3 PR mistakes to avoid
If you’ve decided that now is the time for your brand to become the go-to in your industry, you need to consider public relations (PR) as an essential part of your marketing and communications strategy.
Before you even think about contacting a reporter or sending out pitch, here are three common PR mistakes to avoid.
Assuming coverage magically happens
So you opened a business, launched a product, or started a blog, and you haven’t been approached for a feature-length story or become instantly famous yet.
How can this be?
Because those stories you hear about how launching a gorgeous website or getting a million likes on your latest Instagram post and having it rocket you to super stardom are just that, stories.
And I do mean fiction.
Sure, you could get lucky. However, the odds of a reporter picking up a story to provide you with coverage just by seeing your social media post or receiving an email from you, someone whose name they don’t recognize, is a long shot.
The truth is, you have to proactively put your brand and yourself out there. Not sit and wait to be discovered.
Pitching without a plan
Another common PR mistake is feeling like you need to hurry up and pitch your brand or business, but you haven’t taken the time to put a PR strategy or plan in place.
Instead, you’re mindlessly pitching. With no rhyme or reason.
Sure, you may land a media hit or two; however, this hap-hazard approach to PR won’t attract more customers or grow your bottom line.
It won’t even land you media coverage.
A solid PR strategy will keep you from spinning your wheels and mindlessly pitching. It also will help you determine not only what you pitch to promote your brand, but when you should pitch it.
Plus, a PR strategy will help you ensure you’re attracting the right customers. Which in turn, will lead to sales.
And who doesn’t want more of those?
Look, if you’re pitching and pitching and thinking you’re being strategic, you’re not.
Like the song from the movie Frozen, you need to let it go.
A PR strategy will lay the groundwork for what you should be pitching. And having a strategy makes it easy to pitch with purpose—eliminating the “pitching is hard” myth.
agonizing over what to pitch
If you are spending hours a day worrying and fretting over what to pitch to the media or how to promote your brand in order to get media coverage, I don’t need to tell you how stressful that makes life.
Or that this way of doing your PR is not sustainable.
You already know this. But what are you going to do about it?
Because, let’s be real, even if you are spending 20 minutes a day worrying about or wondering what you’re going to pitch or how you’re going to promote your brand to your target audience, you’re spending too much time.
There is a better way.
Remember, pitching and promoting your brand should be fun! You’re sharing what’s cool, new, and unique about your offerings.
When you have a PR strategy in place pitching can be so easy, it almost will feel as if it’s a task you’ve automated.
By having a clear PR plan in place, you’ll always know what to pitch. And that will get you:
• New sales
• Repeat buyers
• New subscribers to your lists
• Engaging content for social media that’s ready to post
• Authentic fans and followers on all your social platforms
All because you put a simple PR strategy in place to guarantee being featured in multiple media outlets as an expert in your industry.
The truth of the matter is, if you aren’t being strategic about what you’re pitching, you’re putting too many mixed messages out there about your brand.
While you think what you’re doing is helping attract your target audience, you’re really repelling them with too much noise.
Less is more, and by less I mean only pitching the key messages that are important to promote your brand so people know of you and want to buy from you.
