Public Relations

Public relations (PR) is the story your brand tells its audience; a narrative woven from your actions and your voice. It’s not a one hit wonder. PR builds upon reputation, trust and rapport over time. It’s about understanding – and communicating – who you are and sparking genuine, engaging relationships with your target audience(s). Done well, a PR team like ours will transform you from a name on a page to a trusted brand in the hearts and minds of your ideal customers.

A public relations agency provides public relations services and support to its clients. At Conteur, we can help organisations in the health and social care, housing and hospitality sectors to stand out and grow through market leading PR, video and digital services. In addition to providing both proactive and reactive ideas designed at amplifying your brand’s presence and reputation, a PR agency is also on hand to provide advice and counsel when you need it.

Public relations not only builds, it ultimately protects your brand reputation. But that’s not it – it can do so much more. Some of the benefits of PR for your business are:

• Increased brand awareness
• Improved brand image
• Enhanced media relations and coverage
• Connections with your target audiences
• Building relationships
• Attracting investors
• Increased visibility of your services
• Referrals and increased website traffic

Public relations is much more than just drafting press releases. A cohesive PR strategy ensures that every element of PR – from press releases and thought leadership opportunities to awards and community engagement – is considered, aligning with your business/marketing objectives. A strategy also encompasses a multi-channel approach, ensuring that content is fully utilised. In addition to press release management, a reputable digital PR agency will consider how to build relationships with the media, including influencers. PR enables a brand to tell its story, so a compelling narrative is essential. When things go wrong – and they sometimes do – public relations anticipates and navigates crises, minimising damage and protecting your reputation.

PR is focused on building and protecting a positive reputation. So when we look at how to measure PR, it cannot be done in the same way as marketing. PR looks to influence and is emotive, so it is harder to measure.

At Conteur, dependant on the PR strategy and objective, we could be looking at the below to measure our PR efforts:

• Coverage (and its quality vs quantity)
• Brand mentions
• Reach/impressions
• Sentiment
• Media outreach/relations
• Earned traffic (as a result of link placement)
• Ongoing sales/leads growth
• Crisis communications

PR and marketing are siblings, but they are not twins! The objective of marketing is to promote and sell. PR builds and protects reputation. While marketing shouts “buy this”, PR says “you should buy this because…”, engaging the customer and building trust. They should be treated very differently, but work together seamlessly. The end goals of wanting to sell a service or product and making your audience love you are very closely linked. You want a customer that is invested in your brand, as well as having a problem solved by what you are providing. An organisation should be looking to combine both PR and marketing to align with business objectives.

At Conteur, a leading digital PR agency, we take a flexible approach to providing services for our clients. We always take the time to get to know you and your business before recommending which services you should invest in. We offer public relations services on a one-off project basis, ideal for campaigns or events/announcements, or on a longer-term retained service. We also provide mixed services packages for those looking to upscale their marketing activities, offering a blend of PR, video, photography, graphic design, and digital marketing activities.

There are many different forms of PR. While most clients seeking a PR service aim to secure media coverage, this is just one aspect of PR activity.

PR activities also collaborate to ensure the long-term goal of building and protecting brand reputation. A PR strategy, provided by a reputable digital PR agency, acts as the glue that holds all of this together – offering direction based on target audiences and goals.

Some of the various types of PR considered in a comprehensive PR strategy include:

• Media relations
• Community engagement
• Stakeholder engagement
• Crisis communications
• Tone of voice
• Internal communications
• Online and social communications
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
• Thought leadership
• Digital PR opportunities

Public relations can and should make an important contribution in helping to form an organisation’s ideas about three topics:

1. What it is?
2. What it should do?
3. What its public want and expect from it.

This includes creation and production of policies and procedures for the distribution of information to employees, media, government and other key publics.

We are highly skilled communicators, storytellers and passionate about helping our clients achieve a positive media reception. There are many ways in which we at Conteur use and develop our public relations skills for our client’s needs. Here are some key traits you can expect to experience and benefit from while working with us:

• Flexibility: As public relations specialists we know it requires us to adapt and react quickly to changing circumstances. For example, in one public relations campaign, our main responsibility may be to introduce a new product. In another, it may be to announce a shift in your business’s direction. We need to be flexible enough to be equally effective in both roles.
• Initiative: Self-motivation is an important aspect of our public relations work. Our specialist are able to analyse and produce quickly what is required to figure out how you can benefit you as our client, whether it involves learning about new communication strategies or doing industry research.
• Teamwork: As public relations professionals rarely we rarely work alone. In most cases, our specialists work as part of a team that may include researchers, marketers, designers, account managers, directors and others in similar roles. We pride ourselves in working well with others internally or externally in high-pressure situations in order to carry out the most effective campaign possible.
• Brand management: Our brand management is of the highest quality, proven to enhance the reputation of your business’s brand. We are adept at leveraging your brand’s strengths and able present them in a way that appeals to the public.