Public relations efforts have the direct ability to shape corporate reputation, create brand loyalty, and drive equity value. While results and performance — financial and otherwise — are critical, numbers can’t speak for themselves. Only with the right PR best practices can companies take those figures and effectively communicate their meaning and value to stakeholders.
But today’s PR efforts don’t look like those of five or even 10 years ago. Gone are the days of the corporate monologue and one-way communication. No longer is PR synonymous with “press releases” or “media coverage.” Today, everyone with a cell phone is a reporter, and anyone can garner a global audience with the push of a button. Between mainstream news media, content creators, and online news outlets, your story is already being told, with or without your participation.
This evolution doesn’t have to be seen as a negative. It presents tremendous opportunity for companies and organizations that understand the rules of engagement and are committed to continuous execution. It does, however, require a new strategy — one that encompasses a wide range of elements and communications channels for proactively communicating your story and defending your reputation.
Follow these seven PR best practices to shape your strategy.
Establish Strong Corporate Positioning
Your company’s positioning is its unique identity in the marketplace. It defines who you are, what you stand for, and what makes you unique compared to your competitors. It serves as the foundation for your entire PR strategy and will inform everything from your key corporate messaging and press releases to thought leadership content and social media.
However, it is also your corporate DNA and should align with your organizational identify including operational policies and procedures, the types of employees you hire, how you treat customers and others, and how you respond in challenging circumstances.
To develop your company’s positioning statement, consider:
- Stakeholder needs: What value do you offer, and what problems do you solve?
- How your offerings meet those needs: What is your core business, and what do you excel at?
- Differentiation: What makes you unique — innovation, customer service, or another factor?
You can also use the following exercises to better understand your place in the market and develop your positioning statement.
- Competitor and peer analysis
Understanding your competitors and peers is essential for identifying opportunities to stand out. Examine how others in your industry position themselves by analyzing their websites, press releases, social media, and other communications. By assessing their strengths and weaknesses you can uncover areas where your company stands out and how you uniquely serve your audience. - Internal company interviews and analysis
Your employees and internal stakeholders have valuable insights into what makes your company unique. Through interviews with team members at all levels, you can gain a deeper understanding of your company’s strengths, values, and competitive advantages. Additionally, reviewing your existing public-facing materials, such as your website and messaging, will help you identify recurring themes and ensure alignment with your organizational identity. - Stakeholder Interviews
External stakeholders, such as customers, partners, and investors, provide critical perspectives on how your company is perceived in the market. Conducting interviews with these groups will help uncover your company’s strengths, weaknesses, and value. This outside feedback can help refine your positioning to ensure it resonates with your target audience and accurately reflects your company’s unique attributes.
Tell Your Own Story Through Content and Messaging
One of the biggest shifts in PR over the past decade is the need for organizations to proactively tell their own stories. While PR historically relied on media and intermediaries, owned content is now a cornerstone of modern communications. This gives your organization complete control over quality, tone, and cadence of shared information, and ensures your narrative reaches stakeholders effectively.
To achieve this, PR practitioners should create editorial calendars tailored to audience interests and strategic priorities. This proactive approach ensures companies stay in control of their message and build meaningful connections.
Good corporate and brand messaging incorporates the following PR best practices:
- Consistency: Your message should remain uniform across all channels — press releases, social media, presentations, and more — until a strategy shift dictates otherwise. Start with a core message and tailor it for specific audiences and products.
- Credibility: Back your claims with proof points like facts, figures, examples, or case studies to ensure your messaging stands up to scrutiny.
- Brevity: With only seconds to make an impression, keep your messaging clear, simple, and straight to the point.
Build Media Relationships to Bolster Brand Awareness
The media landscape has transformed dramatically over the past decade. Respected outlets have downsized or disappeared, while sensationalized headlines dominate. Despite these changes, media relations remains one of the most essential PR best practices.
