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There are a lot of moving parts in a successful public relations program – research, planning, writing, relationship building, pitching, analyzing, and reporting. We wrote this article to shed light on the process and to serve as a guide to building a successful PR program.

The State of PR

Trying to get media coverage for a company, product or event is more challenging than ever. First, the Internet has spawned hundreds of thousands of media outlets–from a blogger with a large following to major news publications. Second, the competition to reach these writers and journalists is fierce.

This makes PR in the digital age much like marketing in the digital age. When it comes to marketing, you know that if you have a product that solves a real problem, there are people out there looking for it. The challenge is to find them or to help them find you. The same is true with PR–if you have a genuine news story, there is a writer out there that wants to know about it because their readers want to know about it. The challenge is to find the journalists and to help them find you.

Press Release Best Practices

The press release, the most common deliverable companies use to distribute news to journalists, faces more competition these days, not only from other press releases, but from social posts, blogs, direct email, print and digital ads, and more. While any company can put a press release on a wire service and see it gobbled up and regurgitated by hundreds of media outlets, what we all want is real coverage by real journalists that give companies brands authority and credibility. These articles will help you score big with your next release!

How to Develop Strong Media Lists

Media lists, whether built with media database platforms (Cision, Meltwater, Muck Rack) or home grown, are your gateway to the influencers you want to reach. Building and managing multiple lists for multiple target audiences involves a good deal of sleuthing, with or without a software platform. Here are some tips on how to build lists that you can use for one or more announcement or for entire campaigns.

PR Database Reviews

Public relations is all about getting press coverage for your company and product, and managing press relationships when good news and bad news happens. With the proliferation of media outlets, knowing who is writing about your industry or business can be extremely challenging. Media database platforms (Cision, Meltwater, Muck Rack) have been created to help. These are platforms that include a database of multiple types of “influencers”–journalists, bloggers, analysts, columnists and more and the “beats” or markets that they cover. Learn more from the articles below.

Wire Distribution Service Reviews

Press release wire services have traditionally been the go-to channel for widespread press release distribution to search engines, top publications, and national newsrooms. The largest service providers for wire releases include PRWeb, PRNewswire, BusinessWire, and MarketWired. Do you need a wire service for your PR program? Depends. Learn more from these articles.

Social Media’s Role In PR

Social media is the communication vehicle of choice for many big brands, celebrities, and politicians, and journalists use it too. Used right, social media can be a great way to reach both journalists and your target audiences for marketing. These articles offer some guidance.

Finding Editorial Calendar Opportunities

Editorial calendars are the guides publications issue to help you know what they want articles about. Other tools like HARO and Muck Rack have features that let journalists pitch PR pros for sources. Learn more from these articles.

Media Monitoring

Tracking Media Relations With a (Free) CRM

One way to build your own media database is to use your CRM platform for manage and monitor media coverage. HubSpot is what we use. Learn more here.

Trade Show Guides

Typically you have two goals at a trade show–to get new leads and to create buzz around your company or brand. Done right, even small companies can generate plenty of chatter at shows as large as CES, the granddaddy of them all! See our article on that topic and more.

Budgeting for PR

Given an unlimited budget, anything is possible. Since no one has an unlimited budget for anything in business, let’s look at how to do more with less.

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Set Up an Exploratory Call

We hope you enjoyed this free ungated resource.  If you’re looking for help with PR, please get in touch to set up a 30-minute exploratory call.

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