Being a public relations professional means you’ll be drafting press releases, pitching stories to media, and handling social media for various brands. A public relations job requires you to be a jack of all trades, but you’ll most likely be specializing in one area, such as writing or social media. The other areas you’ll need to be familiar with include pitching stories to media, designing press releases, and analyzing marketing performance. For this blog post, we’ll discuss some of the general writing samples you should have in your arsenal as a public relations professional. We’ll cover topics including:
Beginner’s Luck
If you’re just starting your career in PR, don’t worry, you’re not alone in this world! Beginner’s luck is often a necessary trait in any field, but it’s especially important in public relations. If you’ve ever worked in retail or customer-facing positions, you know that sometimes the simplest tasks become overwhelming. Your job as a PR pro is simply to simplify those tasks for the company, so you can focus on the more complex parts of your job, like pitching stories to media or analyzing marketing performance. With a little bit of luck, you can accomplish all of this, while also helping your team and department to grow. That’s what being a PR pro is all about!
Copywriting
One of the first things a potential employer will ask about is your copywriting skills. If you’re unfamiliar, copywriting (also known as marketing writing or persuasive writing) is the branch of writing that specializes in creating marketing and sales copy to be used by salespeople, marketers, and businesses to attract customers and persuade them to buy products or services. A good copywriter should be able to craft compelling sales pitches, product descriptions, and ad copy that will engage customers and drive them to take action. Good copywriters also need to be able to understand the target audience’s language, and how they think. If you’re wondering, “What is public relations and marketing?”, read on. You’ll have a better idea!
Editing
Whether you’re a seasoned editor or just starting out, having an eye for grammar, style, and punctuation is an invaluable skill to have. Every detail counts in PR, and having an experienced eye to help catch mistakes before they go live is extremely beneficial. After all, you never know when a mistake will end up being used in a headline or story. Sometimes the simplest tasks can become overwhelming, especially if you’re working solo or part-time. For a small business owner or entrepreneur who’s trying to keep their head above water, having an experienced pair of eyes to help is truly invaluable. Even for experienced journalists, copyediting is an essential final step to making sure everything is perfect before publication.
News Release
A news release is the basic skeleton of a PR campaign, usually consisting of four paragraphs of text, followed by a short summary or comment section. Your job as a PR pro is to take a press release, written by a member of the marketing department and fine-tune it for maximum impact on the target audience. Before you start editing the news release, ask yourself:
- Does the release provide vital information about the company or initiative?
- Is it accurate?
- Does the headline grab the reader’s attention?
- Is the copy easy to understand?
Once you’ve got your edits done, format the release as you’d like it to appear on a piece of equipment such as a newspaper or magazine, and send it off to the media-house that will publish it.
Keep an eye out for any mistakes as you’re going through the press release, and be sure to proof-read before sending it out. Once the article or series of articles is published, it’s out there for the world to see, and that’s what matters most to you as a public relations professional.
Pitching-Kit
If you’ve ever written a pitch for marketing purposes, then you already have a head start on your career as a public relations professional. Pitching is simply presenting your idea or initiative to an audience of one or more people, to convince them to take action. To do this effectively, you need to develop a pitch kit, which will consist of everything you need to bring to the table. At a minimum, you’ll need a well-written proposal or pitch, followed by a few examples of compelling marketing material. Some pitch kits also include a template for a pitch letter. If you’re wondering, “What is marketing?”, read on.
Marketing Plan
Marketing plans are similar to news releases, except that they’re much briefer, and do not include a comment section. Your job as a PR pro is to develop a plan for the company’s marketing efforts, analyzing existing data and coming up with a set of goals and objectives for the next six months. A good plan will consist of everything from analyzing the competition to coming up with ideas for marketing campaigns and buying ads. It can also include things like keyword research, and even an analysis of social media performance. Some businesses will also include things like an analysis of customer feedback to help improve their products and services. With a solid marketing plan in place, the next step is to work backwards, coming up with specific tasks to accomplish by the end of the year. This plan will be a living document, and you’ll need to revisit it at least once every six months to make sure it’s still relevant and up-to-date.
Analysis of Media Coverage
You’ll most likely end up doing a lot of data gathering and analysis as a public relations professional. Without strong analysis skills, it’s difficult to know how much impact your campaigns are having. Having access to media coverage is essential, whether you’re analyzing the results of an ad campaign or pitching piece, or even just checking in to see how successful your social media efforts are. To effectively analyze media coverage, you’ll need the following:
- Curate a media list, which includes all relevant media that could possibly cover your company, the product you promote, or the event you organize.
- Study the content of each article or blog post, analyzing both the language and structure for each piece.
- Curate a story map, which will help you visualize the most effective distribution channels for your story.
Having a clear idea of how well-covered a topic is, and what parts of the coverage you should focus on, is critical to knowing how effective your efforts are. With journalists always on the lookout for a new lead, and digital nomads who work remotely taking the summer off to pursue their dreams, your campaigns could be affected by changes to the publishing schedule, resulting in you not being the first one to know about all your campaigns.
To ensure you’re getting the most out of your public relations efforts, regularly analyze both how many people are reading your publications or watching your social media channels, and how engaged those people are in your content. Not only will this information help you gauge the effectiveness of your campaigns, but it will also provide you with the data you need to continually improve.