Thanks to the increasingly complex business environment, there’s no dearth of challenges for brands right from turbulent economy to growing customer expectations.
To thrive despite the challenges and stand out in the crowded marketplace, it’s important to build trust with your target audience, enhance brand reputation and establish strong relationships with stakeholders.
In other words, you need robust public relations.
But PR is easier said than done. PR professionals (whether in-house or at an external agency) struggle with multiple challenges including misinformation, getting reporters’ attention, and measurement.
Image via Ragan
This is where PR tools come in
The best PR tools help you streamline your PR activities such as creating media assets, distributing them to media contacts and customers, and engaging with your audience.
And, to help you save time and hassles of having to search for the right PR tools, I’ve listed the top-rated ones.
So, go ahead and explore them. But, first, let’s look at the different types of PR tools that are available.
Types of PR tools
PR tools come in different forms. Some allow PR teams to create digital assets in the form of videos and images at scale while others help them distribute these assets to their email list on autopilot.
These tools can also be as simple as a Google review widget that you can embed in your site or complex ones that have multiple features such as risk intelligence.
In this post, I’ll cover the categories of PR tools that help with:
- Creation of media assets
- Press release distribution through emails
PR tools to create media assets
Visuals are an integral part of PR. After all, people tend to remember visuals much more than text. Not surprisingly, most marketers believe visuals are important or very important to their marketing strategy.
But, it is also one of the most challenging tasks that PR professionals face. Over 70% of marketers say it is difficult to consistently create visuals such as infographics, videos, and branded images.
Here are some design tools that are easy to use and free. If you’re looking to control business spending, these are the tools to explore.
1. Movavi Video Editor
Image via Movavi
Movavi Video Editor is a software that helps you create compelling videos for your social PR. In addition to a desktop video editor, Movavi also offers a free online video editor.
With features such as the ability to record your computer screen, add special visual and sound effects, remove background, and more, Movavi’s video editor is a handy tool for creating videos for social media and other platforms.
Here are the key features of this tool.
Key features
- Screen recorder, online and desktop video editor.
- Video editing tools such as trimming, cutting, splitting, merging, and rotating.
- AI-powered motion-tracking, background, and noise remover.
- Over 180 filters such as color filters, artistic effects, and adjustments.
- Use elegant or dynamic fades to join video clips and ensure a smooth transition.
- Video stabilization tool that helps to remove camera shake and produce smoother footage.
- Drag and drop captions, titles, filters, and transitions.
Price
Here are the three categories of plans available:
Video Editor
- 1-year subscription: Approx $41.25 ( €37.95)*
- Lifetime subscription: Approx $52.12 ( €47.25)
Video Editor + Effect Packs
- 1-year subscription: Approx $52.12 ( €47.25)
Video Suite+ Effect Packs
- 1-year subscription: Approx $66.26 ( €60.95)
*Exchange rate: 1 Euro = $1.08
2. TinyImage
Image via Attrock
Public relations professionals often work with a lot of visual content, such as images and videos, to promote their clients’ products, services, or brands.
However, large image files can slow down website loading times, take up too much storage space, and be challenging to share over email or social media.
This is where image compression tools such as TinyImage come in.
The free image compression tool reduces the size of your images without compromising their quality.
Key features
- A free online image compression tool that requires no downloads or installs.
- Compresses PNG and JPG/JPEG images to a size of 20 KB.
- Drag and drop feature allows you to quickly move images for compression.
- Shows a comparison of the original size and the new compressed size as well as the compression level.
- The free plan allows you to compress up to 5 images.
Price
- Free
3. Pablo
Image via Buffer
One of the expected attributes of top PR tools is ease of use.
And, this is the strong point of Buffer’s image editing tool, Pablo. The tool is ideal for those who do not want to spend a lot of time designing their press releases or social media visuals.
With just a few clicks, you can create stunning visuals and add captions to get started with your PR campaign.
The fact that it is free makes it one of the top PR tools for startups and small businesses looking to save on design costs.
