When it comes to successful public relations campaigns, the best ones are planned in detail and researched beforehand. Before a company can start reaching out to media outlets and influencers, there are a few things it needs to do to prepare for its public relations campaign. However, the most important element of any public relations campaign is the message that the company wants to share with the rest of the world.
Newsworthy
To generate positive media coverage with targeted outlets and grab the attention of the target audience, companies need to create a newsworthy message. That means creating a topical and relevant message that will make both media outlets and the public take note of it. This strategy will also help journalists who are already constantly searching for newsworthy stories that they can share with the readers. The best way to create a newsworthy story and message is to situate it within the wider news cycle and explain how it's relevant to the target audience of the media outlet, as well as the impact it can have on people's lives.
Call to action
The public relations messages that generate the biggest impact on audiences are the ones that are easy to understand and are followed by clear instructions on what the audience needs to do after receiving that message. That means companies need to include a clear call to action that the target audience is willing to follow. A great example of a strong call to action came from IKEA which conducted research about the sleeping habits of different types of people and invited the target audience to sleep over in one of the IKEA stores. With such an unusual message, plenty of people were willing to join in on the news story, which also received a lot of media coverage from all kinds of outlets.
Information
A great way for companies to educate their customers is through public relations campaigns. However, it's important for companies to remember that they should be informative and engaging with their public relations messages, instead of being overly promotional. That means companies need to create public relations messages with the goal of generating more brand or product awareness and opening the minds of the target audience, instead of simply stating what's new with the company or its solutions, and telling the customers to start making purchases. A great example of this was from the environmentally friendly cleaning brand Ecover, which decided to create a pop-up shop called The Rubbish Café where customers could pay for their food using disposable plastic such as water bottles. With this public relations campaign, the company managed to raise awareness about the effect that pollution can have on the planet, well also getting people to participate in recycling to help the environment.