Your company can create and share its own content to build awareness, but it will always face some level of scrutiny — because of course, you’re going to praise your own brand. But what do others say about you? Independent, third-party media coverage boosts credibility, showing that impartial experts value your company, too.
With that in mind, prioritize building relationships with reporters and educating them on your company story. This can result in earned media opportunities, such as TV segments, news articles, or social media mentions.
The three types of media:
- Earned media: Coverage you didn’t pay for or create yourself, like press articles or customer mentions. This is the most influential form of media.
- Paid media: Content you pay for, such as ads or sponsored posts on external platforms.
- Owned media: Content you create and publish on your own platforms, like a company blog or social media posts.
Aim to Become a Thought Leader
Delivering high-quality, non-promotional content through earned, owned, and paid channels positions your company as a trusted authority. Thought leadership builds trust, fosters engagement, and creates opportunities, but it requires consistent effort. Here’s how to start:
- Define your category: Focus on one area where you can become a leading voice.
- Develop themes: Identify topics and themes that align with your industry and key messages.
- Create content: Start with a blog on your website and post regularly. Expand to long-form pieces like eBooks or white papers. Look for opportunities to contribute op-eds or guest posts to external sites.
- Distribute your content: Promote your content through social media, email, and paid advertising to reach your audience.
- Take it on the road: Present at conferences, join panels, host webinars, and participate in other forums to share your expertise.
Beyond what you can do as a company, your leaders can and should be vessels for conveying your company’s messages, identity, and reputation. PR can amplify their visibility through:
- Speaking opportunities: Keynotes and panel discussions allow executives to share insights and connect with stakeholders.
- Expert commentary: Position executives as trusted sources for media quotes, boosting credibility and visibility.
- Podcasts and guest blogs: Secure guest spots on podcasts or contribute to prominent blogs for a controlled platform to share your message.
Awards can also offer external validation, boost credibility, and strengthen brand reputation. They highlight key milestones, build trust with stakeholders, and even drive revenue. Use these PR best practices to make awards a successful part of your strategy:
- Apply for the right awards: Focus on programs aligned with your company’s strengths, such as innovation, employee engagement, or customer service.
- Tell a compelling story: Craft thoughtful, error-free applications that showcase your company’s unique personality and achievements.
- Share your success: Promote wins through press releases, social media, and your website to attract employees, investors, and customers. Use your bragging rights to their full potential.
Use Social Media to Your Advantage
Today, all brands are publishers, and every business operates in the digital space. The stories and content shared on social media and other digital platforms define your brand’s point of view and increase awareness, affinity, and advocacy. To compete in today’s market, your social media strategy must align with PR best practices to amplify messaging and build trust.
Social media can boost the impact of PR programs in several ways:
- Opportunity to share thought leadership: Social media elevates brand awareness by sharing executive and brand content with targeted audiences, driving traffic to key resources.
- Real-time communications during a crisis: During crises, social media serves as a real-time tool to distribute updates, combat misinformation, and monitor for threats.
- Build media relationships: Engaging with journalists, influencers, and stakeholders on social media fosters connections and opens opportunities for future collaborations.
An offshoot of social media, influencer campaigns can be an effective tool to boost your brand’s following and sales, but only if they’re done the right way. Rather than jumping right in, take your time to follow these steps and create truly beneficial partnerships.
- Set clear objectives: Define your goals, such as increased engagement, followers, website traffic, or sales, to ensure strong ROI.
- Choose the right influencers: Audit your social channels to identify influencers your audience already engages with and select partners that align with your brand’s goals.
- Tell an authentic story: Collaborate with influencers to create content that feels genuine and resonates with their audience, encouraging engagement and purchases.
- Build long-term partnerships: Establish ongoing relationships with influencers to keep your brand top of mind and demonstrate their commitment to your company. Consider formal brand ambassador programs if budget allows.