Key features
- Over 600K images with templates categorized based on the nature of the announcements.
- You can upload your image and edit it easily or use one of the beautiful images from the library.
- Pre-built sizing tools for specific social media platforms including Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
- Allows you to add text and logo in addition to adding quotes from Pablo’s collection of quotes.
Price
- Free
4. Piktochart
Image via Piktochart
Piktochart promises that it can help you create stunning designs within an hour, unlike other tools that require lots of training.
With a drag-and-drop editor, pre-built templates, and graph maker make it a breeze to create infographics, videos, and visuals for posters and presentations.
The best part?
Like Pablo by Buffer, Piktochart also has a free forever version, making it one of the ideal PR tools for startups and small PR teams.
Key features
- Over 16 visual tools and 6 video tools to create compelling visuals.
- A wide range of pre-built templates for different industries and use cases including 230+ infographic templates
- You can upload an Excel file, CSV, or copy-paste data into Piktochart’s graph maker to create an infographic.
- Customize your infographic by adding brand colors, logos, and fonts.
- Social media templates to create stunning graphics that update automatically when your data changes.
- Video recording and editing features.
Price
Piktochart offers three categories of plans and all of them have a free forever version.
Individuals and businesses:
- Free: $0
- Pro: $14 per month per member
- Enterprise: Custom
Non-profit
- Free:$0
- Pro: $60 per year per member
Education
- Free: $0
- Pro: $39.99 per year per member
5. Canva
Image via Canva
While a design tool, Canva has a set of PR tools that help you design social media graphics and branded templates in addition to brand and digital asset management.
That’s not all. You can use Canva’s AI-powered Magic Write to create content for your PR communiques or social media posts. There is also a media library of stock photos, videos, and fonts that can help fast track your PR pitches.
Here are some of the key features of its graphic design tools.
Key features
- Create branded templates by locking backgrounds and logos to enable your team to fast track PR pitches.
- Drag-and-drop video editor in addition to PR tools to create charts and interactive data visualizations.
- A centralized place to store and organize your branding elements such as colors, images, logos, icons, and internal guidelines.
- Content library features over 100 million graphics, social media layouts, images, audio tracks, and videos to help you create compelling social media visuals.
- Team collaboration tools to streamline the process of creating media assets.
Price
- Canva Free: $0
- Canva Pro: $119.99 per year per person
- Canva For Teams: $149.90 per year for 5 users
6. Adobe Illustrator
Image via Adobe Illustrator
This graphic design tool from Adobe probably needs no introduction.
As one of the most popular PR tools, Adobe Illustrator helps you create vector graphics, illustrations, logos, diagrams, and other artwork that you can use in press releases, infographics, or other presentations.
Apart from graphic designers, Illustrator is widely used by businesses and organizations for creating logos, marketing materials, and other visual assets.
Let’s take a closer look at its features and pricing.
Key features
- Uses vector graphics, which are scalable and don’t lose quality when resized.
- Allows you to add effects, textures, and lighting to create 3D designs.
- Color picker and a library of chart templates, icons, and fonts for creating charts and infographics.
- A range of special effects including drop shadows, glows, and blurs.
- Easy-to-create custom banners, logos, social posts, flyers, and more.
- Layers allow users to organize their artwork, making it easier to manage and edit it.
- A range of special effects that users can apply to their artwork, such as drop shadows, glows, and blurs.
- The software offers a variety of export options, including the ability to export artwork in a range of file formats, such as JPEG, PNG, SVG, and PDF.
- Adobe Illustrator integrates seamlessly with other Adobe products, such as Photoshop and InDesign.
Price
- Individuals: $10.49 per month
- Business: $35.99 per license
7. Pixlr
Image via Pixlr
If you are looking for free PR tools to create artwork and edit images, you should definitely give Pixlr a try.
As a part of the Inmagine creative ecosystem, Pixlr uses the power of AI and machine learning to offer a range of basic and advanced photo editing tools.
One of the key features of Pixlr is its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy for beginners to start editing their photos right away. It also has a range of tutorials and resources available to help users learn how to use the software effectively.
