New Year’s resolutions tend to have a shorter lifespan than the name implies. In fact, according to US news, up to 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February. One of the issues that is often blamed for our annual inability to keep the promises we make ourselves is that our resolutions aren’t specific enough - we resolve to go to the gym more often when we should be committing to running 5 miles, three times a week. Another reason for our persistent failure is that we’re too ambitious and set unobtainable goals, setting ourselves up for defeat before we’ve even begun.
So, we’ve identified three key activities for your PR success in 2019 and broken them down into specific tasks that will help you succeed where other resolutions have failed.
Get closer to your target market.
Understanding your target market is a key part of any business and most of you will already have a pretty good idea of what your ideal client’s job title is and what kind of company they work for. But really understanding your target market takes ongoing effort and is essential to making your PR and marketing efforts pay off as it will inform how you reach out to them. Spend some time documenting details about your target market and building brand personas that help you identify the common traits of your ideal customer – things like;
what they’re responsible for,
how their success is measured,
what their everyday business challenges are,
what events they attend,
what publications they read,
whether they’re active on social media, and what platforms they use and
what associations or organisations they’re members of.
Regularly produce content that will appeal to your market.
You’re more likely to attract your ideal prospect’s attention by producing content that they’re interested in, rather than focussing on what you want to tell them. Once you’ve got a good understanding of the different personas you’re trying to reach, it shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with ideas for content that will help them achieve success and overcome their challenges. To make sure your content efforts aren’t short-lived, put together a content plan for the year that includes;
content themes and topics,
who’s responsible for creating and approving each piece,
what format the content will take (eg : written blog, infographic, webinar or video,) and
deadlines for each step of production.
Develop multiple avenues to share your content.
Once again, choosing the best way to get in front of your ideal prospect relies on your understanding of your target market and where they get their industry information and news. While trade publications are an obvious choice for distributing industry stories, there are lots of other options including;
your website,
through your social media accounts,
in online groups and forums,
via email and
through your business partners and organisations you’re associated with.