- Post-campaign strategy: Engage new followers with a tailored follow-up, such as exclusive offers, to boost sales and foster long-term loyalty.
Strengthen Internal Communications
Employees can be a company’s most vocal advocates or its biggest critics, especially during crises.
While corporate messaging often targets external audiences, it’s equally critical to create a narrative that resonates with employees and channel partners. A strong internal communications program fosters a consistent customer experience and improves operational results.
Two groups of employees carry the most influence: the CEO and direct supervisors. Research shows employees prefer to receive information from their supervisor. With that in mind, internal communication should start at the top and cascade throughout the organization.
Using PR best practices to enhance internal communication can strengthen:
- Engagement: Employees want to feel connected to the company’s future. Keeping them informed demonstrates their critical role in its success. Engaged employees are more invested in their jobs and the company’s mission — which can lead to better results.
- Brand consistency: Employees, especially those in customer-facing roles, are the true voice of your company. Ensuring they understand and believe in your corporate messaging equips them to deliver a unified message to customers, regardless of the department.
- Brand ambassadors: Consistent and transparent communication enhances employee engagement and organically boosts your brand’s reputation. When employees share positive experiences on platforms like Glassdoor or with their personal networks, it amplifies your company’s credibility and reach.
Proactively Manage Issues and Prepare for Crises
No company, no matter how careful, is immune to crises — whether it’s a natural disaster, product safety issue, whistleblower claim, data breach, or another unexpected event. When a crisis occurs, stakeholders will demand immediate information about the situation and its impact. Poor crisis handling can worsen the problem, erode trust, harm your brand, and even affect your company’s share price. If you don’t communicate quickly, someone else will, potentially shaping the narrative to your detriment.
While you can’t predict every crisis, you can prepare with a well-thought-out crisis communications plan. Instead of reacting in the moment, proactively develop a strategy during normal operations that outlines who to contact, when to act, what to say, and how to communicate.
Here are five PR best practices to help your company effectively respond to crises:
- Identify vulnerabilities: Start by assessing potential vulnerabilities unique to your industry or company, as well as common risks any business might face.
- Assemble a team: Next, form your crisis communications team. This should include a lead — such as the head of corporate communications or an external consultant — and representatives from key departments like HR, operations, finance, IT, legal, and government affairs.
- Establish protocols and train spokespeople: Choose spokespeople for each type of potential crisis. These should be senior leaders who can credibly address the situation. Provide them with media training to ensure they communicate effectively under pressure. Define communication protocols, including how the crisis team will be notified, when they will convene, and the structure of your communications tree. Additionally, set clear media policies to specify who can speak to journalists and what information they can share.
- Develop messaging in advance: While you can’t anticipate every scenario, you can create messaging templates for rapid customization during a crisis. Prepare a general “holding statement” to issue immediately and draft materials like press releases, CEO emails, FAQs, and customer communications that can be tailored to specific events. Pre-prepared content is often 75% applicable, saving critical time when swift communication is essential.
- Identify stakeholders and communication channels: Know who your primary stakeholders are and prioritize notifying them directly before they hear about the crisis elsewhere. These stakeholders may include board members, regulators, employees, customers, partners, and the public. Determine the best way to reach them and plan accordingly.
- Rehearse and refine your plan: Just as schools run fire drills, your company should regularly rehearse its crisis communications plan — ideally once or twice a year. After each practice, analyze strengths and weaknesses, and update the plan as needed. Changes in personnel, product transitions, or new risks may require adjustments.
Mastering PR Best Practices for Long-Term Success
Implementing effective PR best practices is essential for navigating the demands of today’s media landscape. By proactively telling your story, building meaningful media relationships, and leveraging digital platforms, companies can create impactful strategies that resonate with stakeholders. As PR continues to evolve, these practices remain timeless tools for fostering trust, engagement, and long-term success.
To learn more about how ICR can help you tell your story, boost your reputation, and create value through PR, contact us.
