3 Ways To Leverage Your PR Success Offline
A solid public relations campaign will deliver heightened exposure and third-party credibility through quality press placements and other positive recognition. After earning media attention, the next step is finding ways to maximize its impact.
In order to do this effectively, you must understand your prospect pool and the forms of marketing they best respond to. Professionals who tend to work with the 50+ demographic, in particular, should consider incorporating offline methods for leveraging press coverage and other forms of third-party credibility in addition to digital strategies (sharing on social media, showcasing on your website, distributing to email lists, etc.).
While the following methods often come with a cost, they can add another layer of trust, legitimacy and sophistication to your brand – further distinguishing your business from the competition. Here are three of the best ways your business can leverage its PR success offline:
- Order Reprints For Your Sales Kit
Although the world is going digital, there is still a sizable chunk of the US population that prefers physical literature over websites and multimedia. Because of that, sales kits are a popular and effective marketing tool among professional services firms.
While your sales kit likely includes service and product descriptions, case studies and company background, adding a reprint of one of your contributed articles or company press features is an impactful way to leverage third-party credibility, providing the prospect with a physical copy of the article.
Many local and national news outlets allow you to order a stack of reprints of a given article. And believe it or not, you can often order physical reprints of online only articles that are reformatted as if they ran in the paper or magazine. They are rarely cheap, but if you’re looking for a way to make your sales kit stand out from your competitors, the right article could tip the scale. To familiarize yourself with common reprint options, and the costs associated, take a look at offerings from a few major publications.
- Frame Articles And Awards For Your Office
Any firm that hosts client meetings should consider buying, framing and mounting their top news features and awards in their offices. This is no time to be modest, as potential clients will be most likely to work with firms that have earned accolades from third-party sources.
Some publications have framed reprints as an option to purchase on their reprints page. For others, you may need to purchase a loose reprint and frame it yourself. If the article is in print and neatly formatted, you can always get out your scissors, cut it out and frame it yourself.
For awards, many will give you a plaque or trophy, while others will make them available for purchase. If you earn an award that does not, you still have the option to design and order one yourself from a third-party award manufacturer.
- Highlight Press In Mailers And Newsletters
Firms that invest in direct mail campaigns and physical newsletters should establish ways to incorporate their PR success in those campaigns.
For newsletters, you can include a screenshot from a TV broadcast appearance and a brief description of the segment. Or include your best quote from a print article you were interviewed for. For direct mailers, consider including an “As Featured In” banner to highlight any well-known publications that may catch the eyes of readers.
Mail campaigns, as well as many other traditional marketing tactics, are rarely cheap. So make sure you’re integrating your PR placements with those campaigns to maximize the value from the time and effort you put into each. Even if your firm targets older generations that aren’t as tech-savvy, you shouldn’t let your hard-earned press success go unnoticed.
Want to learn more? Download Turning Press Into Profits: A PR Guide For Professional Services Firms today!
Brian Hart is the founder and president of Flackable, a national financial public relations and digital marketing agency. Learn more at www.flackable.com. Follow Brian on Twitter at @BrianHartPR.
