What is Corporate PR and what is its real value? 04/04/12

A Corporate Public Relations team takes on the responsibility of managing the public profile and reputation of a company. This includes its key players, appointments and any industry relevant news through press and other coverage generating channels. However, Corporate PRs overriding function is to create an attractive and talked about brand, making it as attractive as possible to would be investors. This is one area where the true value of PR can be measured.

This explains why the majority of Corporate PR is conducted by an in-house team; the margin for error is narrow, a mismanaged opportunity is potentially costly and the sensitivity of messaging is so very delicate. An effective Corporate PR team will be able to achieve a succession of relevant and impactful pieces of coverage, source profile and speaking opportunities that increasing the validity of the company. In short, a Corporate PR team ought to function as a fully operational PR outlet whilst identifying and engaging investors. Most brands, products and services strive for increased awareness. Without an effective Corporate PR team, potential investors could be overlooked, or worse still; your company could be overlooked.

It is important to promote a corporate brand and build an identity in the industry marketplace. It’s a simple equation; the more public awareness the function can generate the greater chance you have at increased sales, revenue and interested investors.

Another equation to consider is; the larger the corporation, the larger the Corporate PR team.

For venture capital, it is enormously important to have a Corporate PR team as their function is to communicate, manage and provide experts in the particular field, essential tools, information, resources and media relationships. They must be able to offer as much information about the company to as many relevant and targeted people as possible within tightly governed campaigns. In the evolving world of Social Media a Corporate PR team ought to have an Online Reputation Management programme in place. See a previous post Why engaging in Social Media as an amateur is not OK for an insight into why ORM is so important to the corporate image.

PR campaigns are similar to marketing campaigns, however, a PR campaign focuses on generating interest for the company, service, or product and building upon the reputation. Although, Corporate PR campaigns can work together with marketing campaigns to garner additional awareness about a specific product or service. The initial stages of creating the structure for your campaign will include identifying who your target audience is and what the best forms of media are to reach them.

One of the most effective Corporate PR strategies is to ride an existing topic. If there is a large news story at the time, find a way to exploit it by offering expert insight on the topic. Distribute press releases to news media informing them of your spokesperson, their credentials, and the companies.

There are many ways to promote your business within your Corporate PR strategy, attend networking events, write a weekly or daily blog.

Your website is a hugely important piece of good corporate public relations collateral. Everything anyone could possibly want to know about you ought to be readily available. Potential investors and other parties expect to find detailed content about the products and services of the company. The website needs to include information about the corporate structure of a company. Information that sets your proposition apart from your competitors, and additional information that establishes your company’s expertise in its field. Other optional details include; a history of the company, how it began and how it grew into the company it is today. A link to the company Facebook Page utilising Timeline is a great idea for corporate marketing!

For interested parties to find your website, they must be looking for it or it must be easily found via the messaging the Corporate team has placed. Search Engine Optimization is one of the best ways to increase website views and interest new clients or customers. Search Engine Optimization involves not only listing your web site on the major search engines but also using marketing strategies to gain more web visitors. We’ll explore SEO in a future blog.