E-commerce Websites and Public Relations

When it comes to utilizing public relations efforts, e-commerce stores can see plenty of benefits– especially if all efforts come from honesty. Whatever message is going to be shared with the target audience should be true and factual, because making false statements in any PR effort is pointless. This is especially true in today’s age when people can fact-check and find the right information at the press of a button.

However, there’s a big difference between telling people the truth and telling people everything. Most of the time, revealing everything doesn’t really help any business.  However, giving honest and relevant information can be especially beneficial. This is why, when e-commerce website owners are considering their new PR campaigns, they should first remove anything that’s not relevant to the narrative they’re trying to create as well as anything that the target audience won’t find interesting.   Then they should work with the information that’s leftover.

Target Audience

The first step in any public relations effort from an e-commerce website owner is to focus on the target audience. However, it doesn’t always mean that the target audience is particularly interested in the brand, in the business, or even the stories about the business, as most of the time they’re all interested in what benefits they will receive. That’s why when looking to generate new stories about a company, business owners should be thinking about what benefits the audience will get from learning the information that’s going to be shared in those stories.

To check if a story is going to be newsworthy for the target audience after the announcement has been drafted, the company should try replacing its own name with someone else’s – such as the name of someone that’s not popular or a household name. This is a great way to find out how readers of that story are going to feel and whether they will care about the message in the first place.

Medium, Channel, and Angle

Companies can utilize various opportunities for public relations, as long as three main components are established:  the angle, the channel, and the medium for the story. The angle is the topic of the company’s message, and how the story is going to be shaped for the audience. Next, there are three different types of channels – paid, earned, and owned. The paid channels are generally sponsored ad placement, and the earned are the ones that cover the company on media outlets.

Finally, owned channels are all of those that a company owns, such as its own website, social media accounts, and more. The medium largely depends on the former two points, specifically, the type of content the audience likes to consume, and the right places for that content. This is how companies decide whether they will be creating videos, written articles, or posts on social media when trying to promote their business.