For the most successful and effective publicists and PR practitioners, the client onboarding process is the first – and arguably most crucial – step towards securing meaningful earned media coverage for clients.  A robust onboarding approach serves as the cornerstone of successful media relations, setting the stage for long-term, results-driven communication strategies that capture the attention of editors and consistently position clients in the headlines, driving visibility, influence and thought leadership in their respective industries.

To cultivate impactful media engagements, public relations and integrated marketing firms such as Eberly & Collard Public Relations have mastered the art of integrating strategic planning with a profound understanding of media dynamics right from the outset.

This guide explores the essential steps public relations firms employ to build and nurture media relationships from the ground up, helping optimize every campaign so it gains traction with its intended audience while achieving key business objectives.

Strategic Alignment

The foundation of any successful public relations strategy lies in a deep understanding of the client’s goals and overarching business objectives—whether it’s market expansion, brand positioning or revenue growth. Clear alignment from the beginning sets up media relations efforts to secure high-value editorial coverage, strengthen brand credibility, increase customer engagement, and drive measurable business growth.

A well-aligned public and media relations strategy amplifies brand awareness, attracts new business opportunities, opens untapped markets, and reinforces thought leadership—maximizing the impact of every media placement to advance the client’s broader objectives.

This strategic consistency builds a cohesive brand narrative that carries influence across multiple media channels, including earned media platforms. When public relations efforts are directly linked to organizational goals, the impact of media relations is significantly amplified.

For example, if a client aims to break into a new market, the public relations strategy should focus on media outlets and narratives that effectively reach and engage the desired target market, positioning the client as a leading voice in the industry.

Moreover, aligning public relations initiatives with strategic priorities enables clearer measurement of success through specific metrics, such as increased brand awareness, improved public perception, or shifts in market share. Each of these metrics can be tied back to the client’s initial goals, providing a tangible way to assess the effectiveness of media relations efforts.

Effective Approaches During Onboarding

A comprehensive onboarding process is key to understanding any and all prior or existing publicity challenges and assumptions, laying the groundwork for a strong and effective media relations strategy from day one. During onboarding meetings, it is essential to explore long-term vision, growth objectives, and competitive positioning, as well as their target markets and key messages. Asking the right questions during these sessions helps uncover what an organization hopes to achieve through media relations—whether it’s raising brand awareness, driving sales, establishing industry authority, or enhancing their reputation and public perception.

Clear communication about expectations helps in setting realistic goals and timelines. Discussing the level of earned media anticipated versus what is realistic, the preferred tone and messaging, and any specific challenges or opportunities allows for a well-defined roadmap. Additionally, identifying the client’s target market—including demographics, psychographics, and behaviors—is vital for tailoring media pitches to the most relevant and impactful outlets.

Researching Publications and Media Outlets

Identifying the right publications and media outlets is one of the most critical steps in developing a successful media relations strategy. Proper research helps guarantee that the company’s or organization’s message reaches the most relevant and impactful audience. By targeting outlets that align with the client’s market, values, and key messaging, public relations professionals can cultivate meaningful media relationships that drive engagement, credibility, and sustained media achievements.

However, long-term success in media relations goes beyond securing one-off placements—it relies on continual visibility, trust and industry authority. A well-executed strategy incorporates earned media alongside thought leadership content marketing to ensure ongoing relevance, credibility, and audience engagement.

Consistently appearing in the right publications not only reinforces the client’s expertise but also positions them as a reliable source for journalists seeking insights and expert commentary. As strategic media relationships grow, they create more opportunities for organic media coverage, expert contributions and a stronger industry reputation.

Achieving such high-level media exposure, however, requires a well-executed media outreach plan—one that carefully researches, identifies and selects the most relevant outlets and is fully attuned to their respective audiences, editorial focuses and content preferences.

Identifying the Right Publications

Targeting publications deeply embedded in the company’s industry is essential for maximizing impact. For instance, a technology company might benefit from editorial placements in TechCrunch or Wired, both highly regarded in the tech sector, while an architecture or design build firm will better benefit from being featured in leading industry-specific publications like Architectural Record, Development Magazine or Building Design + Construction.

These outlets cater directly to professionals and enthusiasts in the architecture, commercial real estate, and construction sectors, offering authoritative content that aligns with the firm’s expertise and project showcases.

Earned media in such publications not only elevates the architecture or design firm’s visibility among key stakeholders—such as potential clients, partners, and industry influencers—but also serves as a key thought leadership strategy for reinforcing its authority in the field. By consistently sharing insights, trends, and innovative approaches through these channels, the firm can establish itself as a trusted industry voice with strengthened reputation and credibility.

Matching the media outlet’s audience with one’s target market secures messaging that lands effectively and leads to higher engagement. For example, if a client’s products are geared toward young adults, outlets like BuzzFeed or Vice might be more appropriate. In contrast, a luxury brand targeting affluent consumers would benefit from features in Robb Report or Architectural Digest.

Moreover, regional or local publications can be just as valuable as national ones, depending on the client’s objectives. For instance, an interior designer focusing on the Atlanta residential home market would prioritize media placements in Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles or Atlanta Magazine’s HOMES. Likewise, a designer or architect working in New York’s high-end residential market might target publications such as Modern Luxury Interiors New York or Luxe Interiors + Design (Greater New York or Hamptons editions) to connect with opulent homeowners, developers and industry professionals in the region.

Understanding the client’s specific market focus, audience demographics, and regional nuances allows publicists to strategically build a targeted media list and select outlets capable of providing the most relevant and influential news reviews.

What is a media list? A media list is a curated database of journalists, editors, beat writers and publications that align with a brand’s industry and messaging, serving as a vital tool for securing earned media opportunities. Assembling, maintaining and strategically using a tailored media list sets the stage for bolstering a company’s visibility and influence, delivering stories that forge meaningful connections with key audiences—those most likely to become customers, clients, collaborators or brand advocates.

Tools and Resources for Effective Media Research

One of the most critical elements of effective media relations is conducting thorough and strategic media research. This process goes beyond simply identifying media outlets; it involves leveraging specialized tools and industry resources to map out the most effective pathways for reaching target audiences.

One of the most critical elements of effective media relations is conducting thorough and strategic media research. This process goes beyond simply identifying media outlets; it involves leveraging specialized tools and industry resources to map out the most effective pathways for reaching target audiences. A thought leadership agency with strong, cemented media relations can enhance this process by curating high-value media opportunities that align with a brand’s expertise, ensuring consistent industry visibility and credibility.

Tools like Cision, Muck Rack and Meltwater are invaluable for building tailored media lists and identifying key journalists and publications aligned with the client’s industry.

Meltwater, for instance, is a widely used media database that allows public relations practitioners to identify journalists, track media coverage and assemble specialized media databases based on industry, location, audience demographics and other relevant search filters. The insights gleaned from these searches help refine the media strategy, increasing the likelihood that outreach efforts reach the right outlets and journalists most interested in the client’s story. This precision-driven approach is fundamental for crafting messaging that drives editorial interest, making the most of every media opportunity.

Another essential tool is Qwoted, which helps publicity teams monitor journalist requests in real time and connect clients with relevant media opportunities. By providing a database of journalists actively seeking expert sources, Qwoted enables earned media agencies to pitch their clients for timely, high-impact editorial in focused publications.

In addition to these tools, industry reports, such as Cision’s State of the Media or Muck Rack’s State of Journalism, provide meaningful takeaways on evolving journalist preferences, emerging media trends, and best practices for securing earned, third-party coverage.

By integrating these tools and resources into their research and execution processes, communications professionals can refine and supplement their media research strategies and actions, build stronger journalist relationships, and position their clients for maximum exposure in the most relevant and impactful outlets.

Monitoring Media Trends and Influencer Activity

Media relations is not just about reaching out to journalists; it is also about staying ahead of trends and understanding the shifting dynamics of media coverage. Tools like Brandwatch and TrendKite enable publicists to monitor media trends, track industry conversations, and identify influential voices shaping the discourse in the client’s field.

These platforms provide real-time data analytics and sentiment analysis, offering a comprehensive view of which topics are gaining traction, and which journalists or outlets are leading these discussions. Armed with this knowledge, media relations teams can create timely, relevant outreach that aligns with current media interests, and in turn, increase the likelihood of securing valuable earned media.

Competitor Analysis for Strategic Positioning

Understanding where competitors are gaining media exposure offers valuable insights into untapped opportunities and potential gaps in the market.  Platforms like BuzzSumo and SEMrush can analyze competitor content and media placements, revealing which outlets and journalists are receptive to similar stories. This analysis allows brand communicators to identify trends, pinpoint what content is most compelling, and determine which narratives have already been covered extensively.

