For many, January 1 means setting New Year’s resolutions, providing people with the feeling of a clean slate and a fresh start. After the unprecedented year we just had, I know myself and many others were very much looking forward to the start of 2021 and a chance to reevaluate goals and plans for the new year. If we learned anything from 2020, we must have a plan that allows our clients to shift and react to the world’s current landscape while remaining steadfast to core corporate values, messaging, and long-term PR goals.
As you get started developing your business objectives, here are a few tips to consider when planning your 2021 PR strategy.
Remain Customer-Focused
At Engage PR, our focus has always been on our clients and how we can support them best in their PR efforts. Now more than ever, it is important to keep that focus top-of-mind and encourage our clients to stay focused on their corporate goals and messaging. With the desire and pressure to stay media relevant, it is important to keep the company message, goals and vision at the forefront. Because of this, we will continue to invest time and effort into tailored thought leadership programs based on the client’s business needs, customer challenges, market drivers that the press cares about, and available resources to support those trends. 2021 is the time to promote your organization and who you are as a company moving into the new year, supporting individuals, businesses and more.
Listen and Learn about Your Audience
It might be a greater challenge since we’re all remote, but listening and learning from your audience remains more important than ever. Discover what your target prospects are doing now and tailor your efforts to them. What are their needs? Industry analysts are a resource to leverage more now. Different industry analyst firms bring a fresh perspective. Most of these analysts talk directly with your customers and have insight that will help your business. Some are looking at market share and more significant market drivers. Talking to a diverse set of analysts can help you learn and adjust your approach so that you’re primed for recovery.
This is also a good time to review and see who has been engaging with your brand. Back-end analytics, including summaries of web traffic activity, can provide insights about your audience and tell a different story than you may have known six months ago. The right PR partner can help you decide to stay the course, pivot, or make minor adjustments based on the data.
Support Your Stories with Data
Following a year that brought us a global pandemic, a United States election, and a cultural climate of uncertainty and ever-changing information and new data daily, it is more important than ever to back up claims and provide data to support your story. Have an outside data source to support your claims? Even better, it can give you even more credibility and position you as a reliable source of information. Not only will partnerships with others in your industry strengthen your story, but it can also help broaden your audience, make your media pitch even stronger, and increase your social media follower base.
Continue to Ramp up Social Media
For the past decade, social media has played an ever-increasing role in PR. Now more than ever, consumers and audiences are relying on social media for their news and information. Well written, smart posts that include tagging individuals, tracking companies, and using hashtags ensured that your content is found by the people looking for it. Continuing looking for opportunities to engage with customers and partners and position yourself as an expert on these social media channels. Look at ways to partner your efforts on social media channels with organizations that can help broaden your follower base and use social media to engage with the media.
Focus on the Personal Element
PR has always been an industry built on relationships and engaging with people. Now more than ever, the lines between personal and work are blurred. Working from home, families continuing school from home, pets, and the constant “on” feeling of work has changed the corporate landscape and how we work as individuals. More people are looking for that additional personal element of engagement. Take the time to make it personal, but respect boundaries and find creative ways to connect and engage with people. With so many using video conferencing now, consider other options for making a personal connection. Not everything has to be virtual. Plan some budget for mailings and physical contact opportunities that are still pandemic safe. While tech has allowed our world to continue working and schooling, we need to continue to look for unique examples of the work other tech companies are doing to continue supporting individuals.
Many of us have high hopes for 2021, including us at Engage PR. There are many PR tactics we can continue to focus and build on as we plan for 2021 while continuing to be flexible and agile for the unknown. Because if we learned anything from 2020, it’s how to react to the unexpected!
Looking for more ways to support your marketing executives with their 2021 PR Strategy? Join us for a free webinar on February 11, 2021, at 1 pm EST for a discussion of best practices and strategy for B2B tech companies, including five strategies you should implement now, to help you stand out in a crowd and win precious mind share in a crowded virtual landscape. Register here.
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