Thursday, 9 August 2018

Things you should know before applying for PR job

Working with seasoned professionals in the world of Media and Public Relations is what every Media and Communications student aspires for. Today, every business entity wants to directly communicate with its target audiences through earned media. Earned media is the prime choice because the mediums like newspaper, magazines, news reports, and TV interviews are trusted by the common people. Unlike blogs or websites, these mediums cannot be owned by the business organizations as they only feature the stories which are in favor of the common people.

In this landscape, PR agencies in Delhi have occupied a considerable space for themselves as they bridge the gap between the businesses and earned media. The great popularity of news media and PR companies amongst the businesses has created huge requirements for PR professionals in Delhi and other metro cities in the country. And for job aspirants, the PR industry never falls short of the learning experience and growth opportunities. If you are also a job-seeker in the PR industry, you should very well know the four things before you apply to positions for PR professionals in Delhi in any PR company.

1.    PR writing test can be tough to clear.
While the job of a PR person does not necessarily include writing press releases or articles for the clients, it does require strong writing skills. In fact, most of the PR companies in Delhi made writing test one of the milestones in their process of recruitment. Interviewers may ask you to write a short pre-event or post-event release on any subject or a pitch-note. For you being a newbie, knowing how to write is intimidating. That’s why, a careful research, study, and practice in writing for PR clients is recommended.  

2.    Spoken English & Written English is a pre-requisite.
When you are working in one of the repute PR firms in Delhi, you will have to talk to clients, go for meetings, media interactions, and conferences where the English language becomes the primary and sole mode of communication. Also, knowing written English is a must for you as you will be required to send client boilerplates & pitch-notes to the journalists, update clients about the progress about the project, etc. Therefore, you should be fluent in spoken English and an expert in writing.

3.    Time runs quick and short.
That’s the eternal truth. The plates of PR companies in Delhi always remain full of clients and journalists. Time is a valuable thing for them which they cannot afford to waste—not even a minute, you know. Every PR person must learn how to write a press release in 20 minutes and how to convince the journalists about the client’s story in 5! Therefore, learn to be quicker at work and should know the tricks and techniques to save every second of a minute.

With these tips, we hope you get an idea of what skills you need to work on if you are dying to get employed in one of the best PR companies in Delhi. Wish you a good luck!

Monday, 30 July 2018

Top 3 ways through which PR Agencies help your brand reach the masses

PR agencies are known to create and generate content that duly achieves the client’s brand awareness needs. In most cases, the power of both the traditional and new media channels is being utilized to protect, enhance and build the reputation of the clients. However, this is not the only thing they do, there is much more on their services list that can do wonders for enhancing the market visibility of the client. Here are few tips to give you an inside look at how PR agencies help the businesses in attracting the attention of investors and potential customers.

Rope in the investors with promising coverage
Investors are lucrative business people. Even though they claim to be on the lookout for new and innovative technologies, their primary concern always lies on the growth aspects. They won’t deny going for products and services that would help them keep the growth curve in the right direction. With marketing and advertising demanding huge budgets, few good clippings in prominent media channels through comparatively less budgeted but creatively formulated PR strategies will undoubtedly win the likes and interest of probable investors.

Boost the brand’s networking with PR team’s assistance
Expert PR professionals from top PR agencies in Delhi-NCR and around the world have a great hold of networking links in the respective industry they deal in. By attending and sometimes even organizing industry related events and get-together parties, they help the clients tap on their links and develop relationships with people from every side of the industry. While media professionals are usually the primary focus, a wide variety of other professional links including that with the manufacturers, retailers, buyers and distributors attend are also being utilized to boost the client brand’s overall market image.

Utilize the PR professional’s knowledge and expertise to stay innovative
Experienced PR specialists with creative insights can work wonders for the growth of the business as they have faced and strong in the best and the worst phases of the industry. Their presence can bring deep industry insight on the desk which will help in better formulating the plans for the brand’s growth and expansion.  The specialized PR professionals consider open and honest conversations with the managerial levels of the client’s business before starting up with their awareness and promotion strategies. The seasoned PR persons are communicating with industry leaders on a daily basis and thus, stay familiar with ongoing reports and trends.

Got your Public Image ruined? Here’s what you should do

From ages and ages, the scams and sandals continue to ruin the Public Image of the companies and organizations. Before the details of scams and scandals are stated clearly, the organizations often find their reputation being damaged bit by bit, thanks to social media. It has always been noticed that organizations regret their decision to not to go for PR services beforehand as soon as their adverse Public Image is projected. Well, talk to any of the PR experts in Delhi and you’ll be told how crucial it becomes for a business to hire a reliable PR company.

Anyways, if you’ve already been hard-hit by any defaming act, you’re probably too late to hire PR company. Or perhaps you are not! The best PR consultants in Delhi firmly believe that PR agencies follow a standard procedure to deal with every sort of PR crisis, even if you reach up to them at the last minute. All you have to do is share some crucial details and information with the PR team so that they can help you prevent strict legal actions or help you suffice the damage caused to you.

1.    Prepare the dossier pertaining to the incident:
Before you schedule another meeting with PR consultants in Delhi, you should ensure that you have prepared precise and complete dossier related to the event happened. State exactly what happened, when, and how. You should also honestly write how the organization came to know about it, what previous statements from the officials have already been released, and any other information of significance. And yes, be true with the PR Company in Delhi and stick to the facts.