Public relations teams leveraging these insights can position their clients to stand out in saturated markets. This might involve capitalizing on underrepresented angles that competitors have overlooked or offering a fresh perspective on popular topics that can differentiate the client’s voice. Aligning this competitive intelligence with an understanding of editorial criteria helps shape media pitches that are both unique and highly relevant.

Editorial Calendars for Timely and Relevant Pitching

Building on competitor analysis, utilizing editorial calendars is the next strategic step to increase the effectiveness of press outreach by making them more timely and well-targeted. Many publications release editorial calendars outlining the themes and topics they plan to cover throughout the year. These calendars are valuable resources for planning proactive media outreach, allowing publicity experts to align their pitches with upcoming content opportunities that leverage the client’s strengths while addressing gaps identified through competitor analysis.

By timing pitches to coincide with a publication’s editorial focus, public relations professionals can enhance the relevance and newsworthiness of their stories, significantly increasing the chances of securing press coverage. This strategic approach is a hallmark of good PR campaigns, as it reinforces that the content is timely and harmonized with what journalists are seeking. Staying updated with these editorial opportunities not only maximizes engagement but also strengthens long-term relationships with key journalists and editors. This level of alignment and foresight is what sets the best PR campaigns apart, positioning a brand or organization as a preferred source for future stories.

Establishing Connections with Media

Building strong connections with media contacts—such as journalists, writers and editors—is a cornerstone of successful media relations. Cultivating these relationships is essential not only for securing valuable press mentions but also for fostering ongoing collaborations that can significantly elevate the client’s visibility and credibility through published or aired content.

Knowing how to pitch your story to the media effectively becomes much easier when these connections are well-established, as publicity specialists can better understand the standards and preferences of their media contacts.

Why Establishing Media Connections is Crucial

Relationships with media contacts are built on trust and reliability, which if properly nurtured, can translate into more meaningful and sustained media opportunities. Afterall, journalists and editors are more inclined to cover stories from sources they know and trust, underscoring the importance of relationship-building in media relations.

According to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report, 74% of journalists say that having a trusted relationship with a media representative influences whether they pursue a story. Consistent, reliable communication positions company leaders, spokespeople and other organizational representatives as credible sources, streamlining media exposure and effectively managing potential crises.

Understanding a journalist’s beat, interests and content challenges allows communications experts to tailor pitches that are highly relevant, significantly increasing the chances of press coverage. Muck Rack’s 2024 State of Journalism report highlights that 73% of journalists reject pitches due to a lack of relevance. By committing to proper research and by building and nurturing meaningful relationships, public relations teams gain worthwhile intel into the types of stories that align with specific media outlets. This enables them to craft more compelling and well-thought-out pitch messages that stand out in email inboxes already flooded with competing press releases, story ideas, and promotional content.

Strong media connections open doors to ongoing content collaborations and other editorial opportunities, such as regular columns, expert commentary, or recurring features. A solid relationship with a journalist or editor can transform an initial feature story into a long-term editorial partnership that compounds into hundreds of media placements.

Strong media connections pave the way for ongoing content collaborations and valuable earned media opportunities, including regular columns, expert commentary, and recurring features. A well-established relationship with a journalist or editor can turn a single feature story into a lasting editorial partnership, leading to continual media exposure and hundreds of placements over time.

To cultivate these valuable relationships and understand how to get earned media, there are several proven techniques that media specialists can employ to initiate and maintain effective contact with journalists and editors:

Techniques for Initiating Contact with Journalists and Editors

• Thorough Research: Before reaching out, it’s crucial to research the journalist or editor’s body of work. Understanding their beat, recent articles, and preferred story types shows respect for their expertise and increases the likelihood of your pitch being well-received.
• Personalized Outreach: Craft personalized messages that reference specific articles or topics the journalist has covered. This approach demonstrates genuine interest in their work and indicates how your client’s story fits into their editorial focus, distinguishing your pitch from generic submissions.
• Engage on Social Platforms: Follow journalists on platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn and actively engage with their content by liking, commenting, or sharing their articles. This approach helps build familiarity and rapport before making a direct pitch, laying the groundwork for a more receptive engagement.
• Direct Messaging: Use social media direct messaging as a method for introducing yourself or following up on a pitch. Ensure that messages are concise, respectful of the journalist’s time, and focused on offering value rather than making a simple request.
• Warm Introductions: Leveraging mutual connections for introductions can significantly increase the likelihood of your pitch being considered. A referral from a trusted source carries weight and can pave the way for more meaningful interactions.
• Networking Events: Attending industry events or virtual webinars where journalists and editors are present provides an opportunity to meet face-to-face or in a live setting. These encounters can leave a lasting impression and open doors for future communication and collaboration.

Once contact is initiated, it is essential to make a strong first impression and continually foster the relationship. Effective communication and consistent engagement are key to solidifying these connections. Here are some practical tips for maintaining a productive dialogue and building a solid foundation for future interactions:

Tips for Making a Good First Impression and Fostering Ongoing Communication

• Concise and Clear Communication: Journalists are often on tight deadlines, so prioritize clear, concise, and to-the-point communication. Get to the heart of your pitch quickly and provide all necessary information upfront.
• Timely Follow-Ups: If a journalist expresses interest in a story, follow up promptly with any additional information they need. This responsiveness can set the tone for a positive ongoing relationship.
• Exclusive Content: Offering exclusive stories or early access to news can make your pitches more appealing. Journalists appreciate when PR professionals provide them with unique content that they can’t find elsewhere.
• Expert Access: Facilitate easy access to your client’s executives or experts. Journalists value reliable sources who can provide insightful commentary or expert opinions, making your client a go-to contact for future stories.
• Periodic Check-Ins: Even when you’re not pitching a specific story, keep in touch with journalists. Send them occasional updates, share relevant industry news, or simply check in to maintain the relationship.
• Feedback Loop: Ask for feedback on pitches, whether they’re accepted or not. Understanding what worked or didn’t work can help you refine your approach and improve future interactions.

Continual Learning and Adapting Strategies

In an industry as dynamic as public relations, the media landscape is in a perpetual state of evolution, driven by changes in technology, audience behavior, and editorial priorities. For communication and marketing professionals, continual learning and strategic adaptation are not just beneficial—they are essential for sustained success.

Adapting to these shifts means staying ahead of the curve and finessing approaches to maintain relevance and effectiveness. Continuous improvement is key to maintaining strong client relationships and achieving long-term PR goals.

Monitor and Adapt to Trends

To remain effective in this ever-changing environment, publicity teams must be vigilant in monitoring industry trends, emerging media platforms, and evolving journalist preferences.

As the adage goes, “Content is king,” but in today’s media landscape, “multimedia is the heir apparent.” The increasing emphasis on visual and multimedia content is reshaping how journalists engage with stories.

Key findings from Cision’s 2024 State of the Media Report that Instagram is now the top social media platform where journalists plan to increase their presence in the coming year, closely followed by YouTube and TikTok. This trend aligns with the growing demand for multimedia from PR professionals, as the right mix of videos, images, and interactive content can be pivotal in securing coveted earned media coverage.

Embracing Professional Development

To effectively adapt to these evolving trends, it is crucial for media specialists to embrace a culture of continuous learning through professional development. Investing in ongoing training, such as attending industry webinars, participating in media and PR workshops, and staying updated with the latest industry reports—like Cision’s annual State of the Media or Muck Rack’s State of Journalism reports—can provide valuable knowledge of the current media landscape. These resources offer actionable guidance on refining outreach strategies, and studying successful examples of press releases further helps teams understand what captures journalists’ interest and augments their ability to generate compelling, publish-worthy content.

Furthermore, regular internal reviews and debriefs on PR campaigns can help identify what worked well and what could be improved. Creating a feedback loop with both clients and media contacts allows publicists to gain insight into the effectiveness of their efforts. This ongoing evaluation not only strengthens future communication strategies but also fosters stronger relationships with journalists, enhances storytelling approaches, and keeps media relations efforts dynamic and impactful in an ever-evolving media landscape.

The Mindset of Agility and Innovation

Ultimately, successful public relations today requires agility, adaptability and a commitment to continuous learning. In this way, continual learning and adaptation are not just strategies for survival—they are gateways to growth, innovation and long-term success in the dynamic field of media relations.

For brands and businesses looking to maximize their public relations efforts, partnering with an integrated marketing agency that continuously evaluates strategies, stays ahead of industry trends, and embraces innovation positions them for the best possible outcomes.

