In today’s fast-paced and interconnected world, public relations trends have undergone a significant transformation. The digital age has revolutionized how businesses and individuals communicate with their target audience, demanding a more dynamic and engaging approach.
In this article, we uncover the latest PR strategies and trends that are reshaping the industry. From influencer marketing to social media engagement, brands are now leveraging digital channels to enhance their reputation, build trust, and engage with their audience like never before. The key lies in understanding your target market, crafting compelling content, and utilizing the right platforms to reach your audience effectively.
Furthermore, with the rise of AI-powered tools, data analytics, and personalized messaging, PR professionals now have an array of tools at their disposal to deliver targeted and tailored campaigns. However, it’s crucial to strike a balance between automation and human touch, ensuring that authenticity and meaningful connections are not compromised.
Join us as we delve into the ever-evolving world of PR trends, uncovering the techniques that drive success in today’s digital landscape. Discover innovative approaches that will help you connect with your audience, elevate your brand, and achieve measurable results.
Emerging PR Trends
As PR professionals, we keep up to date on the changes in the market. At Pressfarm, we’ve developed PR services to serve startups just like yours at the most competitive rates in the industry. If you have a new startup that is just launching, you no longer have to worry about expensive press release writing and distribution. In addition to that, we also provide quality media kit design services, so you don’t have to spend time looking for a qualified designer to bring your vision to life. Moreover, our expert writers can craft compelling guest posts for your brand, thus helping you capture media attention and inspire your target audience.
Beyond creating this quality content, the experts at Pressfarm can help you distribute it widely to put it right in front of your target audience. By submitting your content to respected startup directories and media outlets, Pressfarm can boost your online visibility, ensuring that your brand features in relevant search results across different search engines. Additionally, with custom media lists and access to a media database of over 1 million media contacts, Pressfarm can help you to connect with the best journalists in your niche. This way, you can keep doing media outreach for your brand, long after Pressfarm has wrapped up your campaign.
With Pressfarm, you can forget about PR packages priced way above your league. At Pressfarm, you will find competitive PR packages that are kind to your budget. We have seen a shift in the PR market. We know startups sometimes need a helping hand with their PR in this ever-changing industry. We’ve developed these services with startups like yours in mind. Check out our packages and let us know how we can help you gain the publicity you deserve.
We’re still getting queries about what PR strategies are working in this new digital landscape. With our years of experience, we have put together a list of the emerging trends that will shape public relations in 2023 as follows:
1) Data
From big data to small data, modern public relations has become ever dependent on data. Public relations is all about stories. In order to tell compelling narratives to the target market, you need to collect and evaluate valuable data. This is mainly because the age of the Internet has ensured there is so much information available at the click of a button. With so many businesses starting in the time it takes to create a logo and website, many new companies are pushing for their own stories.
For startups, it has become more important to use data to define their PR strategy. Startup teams have to understand the importance of every piece of data they collect, and how they can use this data to create compelling stories that interest their readership, journalists, and market. Startups are always collecting data via Google advertising, PR campaigns, Facebook advertising, organic search, and social media. This data is of no use if it is not analyzed to inform the next series of moves and strategies for the companies.
2) Pitching 2.0
Previously, mass emailing worked so effectively because journalists, writers, and bloggers all received very few emails and pitches. After all, back then not many people had emails or access to the internet. That is not the case anymore.
Today, pitching is only effective if you take your time to study everyone on your media list, as well as evaluate their readership and niche. You cannot get away with mass emailing anymore because journalists and bloggers now receive a ton of pitches per day. They can also easily tell when an email they’ve received was sent to a gazillion other journalists.
In modern public relations, pitching has to be done keenly and backed by research. Startups that focus on pitching based on new data get positive media coverage. They’re even more successful than those startups that send mass emails trying to pitch their launch or a new product feature. The new wave of pitching is personalized pitches. General cut-and-paste pitches won’t suffice and have not been successful for a good part of the last 5 years. At Pressfarm, we help our clients with pitching. Sending an email pitch that a journalist will read isn’t always easy. Nevertheless, we know that with a compelling story and the right expertise, pitching always gets us results.
3) Analytics
A decade or two ago, very few people really cared about numbers when it came to marketing. All it took to get the attention of the market was an amazing and beautiful advertising banner placed across the street, on the walls of a building, or on TV.