The best part?
In addition to a free plan, Pixlr’s paid plans are affordable, making it a perfect choice for small PR teams.
Here are the key features of this tool.
Key features
- An extensive collection of customizable templates for social media posts, flyers, presentations, and business cards.
- Drag-and-drop feature and easy to use image editor.
- AI-powered background remover and one-click background editor.
- Basic editing tools such as crop, resize, rotate, and adjust colors.
- Advanced editing tools such as layers, masks, brushes, and clone stamps.
- A range of filters and effects that can be applied to photos to create different looks and styles.
- Allows you to add overlays and borders to photos to give them a unique look.
- Users can add text and graphics to their photos using Pixlr’s text and shape tools
- Free bulk image editing tools.
- A collage maker tool to create collages using multiple photos.
- Auto-fix feature automatically corrects common issues such as brightness and contrast to improve the overall look of the photo.
Price
- Free: $0
- Plus: $0.75 per month
- Premium: $4.90 per month
- Team: $9.91 per month
8. Infogram
Image via Infogram
Engaging, interactive, and shareable visual content is the key to reaching a wider audience and getting your message across more effectively.
And, one of the PR tools that helps you create such content is Infogram.
With Infogram, PR teams can turn complex data sets into visually appealing graphics that are easy to understand and share. There are also team collaboration tools that can make the process of creating media assets seamless.
Key features
- A library of icons, photos, posters, email headers, dashboards, reports, and slide templates.
- Ability to add animations and interactive elements such as clickable legends, tooltips, linking, tabs, etc.
- Collaboration tools including a shareable dashboard, the ability to segregate teams, and assign role-based permission.
- Easy to add visuals to CMS and AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages).
- Users can import data from a variety of sources, including Excel, Google Sheets, and CSV files.
- Infogram visualizations are optimized for different screen sizes, including mobile devices and tablets.
- Custom tracking links and robust analytics on content shares, viewer demographics, and on-screen rate.
Price
- Free: $0
- Pro: $19 per month
- Business: $67 per month
- Team: $147 per month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
9. Pexels
Image via Pexels
With its large collection of free stock photos and videos, Pexels is a popular choice for designers, marketers, and content creators. It comes in very handy for adding media to your press releases and videos.
An easy-to-use interface makes this one of the suitable PR tools for businesses looking to quickly create media assets.
Let’s take a closer look at its features and pricing.
Key features
- A wide range of free stock photos and videos on popular topics.
- All photos and videos are released under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, which means that they can be used for any purpose without attribution.
- Photos are organized based on topics and filters in addition to a tagging system that makes it easy to discover visuals.
- All photos and videos on Pexels are curated by a team of experienced editors to ensure that they meet high-quality standards.
Price
- Free
PR tools for email marketing
If you prefer to have a dedicated email marketing tool that lets you manage your list of journalists and connect with them, here are some popular ones to consider. They also come with marketing automation features that can supercharge your PR campaigns.
10. Mailchimp
Image via Mailchimp
Most business owners need no introduction to Mailchimp, one of the most popular email automation and email marketing tools.
Like other PR tools, Mailchimp also has a landing page builder and social media tool in addition to an intelligent content creation tool.
I have listed it in the category of email marketing simply because it offers comprehensive email marketing features.
Key features
- A wide range of pre-built and custom-coded email templates.
- Powerful segmentation tools based on predictive analytics to create targeted email lists based on activity, behavior, and sentiment.
- You can automate your email campaigns with pre-built workflows or create your own with the Customer Journey Builder.
- Allows you to integrate data from popular web services and tools to fine-tune your emails.
Price
- Free: $0
- Essentials: $13 per month
- Standard: $20 per month
- Premium: $350 per month
11. GetResponse
Image via GetResponse
GetResponse is yet another company known for its email marketing features.
As one of the well-known PR tools in the market, GetResponse helps you capture leads through popups, contact forms, and landing pages.
You can leverage robust automation features and templates to make the most of your email campaigns.
