trategy:

A plan, method or series of maneuvers for obtaining a specific goal or result; (Example: A strategy for getting ahead in the business world).

Strategic Public Relations

Many believe that public relations (PR) simply involves issuing press releases to garner mentions in the press. While PR does involve press releases, a press release is merely a tactical component of what should be a more strategic approach to PR. Strategic PR is about executing a well defined plan to continually move a company toward accomplishing its business and marketing objectives. Whether you are a small startup trying to make a name for yourself or an established firm striving to increase market share, strategic PR can help to proactively promote your business and get a leg up on the competition. Strategic PR is a weapon to proactively shape public perception about your company, product and services. Without it, you permit your competitors to define you in ways that will help promote their business. PR Strategies believes in strategic PR that can help you define where you are today, where you want to go and how you are going to get there.
Follow these practical steps to define your PR strategy. Set goals This is the most important bit. You won't know if the PR has been successful if you don't know what success looks like. Your PR campaign should help you achieve your business goals: so if you want to increase sales, the PR should help bring leads in; but if your goal is to raise finance, then the work you undertake should raise your profile to the investment community, communicating and enhancing the value of your business. Know your audience It is vital to define whom you need to reach to achieve your goals. Once you have found your audience, you need to spend time getting to know them. What will motivate them to act in the way you want them to? How do they want to hear about your news and information? How can you make your news interesting to them? Hone your message Once you know your goals and your audience, you are ready to get your message right. Your message is how you want to be known and seen externally and should be a blend of what you want to say and what your audience wants to hear. To develop your message you need to work out what is different about you and how you can describe and demonstrate that. Your message can be ambitious and describe the kind of company youd like to be, but it needs to be based on reality. You must try to achieve the tricky task of making your message aspirational yet truthful; anticipated yet different. Meet the media Whether its traditional or social media, you need to understand the places that your audience goes to find out information. If its traditional media then spend some time getting to know the top ten or twelve publications and journalists in your sector, understand what they consider to be news and look for ways that they will write about you even when you dont have news. With social media first look at the tools youll need and spend time understanding how the community interacts. Determine what the biggest discussion areas are and how you can become part of the community. But remember, social media is not the place to blatantly

advertise your product and company; instead it is about listening and engaging. Creating your own PR programme takes thought, time and perseverance, but almost any small or medium-sized business could do it inhouse if they chose to.

Keys to PR Success
PR Strategies forges strong partnerships with its clients. PR Strategies brings value to your business through: -Strong relations with information technology (IT) media contacts -Knowledge and experience in the IT industry

-Keen ability to discern how a vendors news fits into a publications mission PR Strategies achieves the best results when a client can deliver the following: -Defined business and marketing objectives -Consistent, frequent repetition of corporate messages -Long term marketing vision with shorter term milestones -Flexibility to change with market dynamics

PR Services
PR Strategies must understand your business model and key business objectives in order to define the right mix of PR services to accomplish your goals. PR Strategies can provide the following types of services to promote your business and to produce the most favorable outcomes: Media Audit: -Determine what publications your customers are reading -Research and present findings on competitors' media coverage -Identify trends and key themes that publications are covering related to your product category Messaging & Content Development: -Develop strategic messages that support marketing & business objectives -Write a variety of communiqus for key audiences (e.g., press releases, white papers, presentations, contributed articles, case studies, Q&As, blogs, Web pages, etc.) Media Training: -Present media theories and techniques -Prepare key messages -Role play Media Relations: -Identify publications for media coverage -Identify media contacts and what they deem newsworthy -Proactively contact media with news and ideas for articles Analyst Relations: -Prepare ongoing communications for engaging analysts on news related to corporate growth, product strategy, technology roadmaps, customer acquisitions and contract wins

What Clients Are Saying About PR Strategies

Since working with PR Strategies we have consistently achieved greater visibility than our competition. PR Strategies is really making a difference for us in the marketplace thanks to its creativity, strategy, relationships and results-oriented attitude. -Amalia Revilla, VP of Marketing, Streamcore
PR

Strategies achieved excellent media coverage for our company, which really helped Exinda Networks to become a well known, respected vendor in the U.S. WAN optimization market. -Con Nikolouzakis, CEO, Exinda Networks PR Strategies finds creative ways to put startup companies on the map. Ive been very pleased with both the quantity and quality of the media coverage they have achieved for one of our portfolio companies. -Firas Raouf, Partner, OpenView Venture Partners I highly recommend PR Strategies. This companys approach to PR resulted in great media coverage that helped prospective customers understand the true value of working with Cisco and our key partners. -Mike Kay, Marketing Manager, Cisco Systems PR Strategies helped us define our corporate positioning in the early days of the company. As a result, weve differentiated our network security products with clear, consistent messaging throughout all of our marketing tools. -Scott Palmquist, Senior Vice President, CipherOptics