You know what they say… ‘good things come in fours.’ Ha. We’ll that’s what I’m going with today anyway. Four it is. Because two is too few, three is un-balanced and five might just tip you into a state of overwhelm.
Like anything in life, our micro habits add up to create massive momentum. Our daily behaviours are one of the biggest factors determining our success in life and habits that are daily and automated, become easy. Achieving great PR outcomes is no different. The smallest things done repeatedly add up.
And it’s all those things when done strategically, thoughtfully and systemised that push our businesses forward creating a meaningful impression in someone’s heart and mind about you and your business.
This is called brand perception. And positive perception generates positive awareness, talk-ability and commercial viability. All of this is the main game of public relations.
If you’re striving for more impact and awareness and feeling like your PR efforts (time consuming Instagram posts with little traction for example, or perhaps you’re pitching stories to media ghosts) …well it kinda puts you in the ‘busy fool’ category. Aka busy running in circles, and revving in neutral. If this is a hard relate for you then it’s time to take a step back and incorporate meaningful, high impact yet simple PR habits into your regular routine to help you achieve what it is you need your public relations to help facilitate.
Here are four GREAT simple daily habits to build better PR outcomes.
Daily Habits to Build Great PR Outcomes.
Habit one: Focus on the systems and not the goals.
Create a communications and content system of outputs and automate the process.
Focus on the systems and not the goals. Great PR is focused on ‘brand marketing’ (brand marketing = building multi-channel communications real-estate), not ‘sales marketing’ (sales marketing = conversations).
A goal without a system is unlikely to be achieved in the first place, but also remember that goals are just peg-marks that might not actually change your long-term business outcomes in a meaningful way anyway.
It’s easy to get fixated on old-school PR goals i.e. ‘when I secure this piece of media coverage, then I’ll feel complete,’ and lose sight of what might be far better use of your PR time, such as designing and executing daily on your content stories that undoubtedly build brand and in the long-game, business. Get your daily content system in order, and take comfort in the knowing that every little piece of content real-estate you place in and around your business is helping to cultivate excellent PR.
Habit two: Create content in-line with your values
When your values are unclear, you can easily become unmotivated and squander yourself in the setbacks, forgetting the real reason you started your whole shebang anyway. And an unmotivated business owner is not good for business.
Whether you’re feeling deflated or not, get insanely clear on your values and your purpose beyond the thing you sell to be catapulted forward no matter how low your mood. Having clear values means you have a well-defined vision for the things that matter most to you.
Secondly if you don’t habitually execute content with your values at the heart, then you’re setting your PR up to fail. It means the people who need what you’ve got most won’t be able to find or see you clearly. People lean into brands that reflect their personal values, make sure yours are showing up. Ultimately, healthy PR comes from producing content (either owned platforms or earned) that clearly align with your values. The more clear, specific, and compelling your values are, the more drawn to them your ideal target audience is likely to be.
Remember too that clarifying your values isn’t just a ‘once and done’ job. We see you with your smash-and-grab value words at the footer of an email! Rather value-led communications is fully immersed in every touch-point in every way – the visuals, the tone-of-voice, the message; all of it everywhere. Values are the back-drop of all intent – the north-star, the guiding ship.
Habit three: Consume content
Yes, that’s right. In order to generate great PR-led content and outcomes, you need to consume content. In order to produce contextual content you need to be across what, how and where things are said. Be it audio, written or visual; it’s an important PR success-trait to consume, multi-channel content each and every day.
In order to reach your audience in a compelling way you need to be a part of the conversation and communication style. What you produce or pitch needs to be contextual and relevant. If you aren’t familiar with the media, comms and content landscape you need to build in the daily habit of reading the news and consuming content in the niche you want to show up in.
If you’re genuinely not interested or don’t have the capacity; it might be the time you consider outsourcing your PR stat. Because PR pros naturally and energetically live and breathe content – across all of the platforms, all of the places, all the time.
We’re not deflated by it we’re energised by knowing what’s happening where and with who. This is how we get clients up the consideration ladder and in the conversation.
It always baffles me when a PR intern rocks up ready to pursue their dream PR life, yet they have no interest in pop-culture across genres and niches, current affairs and politics, social media, influencer and brand activation content. It’s really PR success 101 and an absolute pre-requisite for any professional consultant.
If you want to generate great PR on the back of excellent daily PR habits then you need to consume content and be across the conversation so that you have a chance of being in it.
Habit four: Share your opinion
So you want to be a thought leader or a key person of influence? Have you considered whether you have thoughts you want to share? A differentiating opinion that could lead your community or industry big or small, perhaps? If you don’t, well you might want to consider whether your expectation to be an industry authority is something you’re ready for. But if you do have leading thoughts…what’s stopping you from sharing them?
In order to become a thought leader you need to have thoughts and share them publicly, often. Simple but not easy. Things like imposter syndrome, self-consciousness, lack of confidence, fear of judgement, lack of time; all stop us from putting our thoughts into the world.
Of course a PR pro can help you knock your messaging into shape, style up your vibe, design and publish your content or pitch your ideas to the media for you; the thing is though with the accessibility of smart-phones and democratisation of news and social media; there’s really nothing stopping you from sharing your thoughts, experiences, trials and triumphs, lessons and leadership as party of your regular PR habits, to better position yourself as a thought leader and authority in your field. Thought leadership is accessible to anyone and it’s an important daily habit that refines execution, and cultivates excellent PR outcomes. And it’s free. Doing this on a regular basis helps you overcome the fear by embracing the concept of ‘exposure therapy’ – after a while it gets easier.
The Round-up
The compound effects of healthy habits, performed regularly bring forward the opportunity to make small continuous improvements in business and in life. Developing outcome-based, systemised, thoughtful PR habits is how to win the PR game. On the other hand, bad habits compound negatively. When behaviours are repeated daily, we can either improve or stalemate. Be clear about your ideal outcomes before designing your daily PR habit system. And be sure to integrate some or all of these four beauties to ignite the benefits of lasting, positive PR that will over time, contribute to the possibility of building an enduring brand.
PS: If any of these feel too big for you right now, try experimenting with deliberately and intentionally moving some or all of them forward in very small ways.
For support with securing the PR tools you need in your business to up-level your approach and systemise, be sure to visit our SHOP to browse the PRBYYOU collection of DIY PR products, templates, tools and strategies that we use at raraPR.
Shop our interactive, digital DIY PR product range called PRBYYOU HERE
Words by Jade Roberts
raraPR Founder and Creative Director
raraPR is above all the sum of people who together help build brands and share stories. We are present in our determination to make a positive difference to the world by representing individuals and businesses that are doing good. We are an extension of the personal stories within us, those that we exist for and those within you that need to be heard.
