Make the best of the media for your business

Successful public relation campaigns can boost the sales performance of your business

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Writuparna Kakati | 24 Apr, 2008
Your business reputation, profitability, and even existence largely depend upon to what extent the targeted 'public' support your business goals and policies. Through public relations, you can disseminate information about your company and build up, sustain and manage the image you want to project to the public for your company.

Thus, a successful public relation campaigns can boost the sales performance of your business. But it requires to be familiar with some of the basic PR tools for a successful public relation campaign. Find below a few such tools which can help you build a totally changed image of your company.

1. Press kit: It is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials prepared with the aim to provide journalists with background information about you company. In general, a press kit usually comes with the following components-

Background information (conventions, press conferences, trade shows, etc.)
Information regarding new products, services, operations
Recent and past press releases, data sheets, brochures, general company information, etc.
Contact information and numbers, biographical information of relevant executives, logo & product photographs, etc.
Video presentation, materials suitable for television broadcast, CD, DVD, etc. as appropriate for the sender.

2. Press release: It is the news released by a company about its activities. A press release is written in the form of a news article by a company (not by a reporter) to encourage publicity.

3. Media alert: It is used to alert the media about happenings such as press conference, special event, demonstration, etc. An ideal media alert should include what, where and when something important is happening, and why the media would be interested in it. There must be invitation for the press to attend and proper contact information. You can use media alert in situations like the following-

Your company is going to participate in a trade fair.
Your company is holding a press conference.
Your company is going to sponsor a show/charity show.
Your company has completed 25 years and you are going to celebrate this event.

4. Backgrounder: The purpose behind preparing a backgrounder is nothing but to tell the story of your company. A backgrounder should be in a way that attracts a reporter's interest and it should contain content (one or two paragraphs for each) detailing what your company does, what you offer (products/services), what are the main objectives, mission and vision of your company, who are your key personnel, etc.

5. Biography: When you are planning a press interview or a press conference, it is very important to prepare up-to-date biographies of all your top executives. Don't forget the following things to include while preparing the biography

What does the employee do for company? (His/her designation, department, job profile)
What is the qualification of the employee? (Her education/professional qualification, experience, etc.)

6. Media list and contacts: While targeting the public via any form of press campaign, it is very important to contact the right kind of publication and person (editor/reporter). Always ask yourself the following questions before approaching a media or media person-

Are you going to the right kind of publication?
Are you approaching a reporter or editor who is really interested to your company?
Is the media you want to use is capable of carrying your message to the target audience?
Does the reporter/editor write about companies such as yours?

7. Press conference: You can arrange a press conference and invite the press before whom you want to announce something that is important to you. You can consider arranging a press conference in situations like the following-

While going to launch a new product or service.
After you have acquired a strong competitor or started a joint venture with a large corporation.
To announce the findings of a survey that seems very important to you as a part of your promotional strategy.

Always remember that nothing succeeds without the right plan. Hence, it is extremely important to plan how you are going to handle a press campaign to achieve the desired result from it.