2.    Gather necessary supporting documents:
Whatever you think would help your PR agency in Delhi to save the damaged Public Image and reputation. Sort out all the documents, data, statistics, photos, videos, and documents related to the crises. If you do not have it, it is best to build a team of analysts and researchers who will dig all such information about your organization and the crises.

3.    Develop a PR timeline:
Collaborating with your PR experts, you should mutually decide on a timeline as what information should be rolled out in media, when to make public appearances, etc. The right time is so very important when your brand reputation is at stake. Therefore, think about the sensitivity of time and occasion, identify the right opportunity, and leverage it to the best. Just because you are availing PR services in Delhi, you should not hurry about calling media or respond to the derogatory comments on social media. Remember, the wise decisions are always made in peace.

4.    Prepare press releases & call media:
This is the job of PR companies in Delhi, but you, as a spokesperson or the director of the organization have a major role to play here. When the press releases are being written and prepared, you must track what all words are being used, what information is being shared, and who is the apt target audience for it. During the times of PR crises, the most obvious mistake a business can do is to carelessly pass on not-so-apt information to the ones they should not have. Therefore, review and edit it if you feel this may create further problems for you. When all is set right, you are good to go with a media conference. Be courageous, call media, and do your best!

Why Startups need to make early investments in PR services?

Getting Public Relations (PR) done for their businesses is preferably the last task that the startup owners have on their bucket list. In those tough, early days of the business, it’s all about products or services, employee/customer acquisition and managing the HR & sales department lies on the entrepreneur's head. So, why communication & PR activities are undervalued in the startup environment? This is because many of the startups rely on the old funnel marketing approach and believe every lead, online advertisement and campaign are for more revenue generation. This would only lead to a few benefits but an early investment in communication and PR could result in a plethora of opportunities for the company to utilize even in the long run. 

Following are the advantages of having communication services from PR agencies:

Expert PR professionals help in shaping the brand story
Most of the startups prefer a Band-aid approach to leverage their communication with customers and emphasize in recreating and reinventing their website, investor pitches and other marketing collateral from time to time. But, it isn’t of much help to match the market competition. To make a mark, it’s essential to know the taste of the audience and having communication with them accordingly. For this, PR firms in India and around the world connect their clients with media. Once a startup gets to interact with the media, it should better know the needs & demands of the target audience which will further help the brand in building relationships with all stakeholders, especially customers. Media pitching and published stories can prove to be a communication goldmine for the startups which can significantly bring the brand closer to its prospects. The expert PR team ensures that the brand story is tailored as per the target audience’s interests and ethos.

The media coverage serves as the best testimonials
A good brand can’t survive on self-promotion alone, it needs other credible sources to tell the stories with authentic endorsements. The main purpose of the PR experts in getting media coverage isn’t only about sales, but about ensuring that the brand awareness and image is created. The strong media presence of a startup arranged by its PR agency leads to instant brand recall and interest from top talent in the industry. Valuable media coverage gained from trusted medium and platforms could inspire a great number of customers to follow you.

Media gives your startup an edge over the competition
Media validate the authenticity and reliability of brands before featuring them in their stories only to ensure that no fraudulence or suspicions are involved. While making a choice of startup businesses to highlight or articles to publish, media firms are validating the startup's ideas and indirectly endorsing them. If your brand’s name isn’t in the news, and your competitors are, then you are certainly way behind and need to wake up before it’s too late. Simply doing SEO won’t help your startup’s website won’t help you to rank up on google results for long but some authentic media links will ensure the same. Be it investors or the customers will themselves show interest in your startup once the PR pitches of your business get space in the related media space. Even a small interview and quote on latest technologies related to your business in a good publication or channel can deliver a timely push to your brand over the competition.

4 quick and easy metrics to measure the success of PR campaigns

For many years, the word measurement would send shivers to the Public Relations (PR) & communication professionals. However, things have been extremely changing in the last few years and there has been a growing demand for strategic value communication and ever growing demands for budget justification needing to be linked to business impact. A good measurement scale as a whole includes adequate process, methodology, standards and clear taxonomy of the industry. In case a PR agency in Delhi, NCR or in any part of the world is showing low interest in adoption of a clear measurement framework this means that the PR outputs as discussed don’t hold the guarantee of being delivered. The following ways will help the PR professionals to adequately measure the PR campaigns’ effectiveness:

1.    Domain Authority
At least once or twice in a month, the client domain’s website gets update by Moz and if the content publishing trend is consistent on it slow but steady increase can be easily delivered each month. As the professional course of working on the client’s website increases also increases the rate with which the targeted audience is coming up on the website and preferring the client’s products & services. On an average the constant domain tracking and content delivery can provide about six points per year—or half a point rise every month.
2.    Visitors from owned and earned media
The website visitors are never tapped on from one place, they are arriving on the website from numerous sources both owned and earned mediums. While discussing on the cost of the plans mentioning the clear list of the owned and earned contributed content pieces helps in better negotiations and dealings. Keeping a close track of the media placement links backed to the website will help you in getting on these numbers right.
3.    Count of Email addresses
If the published content is doing its job then a steady stream of email addresses are there for you. If you are getting click-through to your site, but those visitors aren’t signing up for your email list in exchange for a lead magnet then it’s time for the PR professionals to rethink their target media list. No matter how popular the media outlet, if it’s not driving qualified traffic to your site; it’s not a good fit.
4.    Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The Google results as per the primary keywords need to be kept in check at least quarterly, and the content maps are to be adjusted accordingly. But this tracking should be done only through the incognito window as it will provide more accurate reflection of how a prospective customer might see the client in google results. If the tracking is done through regular window then the search results might get affected by the personal search results of the professional.