If you’re looking to be seen as an expert in your field, investing in a bit of PR strategy is an absolute must. Do you ever read industry-related articles with a comment from one of your competitors and wonder how they got there? Then wonder no more, and learn how it could be you!

What is PR?

Public relations or PR is the process of controlling the information that is out in the world about your company, to match and enhance the image you’re looking to portray.

This could be an article in a newspaper, or a blog post from another person in the industry with a quote from your office.

So how do you use this to your advantage?

The saying any publicity is good publicity is not necessarily true. You want to make sure your most authentic self is portrayed in any Public Relations while also aligning with your company voice. Planning PR into your marketing strategy will not only help keep on top of what information is out there but also in what context.

Support your narrative.

Intentional Public Relations will help you to support your brand. An community-focused estate agent, for example, could look for local events to sponsor or be a part of, especially if they are covered by press or any other form of media. This is where authenticity plays a part so that you aren’t going to come across as doing things just to get your name in the spotlights.

If you are an oracle on current property affairs, this could be an angle to lean on. Look for podcasts or articles that regularly discuss property news could be where you could set your Public Relations aims. Becoming a household name for information is an excellent PR move.

Being involved in other creators’ works can help you to stay relevant in your area of expertise which is all good for the promotion of your company’s brand.

Building trust

Having a healthy relationship with PR can help to build trust in your company. This is good for several reasons. Firstly you’ll start building a reputation, which can really help you to move your brand forward. You’ll be the ‘go-to’ for getting information from. Being the place people come for knowledge can be a really solid way to use PR to your advantage.

Expanding your audience

Public Relations can definitely help you to expand your reach beyond your marketing walls. For the most part, you will have people coming to you from the same places which is good, however you can easily broaden your horizons by getting involved in not only local but national media coverage. This can be in the form of podcasts, articles, quotes and much more. Being on as many different platforms as possible helps to vary and expand your client base.

One particularly easy way to start, is by taking to Twitter and searching for the hashtags #JournoRequest and #PRRequest. If you want to monitor them all the time, you can use a social tool like Hootsuite to set up a stream showing you all tweets with those tags. If you need to narrow the search down, you can add industry keywords such as “property” to help you see more relevant results.

So in summary, using the outside world to further your marketing by using your Public Relations wisely can help to support your story and brand, whilst also expanding who you’re delivering your information to. Building the trust and reputation of your company can especially be achieved by using PR in local publications.

Would you like someone to monitor those hashtags for you and put you forward for relevant opportunities? We can offer that as part of our social media management. Learn more about what we offer here.

Katie Gillingham

Katie is a Freelance Copywriter living in rural Dorset with her daft old Labrador. She first started writing content for the property industry back in 2015, and loves nothing more than bringing brand voices to life!