Eberly & Collard Public Relations’ full-service media relations and integrated marketing teams in Atlanta and New York provide tailored services to build and support specific strategic initiatives, whether in press outreach, brand positioning, thought leadership, or other key areas, helping organizations across a wide range of industries and sects achieve their communication goals.

Contact Eberly & Collard Public Relations for a detailed consultation today.

When it comes to SEO, backlinks from authoritative websites can work wonders for your domain authority and search rankings. But, here’s the thing: Not all backlinks are created equal. High-quality backlinks from respected, relevant sources hold much more weight than a dozen links from low-quality sites. So, how do you get these golden backlinks? Media relations.

Media relations is about building genuine, mutually beneficial relationships with journalists, editors and influencers who can amplify your brand’s message to a wider audience. Done right, it is also an incredible way to secure high-authority backlinks that directly impact your SEO performance. Let’s break down how to properly use media relations to earn the most valuable links.

1. Understand What Makes a Backlink High-Authority

Before diving into media outreach, you need to know what qualifies as a high-authority backlink. Look for these characteristics:

• Domain Authority (DA): Tools like Moz or Ahrefs score websites based on their overall authority. Websites with a DA of 50+ are typically considered high authority.
• Relevance: Links from websites in your industry or niche carry more weight than those from unrelated sites.
• Trustworthiness: Government sites (.gov), educational institutions (.edu), and major news outlets are usually highly trusted sources.
• Traffic and Engagement: A site with high traffic and engaged readers adds more value to your backlink.

When targeting media outlets, aim for platforms that meet these criteria. Think national newspapers, respected trade publications and well-established blogs in your field.

2. Develop Newsworthy Content

Media outlets won’t link to just anything—you need to give them a reason to care about your content. Start by creating content that aligns with that which journalists are seeking:

• Data-Driven Insights: Conduct original research or surveys in your industry. Journalists love citing statistics and data to back up their stories.
• Expert Commentary: Offer unique insights or opinions on trending topics. Being a subject matter expert can position your brand as a go-to resource.
• Compelling Stories: Human-interest stories or case studies often resonate with media outlets. Showcase real-world impact or innovation.
• Newsworthy Announcements: Launching a new product, hosting an event, or hitting a major milestone? These types of updates are prime media opportunities.

High-quality, newsworthy content is the foundation of any successful media relations campaign. Without it, your outreach efforts are likely to fall flat.

3. Build a Targeted Media List

Media relations isn’t about blasting the same pitch to hundreds of journalists and hoping for the best. You need a carefully curated media list tailored to your niche and goals.

Here’s how to build one:

• Research Relevant Publications: Identify outlets that align with your industry and audience. Tools like Cision, Meltwater, Muck Rack and Google News can help.
• Find Specific Journalists: Look for writers who cover topics related to your content. Personalize your outreach by referencing their previous work.
• Check Contact Details: Make sure you’re using the right email address or social media handle for each journalist. Avoid sending pitches to generic “info@” addresses whenever possible.

A well-targeted media list ensures your pitches land in front of the right people, increasing the likelihood of coverage—and backlinks.

4. Craft a Pitch that Stands Out

Journalists are bombarded with pitches daily, so yours need to cut through the noise. Follow these best practices for crafting a compelling pitch:

• Start Strong: Your subject line and opening sentence should immediately grab attention. For example, “New Study Reveals [X Insight] That Could Change [Industry].”
• Be Brief and Clear: Get straight to the point. Explain why your content is relevant and valuable in just a few sentences.
• Include Supporting Materials: Attach press releases, infographics or links to your full report to make their job easier.
• Personalize It: Mention something specific about the journalist’s previous work and upcoming editorial calendar needs to show you’ve done your homework.
• Add a Clear CTA: Let them know exactly what you’re asking for, whether it’s an interview, coverage or a simple link to your content.

A well-crafted pitch increases the chances of not only earning coverage but also securing a high-authority backlink to your website.

5. Leverage Press Releases for Link Opportunities

Press releases remain a valuable tool in media relations, but they need to be optimized for SEO to deliver maximum backlink value. Here’s how:

• Embed Links Strategically: Include a link to your website or landing page within the release, but keep it relevant and natural.
• Distribute Widely: Use press release distribution services like PR Newswire, Business Wire, or local platforms to maximize visibility.
• Pitch Directly: Don’t rely solely on distribution services—reach out to specific journalists with your press release to increase the likelihood of a backlink. One of the best distribution means is utilizing the services of an experienced public relations firm for customizing your press releases, media pitches and backlink requests to the media.

When written and distributed effectively, press releases can generate widespread coverage and high-quality links to your site.

6. Nurture Relationships for Long-Term Success

Media relations isn’t a one-and-done effort. Building long-term relationships with journalists and editors will pay dividends over time. Here’s how to nurture these connections:

• Follow Up Thoughtfully: If a journalist covers your story, send a thank-you note. Avoid being overly pushy about additional coverage.
• Stay Active on Social Media: Engage with journalists’ posts and share their work to stay on their radar.
• Offer Value Continuously: Keep providing them with high-quality content, expert opinions or access to exclusive news.

Strong relationships increase the likelihood of repeat coverage and backlinks from trusted sources.

7. Monitor and Measure Results

You’ve put in the work—now it is time to track your success. Use tools like Google Analytics, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to monitor:

• Backlink Quality: Check the DA of sites linking to your website and ensure links are “dofollow.”
• Referral Traffic: Measure how much traffic is coming from media links.
• SEO Impact: Look for improvements in your keyword rankings and overall domain authority.

Analyzing these metrics will help you refine your media relations strategy and maximize your ROI.

Final Thoughts

When executed properly, media relations can be a game-changer for any solid SEO strategy. Creating newsworthy content, targeting the right journalists, and building lasting relationships, can earn high-authority backlinks that boost a brand or company’s rankings and visibility.

Remember, the key to success is authenticity. Journalists can spot a self-serving pitch from a mile away, so our strategy focuses on providing a trusted resource and value for the readers of the targeted media outlets. Over time, these efforts will translate into meaningful media coverage and a stronger digital presence for your brand.

Need Help Amplifying Your Brand?

At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we specialize in leveraging media relations to secure high-quality backlinks and improve your SEO keyword strategy for your business or brand. Whether you’re looking to craft compelling stories, build a targeted media list, or launch a press release or thought-leadership campaign, we’ve got you covered.

We are a full-service agency and work with businesses of all shapes and sizes. Let’s work together to get your brand noticed by the right audience. Contact us today to learn how we can help you drive results through strategic media relations and digital marketing!

Definition: Expertise, Authority and Trust

In the dynamic world of public relations, the EAT content strategy has emerged as a cornerstone for building and maintaining the reputation of consumer products and brands. EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, and it is a framework that can significantly impact how brands are perceived by consumers and search engines alike. Here’s why EAT should be an integral part of your PR strategy.

Expertise: Showcasing Your Brand’s Knowledge

Expertise is all about demonstrating your brand’s deep knowledge and skills in your particular niche. For consumer products, this means providing detailed, accurate, and helpful information that addresses the needs and questions of your target audience.

Benefits:

• Enhanced Credibility: By showcasing your expertise, you build credibility with your audience. Consumers are more likely to trust a brand that clearly knows its stuff.
• Improved Product Perception: Expert content can elevate the perceived value of your products, distinguishing them from competitors.
• Educated Consumers: Well-informed customers are more confident in their purchasing decisions, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Authoritativeness: Establishing Your Brand as a Leader

Authoritativeness is the recognition of your brand as a leading authority in your industry. It’s not just about what you know, but also about how others perceive your brand’s knowledge and influence.

Benefits:

• Increased Visibility: Authoritative brands often receive more media coverage, which can lead to greater brand awareness and visibility.
• Strategic Partnerships: Being seen as an authority can open doors to collaborations with other industry leaders, further amplifying your reach.
• Consumer Trust: Customers are more likely to trust and respect a brand that is considered an authority in its field.

Trustworthiness: Building a Reliable Reputation

Trustworthiness involves creating a sense of reliability and integrity around your brand. In PR, this means being consistent in your messaging, transparent in your communications, and responsive to your audience.

Benefits:

• Customer Loyalty: Trust leads to loyalty. When customers believe in a brand’s reliability, they’re more likely to become repeat buyers.
• Positive Word-of-Mouth: Trustworthy brands benefit from positive word-of-mouth, as satisfied customers are more likely to recommend products to others.
• Crisis Management: A trustworthy brand can weather PR storms more effectively, as they have built up a reservoir of goodwill with their audience.