Today, no matter how amazing your advert is, at some point in your funnel, the prospective client will ask for the numbers backing up your nice ad. It’s harder for clients to trust eye-catching YouTube videos, television ads, or beautiful banners along the streets – all thanks to an information overload making it harder to discern between factual information and false information.
Companies that want to succeed in modern public relations must embrace numbers and analytics. Tech companies – including those that market themselves using social impact, must do their research, and collect their data from both prospective and existing clients. They must then make some mathematical sense of that data. Put this into perspective in form of website traffic, a number of leads, etc, and you will easily get press coverage. Journalists are now interested in stories that are backed by well-analyzed data. So data analytics is crucial because the readers who are the potential customers for your company care about the analyzed information presented in form of a relatable story.
4) Influencers
Modern public relations can no longer be controlled or defined only by the media. The game is changing. The whole world is now a global village courtesy of the internet and improved technology. Previously, the press alone defined and governed brand awareness. However, in the current world, that neighbor of yours who has 100k followers on Instagram can make a life-changing impact on your brand.
The world today consists of many influential people whose opinions are trusted by many. Bloggers have also become extremely influential and those who are credible can be the go-to person. When you need to get the word out about your company, building relationships with these influencers is a good place to start.
It is also fair to say that brands must be very discerning when choosing influencers to work with. It is important to choose an influencer whose target audience matches yours and whose reputation will not tarnish your brand image. Moreover, when building a relationship with an influencer, you should take time to gauge whether they are genuinely interested in your company. Keep in mind that some influencers are just in it for the freebies, and you need to weed these ones out. In fact, some hotels, restaurants, and resorts around the world have specifically banned influencers from their resorts because of the tendency. And can you blame them? When one too many influencers ask for a free stay at a hotel in exchange for social media posts, you eventually have to put your foot down.
5) Publicity is not the end game
Even as companies seek publicity, achieving this won’t guarantee customers happiness 6 or 7 months down the line. Companies must understand that in modern public relations, publicity won’t take you too far if it is the end game.
What should the end game be instead?
The end game today is customer satisfaction. Publicity is just the beginning. If customers are not happy with your product after a few days or weeks, they will move on. And they won’t hesitate to voice their dissatisfaction with your company. In fact, they will have nothing but bad testimonials for anyone who asks about your company.
Companies must therefore ensure that the product or service works perfectly: not just up to some point. Startups looking for press coverage shouldn’t hit the brakes after developing the minimum viable product (MVP). Rather, they should ensure that the core part of that MVP executes the idea and solves the problem it set out to solve first. In summary, publicity is only beneficial when customer satisfaction can be guaranteed. Perfecting your product will ensure that word of mouth from existing customers continues to bring in additional customers very many years along the line.
6) Reading
Since we now have shorter attention spans, the culture of reading has changed. People no longer read masses of text as was the case a decade ago. Instead, people now skim articles for important information. For PR teams, ignoring this shift can be the biggest undoing – very detrimental. You need to be able to write in a way that retains your reader’s attention. For this reason, good PR writing is concise and engaging. Providing the important information in a few words is key. So is writing in a conversational manner that will keep a reader engaged.
While the public is reading less, reading is still crucial for PR professionals who want to perfect their craft. The only way to master modern public relations is to read and read and read again. Most experts advise that you set aside time to read on a daily basis. Understanding your niche, and what journalists in your niche like to write about can only be achieved through reading. Knowing how to connect with a journalist and offer them the right information can be the foundation of a lasting relationship with a media outlet.
It is important to understand the market, the readers, the writers, bloggers, and journalists before reaching out to ask for press coverage. PR teams in startups that emphasize the importance of reading are miles ahead in their mission to generate publicity for their companies.
7) Content strategy
It is nearly impossible to succeed in the current world without a good content strategy. A definite and elaborate content creation and marketing plan set you apart from companies that are only focused on marketing their products.
Long gone is the belief that publicity only comes from media. As we have seen earlier, influencers and bloggers have become integral to brand awareness. More fundamental, however, is social media. Just about a decade ago, it was an immense struggle to get noticed by your market if the media didn’t cover your company. Enter Facebook and the game changed. The social network now has more than 1.5 billion users worldwide. Then followed Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Google Plus – with more than a billion users interacting on these 4 social media networks every month.
