the media is a bridge between companies and consumers, PR plays the same role between media and companies. PR executives always try to gain positive news coverage for their clients, which helps the company boost its brand image and presence among the target audience.
5. Bringing leaders to the centre stage
In PR, thought leadership is a distinguishing feature. Given that a company’s leadership, including CEOs, CTOs, CFOs and others, represent it, their words in the form of articles, speeches and quotes consist a lot of weightage. Having leaders express their views, ideas and vision play a vital role in enhancing the reputation and credibility of the company. They are the face of the brand, and thereby their views can be effectively associated with the brand. PR professionals ensure that company leaders are presented in front of the media and public in the most lively manner. They are also often used to bring a humane perspective to the table.
To conclude
In today’s fast-paced, highly competitive and cutthroat world, businesses need more than quality products and services to gain prominence. And the right PR team can help them do that. But at the same time, PR is not a mathematical equation, calculative and perfect. It is more of an art that takes time to bring results. Good PR strategies take meticulous planning, research and preparations. Therefore, experts recommend that brands onboard PR experts during the initial stages of growth. The right PR team can take a company to the next level, so make you bring the right people onboard. Good Luck!!