Implementing EAT in Your PR Strategy

To harness the benefits of EAT, consider the following steps:

1. Create Expert Content: Develop in-depth guides, how-to articles, and informative videos that showcase your brand’s expertise.
2. Engage with Industry Leaders: Participate in industry events, webinars, and forums to establish your brand’s authority.
3. Be Transparent: Share behind-the-scenes insights, respond to customer inquiries promptly, and be open about your business practices.

Conclusion

Incorporating EAT into your public relations strategy is not just about improving your SEO rankings; it’s about building a brand that resonates with consumers on a deeper level. By focusing on expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, you can create a PR approach that not only attracts but retains customers, ensuring long-term success for your consumer products and brands.

This blog post is a starting point for understanding the importance of EAT in PR. For a more detailed exploration tailored to your specific brand or product, feel free to reach out to us for a customized strategy. Remember, in the world of consumer products, perception is reality, and EAT can help shape that reality in your favor.

In today’s competitive business landscape, effective communication and brand reputation play a pivotal role in the success of any organization. For business-to-business (B2B) companies, building strong relationships with clients, investors, and industry peers is essential. One powerful ally in achieving these goals is a specialized public relations (PR) firm. In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of B2B companies partnering with PR agencies and how it can positively impact their growth and visibility.

1. Navigating the B2B Landscape: Specialization Matters

Unlike generalist PR firms, specialized B2B PR agencies focus exclusively on serving B2B companies. Here’s why specialization matters:

• Industry Expertise: B2B PR agencies understand the nuances of specific industries. They delve deep into your sector, gaining insights into market trends, challenges, and emerging technologies. This specialized knowledge allows them to craft targeted PR strategies that resonate with your audience.
• Tailored Approach: A one-size-fits-all PR strategy doesn’t cut it in the B2B world. A specialized agency tailors its approach to align with your unique business goals, whether it’s lead generation, thought leadership, or brand awareness.
• Stronger Connections: B2B PR firms have established relationships with journalists, industry influencers, and event organizers within your niche. These connections open doors for media coverage, speaking opportunities, and strategic partnerships.

2. Building Trust and Credibility

PR is all about managing reputation and trust. Here’s how a B2B PR agency contributes to your company’s credibility:

• Thought Leadership: By positioning your executives as thought leaders, PR agencies elevate your brand’s authority. Thought leadership articles, interviews, and speaking engagements showcase your expertise and build trust among potential clients.
• Media Coverage: Securing positive media coverage enhances your credibility. B2B PR agencies know how to pitch compelling stories to relevant publications, ensuring your brand gets the visibility it deserves.

3. Market Insights and Competitive Edge

B2B PR agencies keep a finger on the pulse of industry trends, competitor movements, and regulatory changes. Here’s how this benefits your business:

• Strategic Intelligence: PR professionals analyze market data, competitor PR campaigns, and customer sentiment. Armed with this information, they help you make informed decisions and stay ahead of the curve.
• Crisis Management: When a crisis hits, having a PR partner is invaluable. B2B PR agencies can swiftly respond, mitigate damage, and protect your brand’s reputation.

4. Efficient Resource Utilization

Outsourcing PR to a specialized agency frees up your internal resources. Here’s why it’s efficient:

• Access to Expertise: PR consultants bring their media networks, writing skills, and strategic thinking to the table. They handle everything from press releases to thought leadership content, allowing your team to focus on core business functions.
• Cost-Effective: Hiring an in-house PR team can be expensive. Outsourcing lets you choose the level of support you need, whether it’s a single consultant or a multi-person team.

5. Agility and Adaptability

B2B PR agencies adapt quickly to changing market dynamics. Here’s how they stay agile:

• Real-Time Response: Whether it’s industry news, customer feedback, or emerging trends, PR agencies respond swiftly. This agility ensures your brand remains relevant and responsive.
• Legal Preparedness: PR agencies help prevent legal pitfalls by ensuring your messaging complies with regulations and industry standards.

In conclusion, B2B companies benefit immensely from collaborating with specialized PR agencies. These partnerships enhance credibility, provide market insights, and allow businesses to focus on what they do best. So, if you’re a B2B organization aiming for growth and visibility, consider teaming up with a PR firm that understands your unique needs and industry context.

As we make our way through 2023, it is crucial to not only assess your current B2B marketing but also begin planning for the year to come. Yes, that’s right. It may seem early, but taking a close look at your present content and how you and your marketing team (and C-Suite) want to keep moving the needle in the next year are keys to competitively engaging with your B2B contacts through social media.

Maybe you want to use social media to prepare for the launch of a new product line or brand, kickoff thought-leadership positioning for company executives or gain more qualified sales leads.

If your business owners or leadership team want better results from social media efforts in 2023, it is time to create a business to business (B2B) social media strategy that sets your company up for success.

Though, for those of you who know you need a B2B social media strategy but do not have social media marketing as part of your internal wheelhouse – or if you are a bit stressed because in-house resources are scarce – no fear. We are here to assist. Let’s start this plan with a helpful explanation from our ECPR Digital Marketing team.

B2B social media marketing is the process of utilizing your social media channels to market the products and services your business offers to existing and potential clients. Moreover, it is a means to connect, influence and interact with critical leads and prospects.

In this ever-expanding digital age, participating in social media marketing is essential to establish your business and brand as a trusted expert or resource in your given industry and contribute to your bottom line via social media integration with other forms of strategic marketing.

Actively integrating social media marketing with diversified forms of traditional and digital marketing is an essential contribution to your plan’s success. Simply put, using social media to establish yourself or your business as a trusted specialist in your industry is one of the most advantageous tactics to make such content integration efforts pay off.

Step 1: Integrate your B2B social media marketing with other promotional efforts.

The assimilation of B2B social media marketing with supplemental, profile-raising efforts to promote a brand impacts your ability to increase brand awareness and sales. This is so important, it is safe to say that any business not using social media integration in 2023 stands a chance of being left behind the competition as social media continues to influence buyer decisions.

Luckily, our team has provided in this blog article a few creative options for how to integrate social media into your marketing strategy.

Creating social media campaigns around other news, events, launches, and messaging for your business opens the door to social media integration. Sharing social media posts that include a call to action serves B2B social media strategy well. Calls to action as to-the-point as “Comment” drive engagement and brand awareness, while actions like “Register” which include a backlink to the business’ website extend the marketing arm of the business and can evoke engagement.

Now, take this a step further with a little brainstorming power. What about enticing interaction with a more resourceful call to action, such as “Comment with your business pain points about this topic, and we’ll send you two results-focused ideas.” Your “ideas” can then include a creative info-graphic that shows and depicts how your business can solve challenges for the engaged business lead. You will cleverly integrate narrative messaging to open the dialog with graphic communication to showcase your business’s expertise.

Synchronize social media calendars with scheduled email campaigns.

One specific way to integrate a social media campaign with another form of marketing is to use the same topic for social media content and email campaigns in the same week or month.

Since email campaigns are often developed and sent to a business’s list of existing contacts or prospects, they are an opportune way to further integrate messaging via social media content that reaches segments for which you might not have email addresses.

When planning and designing a promotional email campaign for distributing to an email database, it is wise to preplan social media calendars to correspond with your outgoing email. Your weekly or monthly e-newsletter might feature a “big-picture” or larger theme that can be broken down into more specific social media posts with bitesize subpoints during the same judiciously scheduled time period.

Reinforce branding with a double or triple messaging or advertising impact.

Melding social media content intentionally with existing traditional paid advertising or press release campaigns is an additional means of marketing integration. Branding and marketing professionals can emphasize marketing messages by creating social media content that follows the same communication goals as media outlet advertising or company news releases being submitted to editors, reporters and journalists at the same time.

Leave fewer marketing stones unturned, and use the same thought-provoking tagline in a tradeshow or conference advertisement that is simultaneously used in a series of Instagram Reels and LinkedIn static post captions to achieve broader coverage and density of the outgoing brand message. While the traditional ad’s focus will be one-way messaging, your interactional social media content can yield opportunities for two-way dialogs with interested B-to-B segment decision-makers.

Keep in mind, social media integration works both ways. Add links to your B2B social media channels in your e-newsletters, mass email campaigns and on the business’s website. Asking or incentivizing your existing and potential clientele to follow your business on social media paves a direct path to increasing visibility and valuable time in front of your audience.

Fuse social media strategy with brand identity and sentiment.

The next key to integrating your B2B social media strategy revolves around brand identity and how your sector targets perceive and interface with your brand.

Initiating brand standards that stay consistent across all social media platforms, websites, e-newsletters, advertisements, collateral, tradeshow displays, sponsored content, and other forms of marketing allows your clients and prospects to recognize and recall your business’s brand.