Check out the features of this tool:
Key features
- An intuitive drag-and-drop email editor that lets you create professional-looking email campaigns.
- You can add stock images, GIFs, specific sections, and layouts to create compelling email pitches.
- You can segment your email list based on various criteria such as demographics, behavior, interests, and purchase history to send more relevant content.
- Users can set up automated workflows that trigger specific actions based on customer behavior, such as event registration or welcome series.
- Time Travel and Perfect Timing tools to send your email pitches at the right time.
- A webinar platform allows users to host webinars, including live webinars and automated webinars. You can also customize webinar registration pages and follow-up emails.
- Detailed reporting and analytics to track the performance of email campaigns, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
Price
- Email Marketing: $15.58 per month
- Marketing Automation: $48.38 per month
12. Constant Contact
Image via Constant Contact
Constant Contact can help PR teams streamline their activities by providing tools to build and manage email lists, create professional emails, set up automated campaigns, and track their performance.
In addition to email marketing, it also offers SMS and social media marketing features that help PR teams communicate with their target audience more effectively and efficiently.
What’s more?
It also offers useful event management tools that you can use to promote and manage your PR events.
Read on to see how Constant Contact compares with other PR tools.
Key features
- Hundreds of email templates and drag-and-drop editing tools to create custom email templates.
- AI-powered content recommendations and email subject line generator tools.
- Dynamic content blocks, contact segmentation, and automated paths to optimize email sends.
- Ability to build an event registration form, send automated email invites to events, and sell tickets within the platform.
- Tracks email performance, including clicks, opens, and shares.
- PR teams can easily import contacts from their CRM system, website, or social media accounts.
- Set up automated email campaigns that trigger based on specific actions or events, such as website visits, event registrations, or new subscribers.
- Track metrics such as open rates, click-through rates (CTR), and conversion rates, and adjust campaigns accordingly.
- Integrates with a wide range of third-party tools, including CRM systems, event management tools, design tools, and social media platforms, making it easy for PR teams to manage their email campaigns alongside other marketing activities.
Price
- Lite: $12 per month
- Standard: $35 per month
- Premium: $80 per month
13. ActiveCampaign
Image via ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign offers a lot of features that ecommerce businesses can use to target and engage their leads and customers.
But that’s not it’s only application.
Brands can also leverage ActiveCampaign’s tools such as email marketing, CRM, and marketing automation to streamline their PR activities.
ActiveCampaign’s email marketing software allows you to build lists, segment your contacts, and personalize your messages.
Here are the key features of this tool.
Key features
- Pre-built templates and a drag-and-drop designer to quickly create email campaigns.
- Features an email subject line generator.
- Email automation tools that help you trigger emails to segments.
- Dynamic content and segmentation allow you to send highly-personalized messages.
- ActiveCampaign has a CRM tool that allows users to manage customer data, track interactions, and create customer segments for targeted marketing.
- A range of messaging features, including SMS campaigns, Facebook custom audience syncing, and website messaging.
- Split testing and analytics to optimize your PR email campaigns.
Price
- Lite: $29 per month
- Plus: $49 per month
- Professional: $149 per month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
14. HubSpot
Image via HubSpot
This free email marketing tool is a part of HubSpot’s Marketing Hub.
As one of the established PR tools in the industry, HubSpot offers all features you’d expect from an email marketing software—for free.
You can leverage robust automation features and templates to make the most of your email campaigns when using this platform.
Check out the features of this tool:
Key features
- A drag-and-drop email editor and an email template library with goal-based templates.
- The ability to add “Smart rules” based on the recipient’s list membership, lifecycle stage, and more, to tailor CTAs, links, subject lines, and attachments.
- Seamless integration with CRM software makes it easy to manage lists, including importing contacts, creating lists, and segmenting contacts based on various criteria, such as demographics, behavior, and interests.
- HubSpot offers a range of personalization features, including inserting dynamic content based on the recipient’s behavior or information.
- A/B testing and the ability to schedule email campaigns.
- Send-time optimization based on the recipient’s time zone.
