5 PR “must-do’s” for 2016

Do you run a small business and only have a couple hours a week to spend on your PR/Marketing efforts?

Are you a PR pro and need some stats to help sell your C-suite on a few PR adjustments?

Last week at the St. Pete Chamber‘s Trending Topics lunch sponsored by law firm Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, we presented “5 PR must-do’s” for 2016, with a spectrum of information for everyone.

After touching on several different facets of PR, the presentation went through a five-step consumer purchasing simulation, comparing and contrasting a traditional main street business to a webstore.

Attendees learned some of the major Google algorithm changes from 2015 along with several reasons your audiences may or may not find you online. Among the crowd, web pros from Big Sea participated in the discussion about importance and relation between such factors as design and mobile friendliness.

“As access to the Internet has grown, consumer trust in branded content has skyrocketed to 59%. While a good PR strategy is going to have a rounded mix of earned media, paid advertising and owned media, PR professionals are allocating larger percentages of time toward content marketing,” said Shouppe. “We want busy businesspeople to spend their time efficiently and valuably – so more often these days we’re recommending content marketing. A strong owned media presence has a multitude of benefits. You have nearly full control of your message – and the data doesn’t lie – people trust quality branded content.”

Audience members were surprised to learn that many consumers are anywhere from 67 to 90% of the way through their purchasing decision before they even make contact with the company. A top take-away was that companies/organizations need their online presence in ship-shape condition, kept up-to-date, and offering worthwhile content, or they may never even get to meet many of their potential customers.