Four Common PR Misconceptions

There are many misconceptions surrounding PR and it is still a very misunderstood part of running a successful business. When you are creating your own PR you do not want to be led astray by any myths, which is why we have “de-bunked” the most common myths below…

PR is advertising.

Advertising is visibility that has been paid for, whereas PR is visibility that has been earned. There is however a larger difference between PR and advertising; and that is how the content is perceived by consumers. Consumers’ trust is hard to come by and the hard-sell found in most advertisements is likely to be off-putting, whereas the content produced by PR is subtle, credible and inviting. Think less sales and more suggestions.

PR is only needed for one-off announcements or launches.

It is commonly quoted that consumers need to interact with your business seven times before they spend money with you. This is because often consumers need to feel that they know, trust and believe in your brand before they will convert into a purchaser. To achieve such interactions a one-off hit will not be enough, it takes a long time to build a reputation and continued positive press is an effective way to do so.

All press is good press.

Remember the BP oil spill? After this horrific event, the company had to spend millions on rebuilding their reputation. Hopefully negative publicity on that scale will never impact your business, however we cannot control every individual way we are represented in the press. A bad customer review, unhappy critic or disgruntled ex-employee for example is likely to be out of our control, however immediately addressing bad press and being honest about the situation are effective ways to respond. Do not however stop your PR efforts or let this hold you back from continuing to market your product.

Press releases are statements of fact.

So you have launched a new product, service or event; time to send out your press release? A common mistake to make when writing a press release is to state facts, rather than create a story that is newsworthy.  Often personality and context is also easily forgotten, you can use our press release templates to help with your next PR efforts!