The only way to attract attention on these social networks is to prioritize content creation and marketing. The success of this strategy is highly dependent on hiring a creative PR team or chief in your startup. When you succeed in getting your company noticed on social media, even the media notices. Your content can include articles, videos, infographics, graphics, and audio, among others.
Social media is amazing because it creates a joyous loop: the customer comes to your website/company page —> finds interesting content —> shares it —> checks out what you offer —> probably buys it and leaves —> another customer finds your content shared on social media —> clicks it and goes to your website/company page to read it —> shares it, and the loop continues.
8) Profitability will matter
Before 2018 we saw startups boasting big numbers, but at the same time, startups were not making any money. They received a lot of hype in the media but most of them either got more funding from investors or went bust after burning through their budgets in a few months. As a result, people started questioning the reputations of the publications that had predicted the success of these companies.
In 2023, we are predicting that media companies will care more about money. Aside from getting the users, will you as a startup be able to monetize those users and turn a profit?
No one is living in a bubble now. Investors will be watching for startups that offer too good a product or service without profits. They will also be keeping an eye out for startups that make a profit and are just looking for a boost. Average startups with average ideas garnering users will be lucky to secure any meaningful media coverage or investor funding without any profits.
9) Relationships will drive successful PR
Relationships are a big part of successful PR, and that is more apparent in 2023 than ever before. Gone are the days when the PR expert at your startup could send mass emails and hope for PR coverage. Now, the people you’re reaching out to via email are inundated with emails from hundreds of other brands vying for their attention.
Whether you’re trying to collaborate with journalists or with influencers, you will have to put in the effort to build positive long-term relationships with these people in order for your PR efforts to be successful. Taking time to get to know the people on your mailing list helps you tailor your approach and reach out to them in a more personalized manner. It’s worthwhile to send personalized emails which acknowledge the person you’re talking to as a unique human being because the recipients of your emails will be more open to working with you.
9) Social listening will become more important than ever
The last two years have shown that social media is a valuable source of insight into consumers. Even so, only 51% of marketers engage in active social listening. In 2023, more people are online than ever before. For this reason, if a brand wants to engage with its audience, then this is the place to do it.
Many people confuse social monitoring with social listening. Social monitoring involves keeping up with online conversations about your brand to gain valuable insight into the sentiment about your products and services. Social monitoring is the foundation of good social listening. On the other hand, social listening is a more active form of social monitoring. With social listening, a representative of the brand actually participates in these conversations. In this way, the brand can engage one-on-one with members of the target audience and build positive long-term relationships with them.
It is more crucial now to build relationships with your target audience. Instead of making them feel like a means to an end, take time to engage with them on social media. Connecting with your audience is a win-win. It helps you better understand their needs. Once you know their pain points, you can create a product that they will truly appreciate.
As an added bonus, creating an engaging online community on your social media platforms helps your audience to feel seen and heard. People who feel valued in this way are more likely to turn into paying customers. Likewise, these people are more likely to develop brand loyalty and stay with your brand for years.
11) Expensive PR Firms will continue to die
In recent years, companies have been doubling down on their PR. This is due in part to the economic environment we’re in. However, a big part of what’s driving this is the fact that companies have discovered various ways in which they can manage their own PR strategies without relying on an expensive PR agency. Social media is redefining the flow of information and giving brands access to new PR outreach strategies. In addition, some PR experts – like the team at Pressfarm – are now giving companies the power to do their PR without spending a fortune.
There are so many things that you would’ve needed a PR agency for in 1999. These have now been replaced by do-it-yourself PR platforms online. This means that the space for making more money as a traditional PR firm is narrowing. Even so, both PR agencies and brands doing their own in-house PR can leverage these trends in order to thrive through the uncertainty of 2023.
How Pressfarm can help
For an entrepreneur, how you build your brand image can determine your success or failure. At Pressfarm, we help companies define the right narrative in the media for their brand – either to improve their credibility or resolve a PR crisis. If you are an entrepreneur wondering how to improve your company’s publicity, get in touch with us. We can help you craft and distribute your press releases, develop compelling guest posts and design eye-catching media kits for your brand.
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