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Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.

From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.

New Year, New Horizons: A 2024 Guide to Strategic PR Planning

As we bid farewell to another year and embrace a fresh start, it’s the perfect time for businesses to reflect on their public relations (PR) strategies. The dynamic nature of communication requires a strategic approach to PR. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help navigate complexities and ensure your brand shines in 2024.

Reflect on 2023

The first step in crafting a strategic PR plan for 2024 is reflecting on 2023’s successes and challenges. Evaluate the effectiveness of your PR strategies, note key media coverage, and assess the impact on your brand’s reputation. This analysis will serve as a foundation for setting realistic goals and refining your approach in the coming year.

Define Clear Objectives

Establishing clear and measurable objectives is crucial for an effective PR plan. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, building thought leadership, or launching a new product, articulate specific, achievable, and time-bound goals. Align these goals with your overall business strategy to ensure synergy across departments and a cohesive approach to communication.

Focus on What Matters

Rather than casting a wide net in 2024, concentrate your efforts on what truly drives results. Whether it’s leveraging specific media outlets, engaging key influencers, or utilizing targeted campaigns, precision is paramount. By concentrating on proven avenues that align with your industry’s trends, you ensure that each effort is a deliberate step towards your objectives.

Practice Crisis Preparedness

The unpredictability of the modern world requires businesses to be proactive in crisis management. Take time now to develop a comprehensive crisis communication plan that outlines key stakeholders, messaging protocols, and escalation procedures. Once a plan is in place, regularly conduct crisis simulations to ensure your team is well-prepared to handle unforeseen challenges.

Collaborate and Build Relationships

Collaborative relationships are inherent to PR. That’s why it’s important to identify key industry influencers, media outlets, and partners. Cultivate strong relationships with these stakeholders to amplify your brand’s reach and credibility. Consider co-branded initiatives and partnerships that align with your values and objectives.

Measure and Adapt

A robust evaluation system is vital to gauge the success of your PR efforts. Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and use data-driven insights to adapt your strategies. Regularly reassess your PR plan throughout the year, remaining agile to evolving trends and industry dynamics.

The new year isn’t just a change in the calendar—it’s a canvas on which to paint a narrative of success. May the insights here guide you toward unprecedented achievements, ensuring that your brand not only weathers the complexities of 2024 but emerges stronger and more resonant than ever before. Here’s to new horizons and a year filled with PR triumphs.

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The Power of Effective Storytelling

In the November/December issue of the Harvard Business Review, Frances Frei and Anne Morris explained how storytelling can drive bold organizational change. While the piece focuses on changing a brand from the inside out, it shows that storytelling powers transformation by connecting and inspiring people.

Frei and Morris break down the elements of successful storytelling, which are just as relevant for reaching external audiences and motivating them to act. As we head into the new year, businesses and executives should take this opportunity to consider their goals through these elements of storytelling.

Simplify Your Messaging

Effective stories are clear and simple. Complex language and jargon often alienate audiences. Our firm once hosted a Seattle Times technology reporter who put this best. He said one of his biggest challenges was writing an article that was both compelling enough to capture the attention of a technology executive and simple enough for his grandmother to understand.

Crafting a simple, straightforward story is difficult, but it’s worth your time. A clear story is a powerful way to connect with your audiences.

Evolve Your Messaging

As you craft as story of the future, Frei and Morris argue, you must also honor your past. This means acknowledging the good parts and reckoning with the “not-so-good parts.” While they’re referring to organizational operations and company culture, there’s an important lesson for messaging.

As industries and companies change and grow, your messaging must evolve. The messaging from a company’s founding quickly becomes outdated. It’s important to reflect on the ways your business has changed and how your messaging should be updated to reflect your new direction, focuses and vision.

Make Your Messaging Authentic & Optimistic

Audiences want to understand “the why.” Clear and effective messaging explains the company’s vision, its goals, and how it plans to achieve them. Customers, stakeholders and partners appreciate authenticity and transparency into an organization’s motivations and strategies.

Messaging should also be inherently optimistic. Perhaps you’re trying to solve a critical challenge related to sustainability or labor issues. Rather than focusing on the issue, focus on the solution. As Frei and Morris say, optimism is both powerful and infectious. Even if things aren’t going exactly to plan, remaining steadfast in your belief ensures that audiences remain committed and connected.

Repeat Your Messaging

Customers, reporters and potential partners are all busy. Repetition increases the likelihood that you’ll break through the noise and capture their attention.  

