Public relations can be an often overlooked aspect of running a business—particularly those that operate online such as eCommerce stores and who are rarely interacting directly with customers or clients. However, it can prove to be invaluable in so many ways. If you have yet to give your public relations the priority it deserves, there are a few reasons why you may want to change this. Read on for a few tips to develop your PR strategy successfully.
Know more about what makes your brand unique
This should have been a central part of your initial business plan, but it is certainly going to be important for your public relations that you have a clearer idea of what it is that makes your business unique. This will be the ‘hook’ that you are able to dangle a great deal of the rest of your public relations strategy off. Think about the newsworthy angles of the business—whether this is telling your own personal story in a higher level of detail or discussing your major business values. Ultimately, the more refined the story that you are telling, the more likely it is that you will be able to achieve a strong and effective tale which aids your brand.
Ensure you deal with negative stories quickly
In a world in which social media is available to all and gives everyone a potential mouthpiece, it is going to be worth ensuring that you are ready to confront and deal with negative stories head-on. To begin with, you should be trying to cut the stories off before they even have a chance of taking place. For example, if there is an issue with items getting broken or damaged in transit, you could look into the different ways to safely pack your eCommerce orders to stop this happening. If negative stories do start to spring up, you need to get out in front of them before they have a chance of taking over.
Make yourself an expert
A big part of establishing yourself as an expert is all about ensuring that you have crafted out a strong niche in the first place. You can then start to target the specific publications and areas that have a high level of interest in what it is that you have to say. In every comment that you get to make on different news stories, you are going to be able to direct people back to your business, encouraging even more positive stories in the future.
Work with the pros
It may not be the case that you are able to hire your own in-house PR team. In these situations, you may well be better off working alongside the pros to develop the type of solid strategy that bears fruit in near- and long-term future.
A solid PR strategy for an eCommerce business can end up bringing to it all sorts of additional advantages, which means that you should certainly be taking it seriously right from the start.