The possibilities are limitless, but some of the easiest include adding the company logo to select social media posts, including your mission statement on germane websites, consistent email signatures, and updated social media bios contribute to a stronger brand identity and brand recognition. Your audience benefits from repetition of themes, content and ideas that solidify their understanding of your business’ services and expertise.

Speaking of service, using B2B social media channels as an extension of customer service offers a very practical application of how to integrate social media into your marketing strategy. With the built-in messaging and commenting functions featured on your B2B social media channels, staying responsive and helpful when customers, clients and leads ask questions increases social media engagement and expands the occasions for your business to engage with feedback, solutions and connections.

As an added tip for Instagram for B2B, try responding to posted comments or questions on Stories and saving common inquiries as an “FAQ” Highlight that your audience can access easily from your business’s Instagram profile. Interact with on-brand message objectives always being top of mind.

For another easy social media integration, utilize user-generated content about your brand as reviews and testimonials across social media platforms, websites and in email campaigns. Reshare, repost and offer outright appreciation for positive comments about your business and brand that are posted by your followers or fans.

To see how social media integration creates success and to continue improving your B2B social media strategy, evaluate brand sentiment with a social listening tool and track website traffic and customer conversions originating from social media via Google Analytics. Monitoring and addressing these types of informative stats should be a daily or weekly occurrence assigned to a team member or your public relations and marketing firm. Gauge the results, look for patterns, and maximize or adjust brand-messaging content that over- or under-performs.

If social media integration does as well for your business as anticipated, you might consider expanding your B2B social media strategy and business offerings with a paid social media campaign or community. Pay-for-entry groups on social media create buzz around your brand and can add another stream of connections for your business, while also functioning as a test market for new products or services. Your business’ top customers get exclusive content, and you benefit from a low-risk way to introduce or launch your Unique Selling Propositions.

Step 2: Use Social media marketing to establish your business as a trusted expert and thought leader.

No matter the business or industry, trust factors into creating customers and clients from prospects. Increasingly, even your B-to-B audience looks to social channels to vet your business and establish trustworthiness.

This is why it is important to note that lacking a social presence in 2023 creates a roadblock to establishing trust with at least some members of your business’s audience, and vice versa; implementing a consistent B2B social media strategy sets your business up as a trusted expert and thought leader within your industry.

While consumer businesses benefit from captivating visuals, B2B social media channels need to offer beneficial thought-leadership information for followers and engagement. Essentially, providing enterprising value, exclusive concepts and unequivocal intel opens the door to trust.

Boost demand generation by illuminating and inspiring your B-to-B marketing segments.

B2B social media content ideas that provide expert information in an easy-to-digest format include bulleted main takeaways from case studies or blogs already available in the business’s resource library. To give this kind of messaging the emphasis it needs to produce qualified leads, merge your PR messaging strategies carefully and take your social posts from bland and trite to informative and visionary.

Consistency plays as pivotal of a role as value, though. Longer nurture time for B2B markets means your business must offer the same value and reliability over weeks and months. Posting resources once on social media and disappearing for the following two weeks or months sends a message that your business does not show up dependably. A strong B2B social media strategy employs content plans and calendars that ensure reliable posting schedules from a trustworthy business.

Social media algorithms also favor consistency. In fact, algorithms heavily scrutinize your B2B social media channels to determine if the content is reliable enough to recommend to a target audience. For the algorithm, regular posting builds trust, but the algorithm also demands content topics and hashtags remain related to similar and sound topics so it can determine to whom it can recommend your content.

Likewise, algorithms reward B2B social media channels that spend time interacting on the given platform and engage with other accounts. Seek out other businesses or prospects and like, share and comment on their posts with valuable information. Not only does the algorithm recommend and serve your content more when you engage, but the audiences of those other accounts recognize your business’s enduring expertise. Offer insights on your competitors’ feeds long enough, and their followers may start following your business as a new, trusted authority in the industry.

Develop, earn and benefit from third-party influence.

Another way to capitalize on other business’ audiences and strengthen your B2B social media strategy is to partner with other industry-related brands and social media influencers to share content that achieves a greater and more applicable reach. In this scenario, your B2B social media channels piggyback and combine with the existing trust of the partner brands or influencers. If those brands already exist as trusted experts to their respective communities, your business’s trusting audience expands.

If you think influencers marketing is not for B2B marketers, change the way you think and how you approach the all-important model of influencer marketing. Chances are your competition partners with B2B social media influencers who have infinities of connections you want to share. Any such influencer marketing deployment should be started with a brainstormed and strategic set of goals, objectives and budget.

Merge and diversify marketing deployments to undergird social media content.

The strategy for capitalizing upon B2B social media can be established with overlapping marketing tactics, coalescing into a clearcut opportunity for more heavy-hitting sales leads results.

Your B2B social media strategy should incorporate the previously mentioned methods of connecting the dots between your branding output and business’s return-on-investment.

Building trust and integrating B2B social media marketing with other promotional efforts provide the preeminent strategy for how to manage B2B social media marketing in 2023, which leads to gaining lasting results from your social media efforts for the long haul. Try these ideas, and you’re well on your way to establishing your business as a leader on and off social media.

Do you need a professional helping hand for implementing a B2B social media strategy for your business? Reach out to Eberly & Collard Public Relations to receive in-depth, expert advice from our full-service PR firm and B2B social media agency.

We are often asked, “What is crisis management?” and “What are the stages of crisis management?” This blog article strikes at the core of what to know and how to act.

Here is a crisis: Your business doesn’t have a crisis communication plan in the back pocket. If this is true, it is past time to plan and assemble one, so you’ll be better equipped to manage all potential crises that could be looming.

Don’t know where to start? Let’s begin by exploring strategic crisis communication plans and why every business needs one.

 What is a Crisis Communication Plan?

 In a time of crisis, how a business strategically communicates with its clients or customers, key stakeholders, media members, and general public (A.K.A., crisis communication) directly reflects how the occurring crisis plays out. Additionally, success in these precarious situations is defined by how well the company effectively communicates – immediately and productively – and recovers in the long run. To that end, a crisis communication plan brings order to the chaos by providing a set of guidelines for a business to follow and execute at the onset and throughout the duration of a crisis.

The purpose of any good crisis communication plan is to provide a general resource and guide to company leadership regarding the fundamental tenets of effective communications during times of extreme difficulty, upheaval or calamity. The plan, once developed, also provides strategies for messaging development and management as well as insights for addressing or interfacing with all critical and impacted groups, including social media users and print, online, digital, and broadcast media members during crises.

Why is a Crisis Communication Plan Important?

Given the current volatility of world affairs and the magnifying spotlight placed on companies via social media, more companies than ever are seeking public relations and marketing agencies with expert crisis communication services and the acumen needed for developing and executing effective crisis communication plans. Whether it be an established corporation or an emerging start-up business, an organization’s success is neither definite nor impervious to the consequences often arising from a crisis.

While the mere thought of a crisis for a business or brand may be distressing, developing an effective crisis communication plan can help your company weather the storm of any crisis to better ensure an outcome with less turmoil, fewer mistakes and minimized repercussions.

Ultimately, develop a plan before crises happen.

How to Create a Crisis Communication Plan

The 5 Cs of Crisis Communication

 All judicious program plans for a business should have supportive frameworks, and a crisis communication plan is no exception. Above all, create a crisis management handbook.

Before developing a crisis communication plan, it is vital to first understand the basic principles which provide its support: Care, Commitment, Competency, Channels, and Continuity.

Care: A crisis is no time to showcase actions and communication that are characterized by a lack of good sense, seriousness and worthwhile purpose. If your communication fails to demonstrate the proper care the situation demands, innumerable problems will arise exacerbating the crisis at hand. Create a crisis communication plan that meticulously and thoughtfully addresses all pertinent groups and their potential needs. Consider, assess and include your employees, stakeholders and investors, customer or client segments, reporters and journalists, influencers, and all other audiences germane to your business.

Commitment: Illustrate a commitment to resolving the crisis and all its effects, as well as mitigating the chance of its reoccurrence. Moreover, committing to timely and frequent communication with all publics, including those with the power to positively or negatively alter the outcome for your business, is an essential characteristic of effectively handling a crisis. Your plan should lay the groundwork, anticipating and outlining the ways in which you, your C-suite and public relations agency will lead during the crisis versus being victimized or scandalized by it.

Competency: Audiences will render their judgments by gauging how well your company or representatives conduct messaging online and perform in front of the media. If you come across as capable through direct interactions with your audiences and communities as well as competent during interviews with the media, these forms of demonstrated insightfulness regarding all matters of the crisis will increase the chances you and the company will be deemed proficient.