For example, most reporters end a call asking, “Is there anything else you would like to add?” Even if you, the spokesperson, hit every key message, this is an opportunity to repeat the top messages you would like to see reflected in the article. It’s likely the reporter didn’t capture every answer while taking notes, so this is your chance to drive home the most important points.    

Repetition can feel unnatural, but sticking to messages in interviews, contributed content, presentations and internal communications ensures your target audiences internalize your story.

Don’t Underestimate Storytelling

Storytelling is a powerful tool that can inspire and motivate key audiences. The new year is a perfect time to reflect on how your organization is telling its story.

Does your story reflect where the business is today and where it is headed? Is it clear and concise? Does it focus on solutions and impact? If not, it may be time for some updates. A simple, clear story can shape your business for years to come.

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Navigating the PR Landscape of IPOs: Strategic Considerations

As companies take their first steps toward an Initial Public Offering (IPO), they face not just financial scrutiny but also an invaluable chance to elevate their public image and attract a varied investor base. Seizing this opportunity, though, can be tricky.

An investor base may include institutional investors like mutual funds, retail investors seeking new opportunities, company insiders invested in their organization’s future, high-net-worth individuals, and early backers such as venture capitalists. Appealing to this diverse mix of investors can significantly impact the success of an IPO.

So, how does a PR team build excitement and trust with these wide-ranging groups in the lead-up to a successful IPO?

Develop a Compelling Narrative

Storytelling is often the essence of a successful IPO. A compelling corporate narrative highlights the company’s vision, growth, and potential. A narrative can captivate investors and the media.

But a narrative doesn’t just present financial figures—it weaves a story that showcases the company’s uniqueness, resilience, and vision for the future. Successful IPOs often feature narratives that resonate with a wide audience, demonstrating not only profitability but innovation, sustainability, and long-term potential.

Consider Birkenstock. With a heritage dating back to 1774, the esteemed footwear company listed on the NYSE on October 10 at a $9.3 billion valuation on a fully diluted basis, according to Reuters. Leading up to its IPO, the company highlighted its unique blend of historical depth, contemporary relevance, financial strength, and broad consumer appeal.

While the initial public response was lukewarm, Birkenstock’s subsequent recovery may point to the underlying strength of its footwear combined with a belief in its growth strategy and brand narrative. (Keep in mind, even though a compelling narrative is important for a company, it’s equally vital that their products and solutions live up to the promise they make.)

Leverage Behind-the-Scenes Information

To cultivate storytelling, it’s vital to engage with journalists respectfully and proactively. Offer them comprehensive information and the necessary resources to facilitate their reporting. Additionally, ensure executives and experts are available for inquiries and clarifications, and, when feasible, provide journalists with exclusive insights.

Behind-the-scenes information, unique data, and advance notice of major company developments are the lifeblood of journalism. Microsoft understands this. The company leverages impactful information to its advantage, such as the detailed insights it provides in the Microsoft Digital Defense Report.

This report is a prime example of corporate transparency, offering in-depth analysis of contemporary cybersecurity threats. It includes extensive information on issues like nation-state cyber activities, ransomware trends, and various criminal cyber operations, painting a vivid picture of the current digital security landscape. Such reports are invaluable for stakeholders, providing a holistic understanding of the challenges and advancements in cybersecurity, a field critically important in today’s digital world.

Our collaboration with clients extends to developing and disseminating specialized reports. For several years, we’ve partnered with A Place for Mom in crafting and distributing the “Senior Living Cost Index.” Similarly, we’ve worked with Shiftboard on their “State of the Hourly Workers” report, along with producing reports for various other companies. These projects often garner media attention and yield intriguing data. This data proves invaluable throughout the year, as it informs and enriches the content and articles that we create for our clients

Digital Engagement and Social Media Strategy

Digital platforms are powerful ways to disseminate information and engage with potential investors. A robust social media strategy can help build a community around the company, fostering engagement and excitement.

However, it’s essential to be mindful of regulatory considerations when communicating about an IPO. To avoid missteps, any information shared must comply with legal standards.

Investor Relations and Transparency

Transparency is a cornerstone of building investor trust. Transparent financials, business operations, and plans go a long way in establishing credibility. Organizing investor events and roadshows offers a platform for direct engagement with potential investors, providing an opportunity to address queries and concerns.

