How To Develop Positive ROI With Media Relations
Getting a good return on investment, or ROI, for anything that your business does should be one of your top priorities. Why put the time and effort into doing something for your business if it isn't going to offer a positive return on investment in some shape or form. ROI shouldn't be your primary focus in every aspect of your business, but it should always be something that you consider in every step of the planning stage. ROI should be in the back of your mind with every decision you make.
Types of ROI
There are many different ways in which your business can get a return on investment for the decisions you make and the actions you take. Profitability and money making are typically the first types of ROI that come to mind, but they are far from the only benefits that you can expect to receive from your decisions, planning, and action. Many forms of ROI are far less clear and tangible than money, yet still have an equally important role in developing your business to its full potential. Do not discount the value of returns such as customer satisfaction, exposure, positive reviews, or media attention. These types of returns are much more difficult to quantify and measure, but that doesn't mean that you can afford to ignore the immense value they provide to your business. Intangible forms of ROI can actually make a significant impact on the success of your business.
Marketing, the Media and ROI
Marketing is something that doesn't always lead to immediate tangible returns on investment but that does not mean that your marketing efforts are unimportant and insignificant. All marketing techniques are essentially about finding your target customers and finding a way to draw them into your business and turn them into repeat business for your company. Most marketing efforts do not directly translate to increased sales or profits, but they clearly have a big impact in your bottom line. The same is true for your media relations efforts. It is important to get positive media attention, even if only online on social media. This will help make your business more visible to the public eye, leading hopefully to more customers and more traffic for your business. The tricky part is learning how to produce and measure the results of your marketing and media relations efforts.
Getting Results with a Proactive Approach to Media Relations
At some point, your business will inevitably gather the attention of the media. While you can certainly hope that this attention will offer a positive view of your business, there are far better ways to be proactive in assuring that this is the case. You can take active steps to work with the media to hopefully garner positive attention for your business. The idea is that by communicating with the media yourself ahead of time, you can get media attention without the cost of advertising. If you have a previous long standing relationship with a media contact before a major story about your business breaks, you will have a greater chance of being able to impact the outcome of the story.
Having a strong relationship with contacts in the media also increases the chance that your press releases will be paid attention to, so you can draw positive attention to newsworthy information about your business. When you launch new products or win awards, having put the time into develop media relations will help increase the chances that the local media outlets will be willing to cover your story. Opening a dialogue with media contacts before you need their attention is a great way to get a potential ROI in the future.