Channels: Knowing where to communicate is just as important as knowing what to communicate. Well before a crisis, conduct an audience analysis. If you think you understand all the detailed specifics about your key audiences, consider if you and your leadership team have unearthed exactly how and where these integral groups tend to obtain their important information. If not, your crisis communication plan should involve an exploration of message dissemination that will actually reach your constituents.

Continuity: When planning and executing a crisis communication plan, clear and sustaining message continuity should be top of mind. For example, if a social media post does not exactly match up with the words of your CEO, audience misconceptions may occur, and your ability to control the narrative will diminish. The spoken and written word should always correspond during a crisis. When it comes to continuity, more C’s play an adjacent role; communications with correctness and consistency will strengthen the trust factor among your audiences, giving them an increased level of confidence in how your business is managing the crisis.

These 5+ Cs should be at the heart of every message delivered to your audiences, especially in a time of crisis. You will only be prepared to do so with an advanced plan developed before a crisis, not during one. It is vital to know and execute these principles while understanding the significance of each. Plan, plan and plan ahead; because, without these pillars, there is no ground on which you and your business can stand during the crisis.

Four Essential Elements of a Crisis Communication Plan

 Now that our foundation is set, let’s explore the essential elements of a crisis communication plan. While not an exhaustive list, the following elements are common themes of the best and most productive crisis communication plans.

Assess potential crises: It’s impossible to foresee every potential crisis looming over your business. However, it is possible to identify universal business threats as well as brainstorm the types of crises that frequently arise within your industry and/or sector. From there, every potential crisis should be assessed in terms of the “what if” scenario, along with a preplanned strategy attached.

 The focus of this portion of the plan should involve an assessment of crisis levels in terms of probable or likely dissemination of inaccurate or negative information that is based upon incidents, consumer opinions, hearsay, or propaganda, and that which can create communication issues and adversely affect the company’s reputation and brand perception. Usually, four levels of crisis are evaluated. Our PR team utilizes the following for most of our applicable clients’ crisis communications:

Level 1 = Most Serious or Most Potential Risk or Impact

Level 2 = Moderate Potential Risk or Impact

Level 3 = Low Risk or Impact

Level 4 = Unlikely Risk or Impact

Choose a spokesperson and create a crisis communication team: Who shall speak on behalf of your business when a crisis suddenly emerges? – You? Your CEO? When a crisis hits, the public narrative wastes no time being formed; therefore, you won’t have a second to waste. Decide and include your company’s spokesperson within your crisis communication plan and be ready to address internal and external groups and the media as soon as possible; and, this means quickly.

Your crisis communication plan must include what we like to call “The Line of Defense Team,” comprising leadership personnel who have been educated in the elements of your crisis communication plan. Each participant should have a copy of the plan accessible at all times with listed or charted individual and premeditated responsibilities.

Develop the plan as a workflow with each leader’s scope of responsibility clearly explained to encompass pre-crisis plan management and maintenance as well as activities and duties to handle during the crisis. Aspects of anticipated post-crisis administration are also wise to incorporate into the plan. These prewritten, general action items and timelines are intended to help your business leadership assess, address and attempt to resolve communication issues in regard to projected incidents.

Know your audience: Your audience is more than those who regularly comment on your Instagram posts. Companies commonly approach crisis communication with an exclusive focus on their customers and communities, showing little regard for their employees and other internal stakeholders. When developing and executing a crisis communication plan, make sure no stone is left unturned when identifying and communicating with your audience.

Identify your audience groups regarding whether they have direct or indirect interest versus influence. Consider your various audience types in terms of their “interest” or “influence.” Depending upon the type of crisis, select segments will hold general interest in the crisis and its related information, though with minor applicability for gains or losses. At the other end of the audience spectrum, a highly relevant group will not only have interest; they will also possess a great deal of influence over how they handle, address or speak about the crisis.

An individual crisis will require an assessment of segments and their figurative or actual stakeholder positions in comparison to potential positive, negative or neutral influence. This is integral to making decisions about how closely to interface with the segments and how often communications are required.

Develop consistent and succinct messaging on all channels: Nowadays, companies disseminate information via an expanding variety of communication channels (e.g., social media, onsite messaging, broadcast television, press conferences, emails, etc.). While having and employing different channels of communication is an essential part of an effective crisis communication plan, developing consistent and succinct messaging across said channels is just as important.

Execute the Crisis Communication Plan in a Time of Need

The cardinal rule of crisis communication is similar to medical operations. “First, do no harm.” Kick off your plan immediately.

When it comes to executing a crisis communication plan: timing is everything. Companies that create and maintain crisis communication plans in advance of being needed will be in a better position to control the public narrative.

Implementing your plan involves the opportunity for you and your company leaders and agency to prevent ineffective, unfavorable or detrimental responses to serious crises. Moreover, appropriate crisis communication procedures inspire or beget the trust and confidence that are vital in a challenging situation.

The 24-hour news channels and nontraditional media, vlogs, blogs, and social media can propel a news story or cycle that makes it critical for organizations to actively prepare for crisis communications.

An actual crisis often involves a volatile combination of public reaction and gossip or hearsay. This form of destabilized information makes it essential to give careful thought, albeit expedited, to information that will be stated or distributed, before making public releases or comments. This refers to the gamut- from social media posts to news conferences.

Evaluate the environment into which statements or information should be introduced, so your plan’s drafted messages can be further crafted and shaped to fit the problem or disaster.

Ask these critical questions at the onset:

• Is my crisis communication plan’s primary lead up to date about the matter and beginning to deploy the workflow?
• Which intel is critical to convey to prompt appropriate public responses in terms of the crisis?
• What are the opportunities for successful communications, and how can they be managed and maximized?
• What are the messages to be delivered prior to, during and after the incident?
• Are there obstacles to efficient crisis communications, and how can they be minimized?
• How might/will the media cover the news related to the crisis, and what are the ways in which to work with reporters?
• What questions can be expected from customers, vendors, employees, the public, media members, etc. throughout the situation?

Schedule the first and quick phone conference or meeting with your crisis management team to begin dissecting and dealing with the state of affairs. Rate and review the crisis situation to determine if your prewritten plan’s list of initiation items for management and communication is viable based on the present conditions.

Your plan’s pre-drafted message templates and statements should be finalized as necessary to address emergencies or other timely communications. Move forward with specific statements that could be needed to address individuals, peers, colleagues, or family members of impacted or potentially affected persons, to follow possible statements to and for the media and general public or suitable communities.

In the moments to days that follow, work through the “response” section of your crisis communication plan with the help of your leadership colleagues and public relations agency. From notifying the applicable parties and stabilizing the physical setting to activating your team and their workflow, stay calm and be focused.

What are Examples of Business Crises?

Let’s consider Pepsi and the infamous Kendal Jenner commercial that tried to settle racial injustice and police brutality with a simple can of Pepsi.

Watch the video here

Shortly after this commercial went live, Pepsi and Kendal Jenner faced severe backlash for trivializing the social issue. Nevertheless, Pepsi wasted no time by quickly pulling the ad and offering a statement of apology. While some negative sentiment may still reside, Pepsi’s overall crisis communication plan highlights the timeliness and sincerity needed for preserving the integrity and reputation of a brand in the face of a crisis.

BP Plc., on the other hand, did nothing of the sort. When an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, resulting in the deaths of 11 people and an environmental disaster, BP Plc. was slow in responding to the media, taking three whole days to verify and relay the cause of the explosion. Moreover, BP’s top management failed to address stakeholder and public concerns in a timely manner during the fallout of the crisis. Consequences? — A brand reputation tarnished and in need of restorative action.

If you want to have a say over the narrative and emerge from a crisis with your brand reputation intact, develop and roleplay your crisis communication plan well before a crisis presents itself. Then, deploy your plan – modifying or customizing it as needed – at the moment you become aware of the situation.

Conclusion

Threats are everywhere, surrounding everyone and everything, including companies with renowned success and rock-solid reputations. While it may not be a miscalculated commercial or an environmental disaster, a crisis can hit your business at any moment.

An effective crisis communication plan derives its framework from the five Cs as explained in this narrative and comprises all the essential elements with no stone left unturned. Do not put off until tomorrow what you and your business can do today to become prepared and properly equipped to manage a crisis and its ensuing chaos.

Contact our public relations team to learn more about an effective crisis communication plan specific to your business and brand.

Client loyalty and customer referrals have now hit an all-time low, and these types of new business connections are fast being replaced by having relevant expertise in a niche service category.

