How Public Relations Can Transform Your Business

We are a boutique, Sydney-based integrated public relations and brand communications agency; delivering strategies to change perception, enhance your reputation, and influence behaviour. We work across technology, fashion, FMCG, property, children and parenting, retail, automotive, hospitality and aviation.

In a world filled with noise, clutter and over-messaging there has never been more importance placed on cut through. We all walk through a jungle of brand messaging and offerings each day. So how do you make your message meaningful? How do you stand out in a crowded market? Closer Communications can help.

PR can be an incredible change-making business—and it is enjoying a well-deserved growth stage. Companies and people are beginning to recognize that the old way of building consumer or public equity is changing. IBIS World, a media research firm, says PR spending in 2010 was $9.73 billion and forecasts it will increase to $12.82 billion by 2015. The growth is in part due to PR’s ability to participate in a more nimble and flexible way with the new methods by which people consume media, including social media. That sounds promising until you compare it with ad spending, which even after annual declines in recent years is about $210.5 billion a year in the U.S. The PR business is a tiny piece of the pie compared to advertising; there’s no reason why it can’t continue to grow and take advantage of its agility in the marketplace.

Think about the high performing companies you subscribe to and the image they portray on the web, in social media, and within your inbox.

I’m a raving fan of a company that uses a monkey as part of their brand. Can you guess who that is?

Mailchimp.

Where the name might sound foolish and playful, it’s one of the smartest pieces of software I use on the web. I’m not embarrassed to refer you to their site and I know your entire experience will be a delight — then there’s the product — it just works.

Do the same principles apply to the tight knit WordPress community? Let’s discuss.

We live in a time of immense environmental complexity and change, and consequently corporations have been forced to significantly alter their strategies to better compete and survive. Mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures represent a major dimension of corporate change over the past several decades. Globalization has been still another catalyst in the rise of corporate identity programs.

We hear a lot about public relations in the marketing and advertising world, but what are the true benefits of public relations? Let me share with you the benefits of public relations and help you decide if it's time for you to complement your marketing plan with PR.

When assessing the ROI of a publicity campaign, it’s standard practice to assess high-level results, such as the number of reads a message has received and the number of times a message was shared on social networks: these metrics are good measures of how well a message resonated with the audience. But PR measurement shouldn’t stop there. In fact, awareness is just the beginning.

You cannot handle every task your small business needs. Between trying to boost sales through marketing, handling productivity problems and tracking finances, you might not have time to handle public relations. This is when you must consider turning to a public relations firm. While there is a cost for hiring a PR firm, the advantages may make the expense worth it.

Public relations involves the cultivation of favorable relations for organizations and products with its key public through the use of a variety of communications channels and tools. Traditionally, this meant public relations professionals would work with members of the news media to build a favorable image by publicizing the organization or product through stories in print and broadcast media.