Public Relations and IT Marketing: A Fundamental Relationship

IT marketing has a hand-in-glove relationship with Public Relations (PR). If you’ve got bad PR, then your marketing will almost serve as an amplifying agent negatively. If you’ve got good PR, then the same happens, but in a positive sense.  

Points of PR to Focus On 

The best PR you can get is organically through press releases pertaining to positive community involvement. Several primary areas of positivity transpire from positive PR and additionally represent its direct benefit to your MSP. 

Credibility 

An IT marketing campaign with an effective PR focus will build credibility. People will become familiar with your MSP at the media level. The more times you’re featured in varying media outlets, the more credibility you’ll have. 

That said, remember: publicity and PR aren’t quite the same. Publicity is good, regardless of its flavor. Bad PR can pull the rug out from under you. Good PR builds credibility, bad PR doesn’t.  

Relationship Facilitation Predicates Strategy 

If you’re going to get good PR, you must build a relationship with the people in a position of media output. Additionally, you want to build a relationship with the audience that PR reaches: your community. 

Strategically, you may want to get involved with the chamber of commerce to figure out community events where your MSP could act in a volunteer capacity that naturally encourages some sort of press coverage.  

Stratification of Content Must Reach Multiple Appropriate Channels  

Social media, newspapers, local news on television, radio, billboards, blogs on your website, guest blog posts, and other areas represent notable places to get content heard. Working with SEO groups specializing in MSPs will help you stratify content production in a balanced way that doesn’t have a negative collateral impact on PR. 

Finding Your Balance 

An IT marketing campaign that is built around a stratified content dissemination approach, builds relationships where appropriate, and is credible will produce a positive PR impact. There’s a balance to be achieved here, but you can find it.  

Your MSP business will have to do a lot of public relations work; that’s the nature of success in modernity. There are a number of tactics worth considering to help you have the most optimal, positive PR; several will be explored here: 

Determine KPIs Related to Positive PR 

Your MSP business needs to know what numbers indicate effective PR. Engagement can be telling, but it’s not a sole indicator, as bad press can have high visibility just like good press can. 

They say there’s no such thing as bad press, but those who said as much likely hadn’t seen the politically correct era, defining modern media. The truth is, there is such a thing as bad PR, and you must have good PR in place beforehand for when such instances threaten your business. Key performance indicators (KPIs) help you take better control of outreach and know where to aim future efforts. 

Put Together Goals You Want PR to Achieve 

If you don’t know what you’re trying to do, you’re probably not going to get anything worthwhile accomplished. Look at previous PR campaigns, competitors, and your budget. From this information, line out goals appropriate to your current PR strategy. 

Target Outreach, and Assign a Realistic Budget to the Effort 

Your PR needs to be aimed at the right people. If you’ve got a fine human piece showing your agency’s progressive, humanitarian side, that might not resonate well with a politically disparate demographic. 

Different people react differently, and you must respect that if you’re going to convert them. Additionally, you’ll need multiple instances where they have the opportunity to encounter your PR, and that’s going to have a certain cost. Working with SEO agencies regularly serving MSPs can help you line out here. 

Good PR 

An MSP business with targeted outreach informed by realistic budget, goals, and relevant KPIs stands to orchestrate PR with greater effectiveness.