Even with 2020 past us, we are still living in unprecedented and chaotic times. But, most of all, these are times of profound change. At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we believe we are on the precipice of a revolution as it pertains to how leaders at professional service firms can market themselves. Buyers need to know how to assess service providers in today’s environment. And, sellers need to understand what types of sales and marketing methods will gain the attention of buyers.

Buyers stated in a study last year conducted by the Marketing Research Institute that relevancy of services or specialization in a niche category was a key selection factor. This factor has risen 33% over the last two years and will continue to rise. Relevant expertise translates to higher client satisfaction, loyalty and referrals, all of which are at all-time lows. Because it is much easier for a buyer to do a quick web search than it is to reach out to a friend or a colleague for advice or for a referral. The loyalty suffers and is not established if the client does not see you as highly relevant to their current challenges and needs. The old methods will not work in today’s environment.

What is the best path forward? In today’s marketplace, a strategic and customized approach is paramount to success. A modern, digital-fueled content marketing approach is the right mix of ingredients. Traditional methods are not dead. It’s understanding how to balance them both appropriately in varying percentages based on your specific industry or unique needs.

Digital Marketing Dominates

Digital communications and marketing have been on the rise for more than a decade, but companies that have not evolved to include some form of digital marketing communications are being left behind. The 2020 pandemic forced many companies to convert to all types of virtualization where digital interactions are now routine. With so many gaining experience and comfort with virtual services, it will only continue to be more prevalent. Having a strong digital content marketing strategy will help aid in staying relevant. Items like Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a digital media kit, and a robust media relations strategy that will help secure articles and placements online will also help with high authoritative backlinks to your website. Podcasts and videos will also fall under this category, to name a few.

The Importance of Industry Specialization

Specialization is essential and considered a real competitive advantage over companies that do not do so. The benefits are obvious. Clients benefit by virtue of specialized service and added value through insights and suggestions. We decided years ago to be an industry niche-based marketing firm and have maintained our commitment to this decision. It’s been our strength in an otherwise uncertain economic environment because our target audience demands as much value out of their professional advisors as possible. We believe that specialization gives this to them. After all, by virtue of serving many organizations and individuals engaged within the same industries, we see challenges and opportunities much clearer than another firm not working in that specific industry category. This brings a lot of value to our clients in the niches we serve. We believe other professional service firms that follow in this similar model will also yield the same successes.

Niche Marketing is A Successful Strategy

Differentiation, the most common, and most difficult marketing issue for professional services firms. Competition within the professional services space is fierce, and many industries are incredibly analogous—which makes differentiation that much more difficult. Take an unbiased look at your industry. See how competition saturation, economic or political volatility, and trends and challenges affect your position.

Define your target audiences and what they want. The critical rule here: Don’t guess. Internally generated client surveys and client service programs only go so far. What your clients and prospects say and do varies greatly depending on a variety of factors. Third-party research can help. Once you know the pain points and perceptions, make sure you have a solid plan on what to do with that vital information.

Use your resources and or the resources of your specialty marketing firm to focus your efforts. This involves all of your firm’s professionals, including technical, business development and marketing focused. Is your marketing department at capacity? Is this the time to outsource? Do your business development and marketing teams have the right skills and roles in place? Once you make changes or revise your strategy, do you have individuals that can champion the efforts and see things to fruition?

Understand What is and is Not Working

This tends to be one of the most difficult questions to ask, as the answers can be very nuanced. For example, are you engaging in reactionary marketing (or is marketing more of an afterthought in your organization)? Do you have a strategic plan in place? As mentioned in the beginning of this article, content development will be crucial to help increase awareness and education among your targets. But, it takes time. A realistic timeframe is approximately 3-4 months before a measurable difference can be seen. It’s quite often in today’s world of instant gratification that expectations are not realistic. Don’t set yourself up for failure by having unrealistic expectations from the very beginning.

There are numerous ways to increase B2B lead generation, but the information above will help guide you along the way. Working with an agency that truly understands your specific industry is the way to achieve success and convey your value proposition. Working to ensure that your client loyalty does not suffer is a sure-fire way to remain relevant to your customer base.

It might feel as if staying in a hotel or eating at a restaurant will never be the same again. At least for the immediate future, both activities for consumers will come with certain risk factors. Whether or not consumers will be willing to confront these risks, and to what extent, remains slightly unknown.

This does not mean all hope is lost; people will continue to find ways to enjoy their favorite restaurants and stay in their favorite hotels – it is simply human nature to do so. However, the ways in which people choose their patronage will be vastly different in the age of COVID-19.

With this new shift comes an entirely new way for hospitality groups to look at their marketing strategies and evaluate how their marketers are communicating brand information to the public. It has been said that 2020 will be a landmark year for marketing communications, especially when it comes to brands being able to successfully communicate an immediate, effective message to their target audiences. And, for hospitality groups, nothing is more urgent or immediate to be communicated through marketing than their patrons’ safety.

In times such as these, if you are a marketing manager or C-suite leader in the hospitality industry, you must ask yourself an important question: Are our brands effectively portrayed as “safe” establishments through our marketing? If not, how do we communicate our messages of safety and preparedness to our target audiences?

1.    Marketing for Hospitality: The Back of House becomes Front of House

Your Back of House staff will become one of your most important assets in this next era of hospitality.

When it comes to any consumer-facing media, especially owned digital media, such as your brands’ blogs and social media channels, consider shifting your messaging to highlight Back of House operations to keep potential patrons aware of the steps you are taking for their safety.

Your restaurant brands may import some of the highest quality ingredients, and the rooms at your hotel brands may feature bedding with very high thread counts; however, these aspects of hospitality simply aren’t top-of-mind for patrons at the moment. That is not to say they are not important, but we predict patrons of hotels in the near future will care less about the brand of sheets they are sleeping on, and more about who cleaned the room, and how they did so.

Take this time to show your potential patrons your goals and safety objectives align with theirs through creative owned media, such as social media and blogging, and earned media through key publications. In your press releases, or preferred method of delivering brand-messaging to the media, highlight the capabilities of your staff, and keep the language concise, technical and straight to the point. Let no message be too difficult to understand, and be as transparent as possible in explaining your objectives.

For owned media, write a blog profiling the now-immensely important role of your sanitation staff and the ways in which their best practices translate to guests’ safety and comfort. This, too, should be on the shorter, concise end as far as blogs go. You want to avoid are large, “wordy” messages filled with jargon and pre-existing slogans and promotional messaging that may seem tone-deaf.

The most important asset hospitality groups have at this particular point in time are attentive, well-trained sanitation teams; this is the new message that should be delivered to consumers through social media marketing for hotels and restaurants. Though promotional discounts any of your brands are offering, or new updates to your facilities are important, your messaging should directly target the possible anxieties of potential patrons and guests, and how your Back of House teams are working overtime to extinguish these anxieties.

This does not mean you should halt all communications with promotional messaging; these messages should absolutely continue, but not take precedent to timely, more relevant messaging.

2.    Transparent, Uniformed Messaging from the Top   

Leaders in the hospitality and related industries, who own or operate multiple brands, should not only invest in a strong communications plan aimed at making the efforts of Back of House staff known, but make sure these communications are uniform across all their brands, and repeated at the top.

To ensure your smaller brands are communicating with the same transparency as your larger brands, enlist the services of a fully integrated public relations agency to develop a top-to-bottom communications strategy to effectively distribute your messaging.

For hospitality groups, re-opening establishments across the United States, and especially in Europe, is going to vary depending on location. For example, the re-opening of a larger New York City brand is going to be vastly different than the re-opening and continued operations of a smaller brand in a place like Colorado. So, you may ask, how do we keep a single, uniform message of safety, when many of our brands are in different areas and adhering to different protocols?

The answer can be simple, and involves the most immediate form of communication for a brand or business: social media.

Leverage the influence of your C-suite leaders on your group’s social media channels, by using their Live functions when there are immediate announcements related to COVID-19. However, and as we’ve said before, keep the messaging concise, technical and straight to the point. After all, immediate, safety related messaging cannot always wait for the news cycle, and must be relayed immediately by executive leadership in some cases.

3.    Align your Digital Messaging with Consumers’ Priorities

So-called “behind the scenes” operations must be highlighted in outgoing digital marketing communications for hospitality groups. Hotel and restaurant patrons can be a risk-averse bunch, even before the ongoing pandemic. Prior to a staying at a hotel or dining at a restaurant, some sort of preliminary research is conducted, often using search results from Google or a similar search engine.

It’s no secret that what is found about your hotel or restaurant brands through online searches can be highly valuable. Hospitality groups, in the past, strived to rank highly on search engines like Google for keywords and phrases such as, “best hotel near me,” or “best restaurant in New York City.” Future patrons, now with realigned priorities when on the hunt for the right hotel or restaurant, will be dropping the word “best” in some cases, for “cleanest.”

