How to Prepare Your Business for a PR Campaign

Getting amazing press for your company is an invaluable way to improve your brand awareness, increase sales and drive traffic. But before you embark on a PR campaign, you need to make sure your business is ready.

If you’re a Shark Tank fan, you’ve probably visited the site of a featured company the night the show aired, only to be completely unable to access it. The Red Dress Boutique is one company that experienced this incredibly stressful situation - 18 hours of their site being down on their first Shark Tank appearance. Of course, this is an extreme example, but it reminds us all of what’s at stake if we aren’t ready for a press hit when it happens.

As a PR consultant to small businesses and startups, getting their business in shape for press hits is often part of my job, before I ever start media outreach. You often only get one shot at a publication, so you don’t want to waste it. Thinking about starting a PR campaign? Here are a few ways to get your business prepared for media coverage.

Prepare yourself for PR to work
What do you want readers, listeners or viewers to do when they’re exposed to your brand? For most companies, driving traffic to a website or into a retail location is the #1 goal. But you’d be surprised at how many companies don’t think through what will happen when they get some good press.

Make sure that your location or site is prepared to handle whatever increased traffic will result from a media hit.If you’re promoting a grand opening or event at a brick and mortar, be sure you’re staffed sufficiently. Driving traffic online? Make sure your site is working well, loading fast and that there aren’t any broken links or missing contact information. If you’re promoting a particular product, make sure you have the stock to meet increased demand. The amount of prep you’ll need to do depends on the size of the hit, but always be prepared.

Set up a way to capture prospects
If you’re driving people to your website, you’ll want to ensure there’s a way to capture their information if they don’t buy right away. A pop-up with a discount offer or incentive to join your mailing list is a great way to achieve this. If you’re bringing people in-store, you’ll still want to get them on your list so having an incentive for them to leave their information is a great idea.

Be ready to nurture prospects and new customers
If you’ve been considering an email nurturing campaign, now’s the time to implement it. The only thing worse with getting twice-daily spammy emails from a company is signing up for their list and never hearing from them again. Have a plan in place to nurture any new customers, clients or prospects that come your way, whether that’s with an informational email series, discount offer or other regular communications. This is a captive crowd and it’s a perfect opportunity to introduce them to your brand.

Plan additional media outreach or targeted advertising
Have you ever noticed that you’ll hear about a company, and suddenly they’re EVERYWHERE? It’s not by accident. Don’t just rely on a single media hit. Create a campaign. Continue your media outreach to garner additional hits in complementary outlets. Target a Facebook ad campaign linking to your media hits by geography. Perhaps plan a mailer or other ad spend to follow up on your PR campaign, if budget allows.

Leverage your media hits
Include the logos and links to any hits on your website as social proof - what someone else says about you is much more valuable than anything you say about yourself, and when that info comes from a trusted media source, more the better. Be sure to be ready to add these hits to your site and share and promote on social media or printed collateral to get even more mileage out of them.

Whether you’re doing proactive media outreach or just luck out with media interest in your company and brand, being prepared to leverage and capitalize on earned media is essential. Media hits provide an invaluable opportunity to promote your brand, but it’s up to you to take the right steps to make it happen.