Effective Public Relations Begins with Humans

The art of public relations has changed dramatically in recent years and now includes a myriad of services and possibilities.
Today’s consumers are exposed to as many as 10,000 brand messages per day and, to break through this noise barrier, public relations must adjust methodologies accordingly. While this is certainly a challenge, there is a way to make things a tad easier: Think like your human audience!

An interesting article on agilitypr.com shares how companies can better target their audience and increase brand reach if they fine-tune messaging to be more appealing to that audience. One key point in this article, but something many companies neglect, is to truly know your audience.  When asked who their audience is, many companies include generic demographics such as:

• Age range
• Income level
• Marital status
• Homeowner status
• etc.

The problem here is that, while those demographics may help you choose media buys and advertising placement, they do little to increase the relevancy and impact of your brand message for that target audience. Your brand message could be perfectly placed in exactly the right publications, online venues and traditional media. But, if your message doesn’t resonate with the audience, it’s just more noise.

A great example is an experience I had a few years ago.
I once had a chiropractor as a client with a body wrap solution that enabled people to lose inches in just a couple of hours. The Oscars were coming up, so I set up for a producer from Entertainment Tonight to come out and try the service. I was stoked -- we got a spot on Entertainment Tonight – one of the largest syndicated TV shows in the World!  This was going to be huge and the chiropractic office would be flooded with calls and new businesses. Well, guess what? They got maybe two calls.  And ZERO new business -- It was the wrong message to the wrong audience.

However, when I got the same wrap service onto prime-time news with a different message, not targeted at celebrities or the pre-Oscar audience, but the general man and woman on the street, the office was flooded with calls. This was a real lesson in crafting the right message and targeting to the right audience.

I am sure as a dealer you have seen how “spray and pray” tactics are not very effective.

As the article shares, a PR strategy is nothing without a strong brand personality targeted with the right message to the right audience. As one of the major goals of PR is to expose the world to your unique personality, it needs to be the driving force behind your approach.

To attract and grab the attention of your audience you need to be relatable on a personal level.  Then find interesting ways to put your messaging in front of your customer’s and potential customer’s eyes in a way that will uniquely resonate with them. 

You may need to try it out a couple of times...
And remember, what you THINK will work is not always the case. What you WANT your message to be may not be what resonates with your audience – and those humans and their emotions are what you want to capture.