So, if your restaurants offer expansive outdoor seating, which, by many standards, is considered a safer method of dining in this era, really focus your efforts on ranking well with SEO. In conducting target market analysis for restaurants, make sure to target potential patrons searching for the best outdoor dining options in your markets’ surrounding areas.

To relate this back to our point on owned media, write a blog about the steps you are taking internally (i.e., what your Back of House is doing), and use a strategic, targeted SEO strategy to draw people to your blog who are looking for their safest options. When doing this, make sure you are vetting and incorporating SEO terms into your owned media that rank well amongst other related search terms.

4.    Have a Well-Developed, Responsive Crisis Communications Plan

We’d be remiss in not mentioning the importance of having a fully developed crisis communications plan in your back pocket. Fluid situations such as these call for preparedness, and, if you are a hospitality group that attracts guests and diners to your brands from across the country, you must be ready with a communications strategy in the event of a patron or guest falling ill.

This message, too, should begin with a uniformed message from the top, followed by (again!) a short, to-the-point message regarding your brands’ commitment to patron safety, as reaffirmed by the efforts of your Back of House staff.

Crisis strategies often encompass all aspects of public relations in some way or another, and should be shared across all your social media accounts related to the brand(s) affected by the situation.

If you haven’t yet developed a crisis communications plan, or your crisis plan needs updated, here are a few pointers for making sure your crisis strategy remains on-point:

–       Communicate to your audiences using an omnichannel approach: Create a strategy that consists of scheduled, outgoing communications that are seamless in nature. This means that all external marketing communications, such as unpaid, organic social media posts, paid media, blogs, e-newsletters, etc., are uniform and omnipresent, rather than unique, parallel messages that may compete against each other.

–       Make sure the executive and C-suite leaders are well informed on the issue at hand: In keeping with the omnichannel marketing communications approach to handling a COVID-19 related crisis, it is vitally important that your deployed crisis communications plan is aligned from top to bottom.

–       Timing is everything: If a health-related crisis does arise in one or more of your hotels or restaurants, carefully monitor the news to ensure your messaging is being communicated in the right places and at the right moments.

Though the coming times ahead will be challenging, we are looking forward to a hospitality renaissance coming soon after the smoke clears, so to speak. These important communications strategies, though time consuming, are true value propositions. With uniform, transparent and timely communications / marketing plans in place, you can go on doing what leaders in the hospitality industry do best: ensure guests and patrons experience your brands in the best light possible.

In a crowded marketplace, it is estimated that we interact with over 3,000 brands in any given day. Understanding the process of how a well-established B2B (business to business) thought leadership marketing strategy is developed and exactly how to convey your brand’s value proposition clearly and effectively is paramount to ensuring your brand voice is heard. When done properly, this can be a powerful tool that is not just another piece of marketing jargon, but instead a way to solidify and position your company as a leader in its field.

A study conducted by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) determined that 83% of B2B buyers believe that ‘thought leadership’ had increased their trust in organizations, with 88% saying they use thought leadership to build a shortlist of potential vendors. The study also stated that approximately 50% of C-suite executives and decision-makers believed thought leadership content had a direct impact on awarding business. 61% of C-suite executives say they are willing to pay a premium to work with an organization that has articulated a clear vision.

The most interesting takeaway from the study suggests that 45% of B2B marketers said they take advantage of thought leadership marketing. This finding presents a unique opportunity and an excellent way to breakthrough barriers in your specific sector, become an industry disruptor and increase your sales and new business.

Thought Leadership Marketing Defined:

So, what exactly is thought leadership? By definition, thought leadership is a method of marketing which positions you as an expert and authority in your industry and conveys that your company or brand has deep understanding of the subject matter at hand. To be a thought leader in your industry is to share the philosophies and business knowledge that your company uses. It can be a unique take or perspective that will create a significant impact on a business model or even the sector’s marketplace at large. Thought leadership builds brand affinity which, in turn, enacts trust. This is an excellent entry point and foundation when employing demand generation as a strategy. Creating awareness and trust, which is one of the core components of demand generation, is often accomplished with thought leadership.

Below, we have outlined three main cornerstone strategies that, when followed properly, are proven to accelerate your industry positioning, and will also propel your company as a thought leader in your industry or sector.

Build Thought Leadership Through Media Relations –

In order to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, you need to reach your target audience. This is where the media can help amplify your message as well as your brand. From traditional channels like business newspapers, B2B industry trade magazines, business radio shows to growing mediums like podcasts, there are many avenues for you to reach and, thus, influence others.

It is important to note that media relations outreach is a separate strategy in and of itself. Working with a public relations firm that specializes in your industry niche is vital to success. Otherwise, you will have to work on the time-consuming process to pitch yourself to media outlets and journalists to build trust and make the case for why you should be featured in an article or interview.

The influx of different channels helps tremendously in these efforts. Focus on niche publications that targets your industry. With patience and consistency, partnering with the media will help you get in front of your audience and establish your place as a thought leader. Once you are featured, you will start to earn credibility and can use your new media placements to show that you are considered an expert in your field. Then, it is more likely other journalists or publications will become interested in connecting as well.

We recommend studying each and every individual media outlet to determine exactly what topic and format is best suited for them. The largest mistake we see people make is the use software to mass (or blanket) pitch the same information to every media outlet out there. This is not the proper way to influence the media outlets to profile or feature your business or interview you.

You’re only a thought leader if you truly showcase expertise in your field and offer valuable insights and opinions. Sound media relations is a catalyst to accomplish this.

Establish Brand Authority on Your Owned Media Channels –

As we discussed above, gaining credibility is one of the foundations of thought leadership. While media engagements require cooperation with a journalist or publication, your brand’s owned media channels allow for self-publication of your thought leadership articles or whitepapers instantaneously. Social media channels, blogs, podcasts, and webinars are a few of the main examples of owned media channels. Defined as brand channels you or the company owns, you and your marketing staff members have the freedom and ability to publish as you see fit.

Thought leadership marketing allows you to get in front of your audience on your own terms. However, this doesn’t mean you’ll want to post and share content on a whim. Creating a content strategy with a posting schedule is an important step toward gaining trust with your audience, while establishing yourself as a B2B thought leader.

First, you have to determine your audience and the sectors that reside within the audience. These are the prospective customers you are trying to reach. Who are your customers and what questions are they asking? Once you establish this, you can begin the process of crafting content that is targeted to this group. This step will also reveal which channels you should use to deliver your message. For example, if your B2B target audience includes professional service companies, you’ll want to focus on blogs and LinkedIn much more than Facebook or Instagram. White papers with broader subject matter may also resonate with them, more so than shorter content that consumer product companies tend to seek.

Regardless of how and where you are publishing your content, it is essential to establish your frequency. You want to publish often enough that people remember and identify you as an influencer; but, you do not want to flood your followers’ timelines and blog subscription email inboxes with content lacking research and relevance, just to hit a number. Each post should add value and include a call-to-action.

Activate New Audiences with Public Relations Engagements –

One search for “thought leaders” on YouTube will present hundreds of videos that feature speeches from various influencers across a wide variety of industries. Speaking engagements work because they allow you to share a message with a specific audience free from other distractions. Seminars and conferences focused on your industry are the most ideal settings for delivering this message, because they are filled with attendees eagerly awaiting your message. Even though the current situation with the global pandemic has caused in-person events to be cancelled or postponed, virtual speaking engagements and events are thriving and are here to stay. With the proper planning and strategy, it is even possible to create your own “industry though leadership” related event or webinar. This is a valuable means by which to reach your intended audience.

Utilizing social media for both pre- and post-event messaging surrounding your chosen topic is another excellent way to reinforce the message you are trying to convey. Another excellent way to share your thoughts is by hosting your own podcast. We wrote a previous blog post about using a podcast as a vehicle for publicity. It contains several valuable steps on how to go about this process. The equipment needed is extremely low cost to put together a podcast.

Any medium that allows you to speak passionately about your authoritative topic or industry will go a long way proving your status as a thought leader. Maintaining the aforesaid steps in a strategy that is consistent is key to saturation for your thought leadership marketing plan.

If you are not leading, you are following. B2B buyers and decision makers want to work with leading brands. It is crucial to build a reputation through strong, compelling, accessible, and impactful thought leadership marketing content. Once you’ve built a strong foundation of trust and confidence with your audience, the rest of your marketing strategy is a matter of ongoing creative and maintenance.

Please contact us to learn more about how our firm works with brands to create successful thought leadership marketing plans.