When there is an opportunity in the marketplace you need to strike quickly and effectively.
Media relations has always been a powerful tool for communicating key messages. It used to be that we’d work, work, work to secure the media placement and then move on. As we’ve discussed before, contemporary PR pros know the clip is just step 1 now. As news consumption continues to change and become more personalized, landing a placement isn’t enough anymore. Now, you also have to think strategically about how to ensure the right audience is actually seeing the clip.
That’s where leveraging paid social advertising to amplify and extend the reach of your media coverage comes in. What does this look like in action? Consider this example:
We worked with a local construction company on a PR campaign designed specifically to support their business development efforts around breweries. With significant experience in building tap rooms, production facilities and brewery restaurants, the company had already developed an interesting niche in the marketplace – one they wanted to capitalize on as craft beer and artisan spirits continue to grow in popularity. But, as a young company, they just weren’t as well known as some of the big players in town.
We took a two-pronged approach to leverage PR to support business development efforts. First, we pitched local restaurant/brewery reporters to showcase the company’s unique culture and highlight their brewery experience, resulting in two full-page features in key local business publications. Then, we created highly targeted Facebook advertising campaigns to amplify the articles aimed toward Columbus-based brewery founders, owners, managers and employees (based on emails and listed employees), plus local food/beer influencers and Brewers Association members.
Thanks to this integrated “PR-supporting-sales” approach, the company is now included on many more lists for brewery work. In fact, the owner often tells people that the campaign was the best ROI of any promotional push they’ve done.
Lesson learned? If you’re not connecting PR to sales, you’re missing a major opportunity to deliver value. Using paid social to amplify earned media is a smart way to start.
A collaborative effort, this post was co-authored by Tyler Durbin, Geben’s director of business development, and myself.
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Photo credit: Pixabay.com