5 ways to ensure your PR strategy is set up for Q4 success
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As a PR it can be hard keeping up with the fast-paced news agenda, let alone being three steps ahead of the seasons changing too.
But, with pumpkin spice lattes defrosting and Christmas chocolate already on the shelves, Q4 has well and truly arrived!
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From launching Christmas campaigns, balancing BAU activity and Black Friday in the mix too, Q4 can be a busy period for PRs.
And, it’s a competitive period in the media landscape too. As we approach Christmas and out of office season, making sure your outreach activity cuts-through is key.
Whether you’re in-house or agency-side, we’ve shared 5 ways to ensure your PR strategy is set up for success in Q4.
And, if you’re not sure where to start, get in touch with Embryo for support on your PR strategy.
1. Leverage unique data
Q4 can be a competitive time in PR thanks to Christmas campaigns, Black Friday and end-of-year roundups.
To help cut through the noise, utilise unique data as part of your campaigns and reactive comments. Journalists love data as it gives authority and credibility to expert comments while providing a new media angle.
Whether you’re working on a campaign or newsjacking, some key questions to think about when considering data might be:
- Is there unique data your client can add to a trending topic or conversation?
- Does your dataset tell a story that naturally links to an activation or product launch?
- What seasonal or time sensitive data do you have available – and is this unique?
Tips for maximising data in PR campaigns
Make your methodology solid
Ensuring you have a solid methodology is key as it tells the journalist exactly how you’ve collected your data and how recent it is, leaving no room for questioning.
Add the full details of your methodology to the boilerplate of the release but make sure you spell out a summary of your methodology in the introduction of your press assets too, so that the data hook is clearly highlighted without having to read the full release.
Lead with the data
Once you’ve spelled out your methodology clearly, consider bringing this data hook to the top of your release and pitch so the journalist can find it easily, if it is a key element of the story.
Offering data as an exclusive can be a great way to target specific publications too. Make sure to highlight this clearly in your pitch or subject line.
Revisit data sets regularly throughout the campaign
Data shouldn’t be a tick box exercise in a campaign. Once the campaign has launched, revisit your data set throughout to see if there are any additional angles you can take that might not have seemed relevant beforehand.
This is a good exercise to do as your pitching and re-angling the campaign, as there might be new angles in line with the current news agenda that might not have appeared previously.
2. Utilise AI in your workflows
AI can be a helpful tool in improving efficiencies in your PR workflow and help to save you time, especially when it comes to strategy building, clunky data tasks or even proofing your work.
Tips for building AI into your PR workflows
Use AI as your data analysis assistant
AI tools such as ChatGPT can be helpful when working on data analysis tasks, helping you break down complex data sheets into easy to understand key takeaways or by providing you with the formulas you need to better draw insights from data sets.
Train it on your sector and the news that gets covered in this space to delve deeper into further angles you could draw from the data for further angles.
Leverage AI for audience insights
Gemini is a great tool for leveraging data-backed insights, great for shaping any audience personas you’re working on.
Ask it prompts on your audience traits, search behaviour and more to create in-depth personas that can be used to help inform ideation briefs or organic strategies for both SEO, PR and Content teams.
Use AI as your proofreader and tone of voice checker
Train AI on your clients tone of voice guidelines and use it to proofread press releases or onsite copy. This will help to keep written copy aligned and consistent across teams but also help speed up the review process of copy.
For more ways to use AI in your day-to-day, read more here.
3. Take a personalised approach to outreach
With an increasingly competitive media landscape and a tightening pool of journalists, making sure your outreach strategy and pitches are effective is key.
Making sure you take a targeted approach to outreach is essential for the best results but there are other ways you can personalise your pitch.
Source: Unsplash
Tips for perfecting your pitch
Read your target media
It might sound basic but simply reading and understanding the beat of your client or sector’s target media is crucial when it comes to pitching.
Stay up to date with the latest stories and articles your client’s target media are publishing. Here, you can start to identify if you can tie in your current pitch or story as a follow-on angle to a piece they’ve just written.
Showing you’ve read and are suggesting a secondary angle to journalist’s articles is a great way of showing you’ve done your research on them and have considered that the story is a good fit for them and their audience.
Mimic headline styles and tone of voice
Another way you can add personalisation into your pitches is by mimicking target media’s headline styles.
For example, look out for common phrases a certain publication or journalist typically uses and incorporate this into your subject line, pitch and even introduction of your press release to help make your story feel like an instant fit for their beat.
Tie it back to SEO goals
One tactic that works when targeting smaller publications or niche magazines is outlining in your pitch how your story will help support their SEO goals.
For example, are you pitching a story that covers a topic they’ve not written much around but there’s search demand around it? Or is it a topic they’ve covered but there’s untapped angles around it? Highlight how this piece will support their SEO goals and the search demand behind it to help position it as a great topic for their publication.
For more tips on pitching to journalists, read more here.
4. Leverage key journalist relationships
As we approach the end of the year, navigating out of offices and quieter newsrooms can be a challenge for PRs as we’re met with less opportunity to secure placements.
Throughout Q4, there are some steps you can take to help avoid this:
Tips for maximising your journalist relationships
Reach out to key contacts
Reaching out to key media contacts ahead of time to touch base on upcoming stories they’re working on can be a great way to source opportunities and re-introduce the experts you have available to comment.
Share a top-level overview of the key themes and topics your experts can comment on alongside any headlines of current campaigns you’re pushing to see if these could be a fit too.
Always follow up after a placement has been covered
As a good rule of thumb, it’s always best practice to thank journalists after they’ve covered a feature of yours to build a relationship with them but this is particularly useful if you’re low on results as it could lead to more opportunities for your client.
More often than not, thanking journalists can lead to opening up the dialogue with them, learning what they are working on next and seeing if you have a client or expert that is a good fit so don’t miss this step!
Check who’s working on newsdecks on the day
In busy periods such as Black Friday and the Christmas period, check publications sites to see which journalists are active to help ensure you’re adding journalists who are actually working into your media lists and outreach activity.
This way, you’ll hopefully help to avoid as many OOO’s!
Staying on top of Response Source and X can also help you see which journalists are active too.
5. Use last year’s data and insights
To help inform PR activity and outreach this year, don’t forget to look over last year’s data on Black Friday and Christmas to check when coverage went live.
This can help form a guideline for this year on when to start outreach.
You can also review reactive pieces that typically landed throughout this period and if these are still approved on file can be easily pushed out to secure quick-win results this year too.
For more tips and insights, read the Embryo blog