Price
- Free: $0
- Starter: $18 per month
- Professional: $800 per month
- Enterprise: $3600 per month
15. Sendinblue
Image via Sendinblue
Sendinblue is an all-in-one marketing automation platform that provides a range of PR tools for email marketing, SMS marketing, marketing automation, CRM, landing page creation, and more.
With its user-friendly interface, affordable pricing, and range of features, Sendinblue is a popular choice for businesses of all sizes.
In addition to the A/B testing feature to fine-tune your email campaigns, you can make use of its detailed reports to assess the performance of your emails.
Sendinblue also offers a free tier plan that makes it an ideal choice for startups and small businesses. This way, you don’t need to go out of your way to do PR for your business.
Key features
- Email template library and a drag-and-drop builder help create professional-looking emails.
- Dynamic content allows you to personalize your email messages.
- Create unlimited lists and segments of contacts based on a wide range of criteria including purchase history, gender, and location.
- A/B testing and sending time optimization powered by machine learning.
- Marketing automation features that can help you send emails on autopilot.
- Advanced email list segmentation features that enable better targeting.
Price
- Free: $0
- Starter: $25 per month
- Business: $65 per month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
16. Zoho Campaigns
Image via Zoho
Zoho Campaigns is one of the best tools in the Zoho suite of business applications that allows you to create and track email marketing campaigns.
You can leverage its robust automation features and templates to drive results from your email campaigns.
And the best part?
It’s completely free to use if you opt for its basic free plan.
Check out the features of this tool:
Key features
- Pre-built, editable email newsletter templates and a drag-and-drop email editor to create professional-looking email campaigns.
- Schedule and automate your email series with autoresponders.
- Merge tags and dynamic content help you send personalized email messages.
- Automation workflows that allow users to create email campaigns triggered by specific actions, such as email opens or clicks.
- Ability to test different versions of their email campaigns to determine which one performs better.
- Detailed reports and analytics including open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
- Integrates with other Zoho applications, as well as with third-party tools such as Salesforce, Shopify, and Google Analytics.
Price
- Free: $0
- Standard: Starts at $3 per month
- Professional: Starts at $4.50 per month
17. AWeber
Image via AWeber
AWeber is yet another powerful email platform that’s among the best PR tools that can help you promote your brand. You can use it for a variety of purposes, right from distributing your press releases to connecting with journalists and media outlets.
It’s got loads of email templates that you can easily customize your emails. With comprehensive automation features, sending out your press releases in bulk won’t be a problem after all.
What makes it even more convenient to use is its drag-and-drop email builder that enables you to seamlessly add elements to your emails.
With detailed analytics, it gives you insights into the performance of your campaigns. This, in turn, helps you determine if your strategy has worked or needs tweaking.
Like the other email marketing tools that can help you with PR, this tool also offers a free tier plan that makes it the right fit for small businesses with a limited budget. It’s also got a wide spectrum of other plans that can cater to businesses of a wide range of sizes.
Key features
- Ability to create email templates with website and Facebook URLs.
- Access to loads of high-quality stock images.
- Pre-built autoresponders that can engage your audience.
- Can create landing pages for PR goals too.
- Has a special auto newsletter feature that can get you more traffic.
- Ability to segment the email list for better targeting.
- Pre-designed and easy-to-understand reports.
- A/B split testing features are available.
Price
- Free: $0
- Lite: $12.50 per month
- Plus: $20 per month
- Unlimited: $899 per month
Final thoughts
As you can see, there are plenty of PR tools available to use for your brand promotion strategies.
I hope this article has given you insight into the various PR tools available and how they can be used to amplify your message, boost engagement, and generate leads. But, this list is by no means exhaustive.
You may need to combine these PR tools with other tools that help you streamline team productivity as well as email and social media marketing.
The right mix of PR tools and tactics can help you create an effective strategy to boost your brand’s visibility.
With the right approach and knowledge of the various PR tools at your disposal, you’ll be able to successfully promote your brand and strengthen your brand reputation in no time.