An IPO is not just a financial milestone—it’s a pivotal moment for public relations. It offers an opportunity to enhance a company’s public image and secure its place in the market. With strategic PR planning, companies can navigate this critical phase effectively, ensuring a successful transition to a public entity.

For companies on the cusp of an IPO, seeking expert PR counsel can make all the difference. Contact us for in-depth advice and tailored strategies to ensure your IPO is not just successful but also resonates with your target audiences.

Other helpful information can be found here:

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BNSF Railway Goes Live with Tideworks’ Intermodal TOS

Tideworks Technology® Inc., a full-service provider of comprehensive terminal operating systems (TOS), recently announced its launch of the Intermodal Pro® intermodal TOS and Traffic Control™ equipment dispatch system at BNSF Railway’s Memphis facility. BNSF is the largest freight railroad in the U.S., a North American Class I railroad that plays a crucial role in the North American supply chain.

To make the announcement a success, CPR worked with Tideworks to develop the press release and execute a successful media strategy. Together, we crafted a press release to highlight key go-live and product details. The release showcased the continued partnership between Tideworks and BNSF.

CPR also created a tailored press list for media covering rail, logistics, supply chains, and intermodal news, targeting reporters whose beats were specific to rail. Around the time of the announcement, Tideworks attended RailTrends, so we secured timely in-person interviews and additional coverage at the conference.

To generate wide-ranging interest, we crafted a pitch demonstrating how Tideworks’ announcement would affect the rail industry and supply chain. The pitch highlighted and explained key aspects of the two solutions and their impact on BNSF, sparking trade publication interest.

Our efforts proved effective, securing 16 pieces of coverage, which can be found below.

We are proud to continue partnering with Tideworks to share the company’s latest news and advancements.

Tideworks BNSF Coverage Recap – 11/16/2023

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Considering a PR partner? Here’s how to find the best fit.

If you’re looking for a PR partner to help support your business objectives, there are many factors to consider. You’ll want an agency that meets some key requirements that best fit your business needs. Not sure what those requirements are? Keep reading to find out more.

Objectives

When you meet with a prospective PR agency, you should be clear about your business and communication objectives. These are goals or aims that are concrete, measurable, and often time-bound. In these ways, objectives are distinct from a company’s broader goals or visions.

You might set business objectives around brand awareness, product development, revenue growth, and operational efficiency. Meanwhile, communication objectives refer to an organization’s specific goals in guiding the messaging, tone, and channels used to convey information to stakeholders. Some examples include enhancing brand perception, promoting products or service awareness, educating stakeholders, and building thought leadership.

Clearly understanding what you want to achieve helps agencies identify the best strategies and tactics for your company to reach those objectives.

Budget

Often, your budget will dictate the range and extent of services agencies can provide. That’s why it’s important to discuss budgetary restraints and expectations upfront. A clear understanding of your budget and goals on both sides can help the PR partner develop a plan that maps to your budget and meets your business and communication objectives.

Chemistry

The right agency will become an extension of your team, so it’s important to meet the PR team members with whom you’ll work. Get an understanding of their personalities and work ethic. Chemistry matters. Often, people perform better when they collaborate with partners they enjoy and respect. This can translate into increased KPIs and better outcomes.

Representation

PR agencies often work with a wide variety of clients, so you’ll want to get a sense of the agency’s experience and portfolio. Who have they worked with in the past? What industry-specific experience do they bring? You’re looking for a balance of knowledge and availability. 

For example, if you’re a space tech company vetting a potential agency, you’ll want to know if that agency has other space tech clients. If some of their clients are direct competitors, that might not be a good fit. But if the agency represents space tech clients who aren’t direct competitors, it will likely have a finger on the pulse of your industry and already have relationships with reporters and others who can help you meet your objectives.

Skills

Given the nature of the industry, PR agencies have a number of transferable skills and industry knowledge that can help you meet your objectives. These include:

  • Media Relations: Building and maintaining relationships with journalists and media outlets, crafting compelling press releases and pitches to secure media coverage, etc.
  • Communication: Strong written and verbal communication skills, the ability to tailor messages for different audiences.
  • Strategic Planning: Identifying target audiences and crafting messages that resonate with them while developing strategic PR plans aligned with business goals.
  • Crisis Management: Developing crisis communication plans and responding effectively to protect the client’s reputation.
  • Research and Analysis: Conducting market research to inform PR strategies while analyzing data and metrics to measure the effectiveness of PR campaigns.
  • Adaptability: Being adaptable to changes in the media landscape and industry trends while having the flexibility to adjust strategies based on evolving client needs.
  • Content Creation: Generating various types of content such as press releases, articles, blog posts, social media content, videos, infographics, whitepapers, case studies, and more. Each piece of content is tailored to convey the client’s key messages and values.

References

References can play a key role in deciding which agency to partner with. Ask for references early in the vetting process. This gives you time to ask those references questions about the agency’s work, their outcomes, and how well the agency met expectations.

Once you decide, let all the agencies know as soon as possible. PR agencies often spend many non-billable hours developing proposals and working on new business opportunities. A quick notification shows you respect their time and work. It helps, too, if you can give the agencies you didn’t partner with feedback as to how you came to that decision. This helps them adjust their new business strategies for the future and supports your own professional reputation.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the number of PR agencies out there. But if you’re in the market for a new PR partner, just remember these key factors, and you’ll be able to find the agency that best fits your communication and business objectives.

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Tips to Navigate a Website Update

An up-to-date company website is essential for brand awareness and relevance. Whether the website refresh includes implementing new features or redesigning the user interface, these projects require careful planning and execution.

Depending on the changes, the company’s communications and public relations teams can help ensure consistency of brand positioning and voice. Involving these groups is especially critical if the website updates include changes to messaging or website copy.

Below are a few best practices for a smooth website update. The specific action items will vary based on the company’s website, budget, and goals.  

Set Clear Objectives

Before diving into the update, defining objectives is crucial. What are the update’s goals? Is it a design refresh, an SEO revamp, or the addition of new security or performance tools? Setting clear goals and parameters will help guide the project and ensure shared expectations.

Notify Stakeholders and Create a Timeline

Communication is key. All stakeholders, including team members and clients, should be aware of future updates. It’s important to share the rationale for the project and notify them of expected downtime or actions they might need to take.

During the early stages of a website update, it’s helpful to create a project timeline and note important company milestones (e.g., product launches or webinars) that might occur during the update. This helps ensure updates get to the right audiences and are not obscured by the website refresh.

Conduct a Website Audit

Once the company has squared away the initial planning elements, it’s time to dive in. A thorough site audit helps provide a comprehensive view of the state of the website, including its strengths and opportunities for improvement. The audit includes checking for broken links, outdated content, and other elements that need to change or hurt the user experience. After the audit, it’s best to back up the website to ensure the company or design firm can quickly revert to past versions if anything goes wrong during the update.

Confirm Budget and Determine Responsibilities

Confirming the project’s budget is one of the most important early steps. Funding will determine the kind of changes a company can make and who manages the process. For example, a budget can determine if a web design firm is feasible and the role it can play in the process. Along with clear objectives and expectations, a concrete budget helps communicate the project’s roles and responsibilities.

Share and Track Updates

Different web design firms will have different processes and requirements for how they want companies to provide desired changes. Regardless of the process, creating and maintaining a tracker with all website pages and desired changes is helpful. This creates a smoother process when teams review and track the changes they want to make to various pages.

At this stage, it can be helpful to have the marketing and communications teams provide input on messaging, copy changes, and content for SEO. These teams can ensure the right keywords and phrases are incorporated into the new copy.

Test New Pages and Share Timely Feedback

Although updates vary based on the company objectives, having a consistent review, test, and feedback process should not be overlooked. Once new pages are available from the web design firm, review and provide timely feedback to ensure the project stays on track. Testing new graphics, navigation, links, and functionality early in the update will yield the best results for improvements. Don’t rush through this process—allocating proper time to test new features, functionalities, and design elements will help resolve issues before they impact customers or other users.

Implement Changes Gradually

If the website update involves significant changes, consider implementing them gradually. This minimizes disruptions and allows the company and web design firm to address problems as they arise. Incremental updates also make it easier to pinpoint the causes of issues.

Successful website updates require careful planning, communication, and attention to detail. After any project, it’s wise to conduct a postmortem. Website updates are no different. Take time to review the process and discuss issues that arose. Tracking these elements can help guide future updates.

By following these best practices, companies can ensure a smooth website update that improves the site’s performance and the experience for customers and stakeholders. Remember that website management is an ongoing process, and conducting ongoing reviews is key to maintaining a strong brand identity.

For more guidance on website updates, check out our post, Navigating the Digital Landscape: How PR Firms Can Help with Website Reviews and Updates.

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