For PR pros, it's no longer just about telling a brand's story, but instead making sure that it's shared by the right voice on the right channel to reach the right audience. The PR Net founder Lisa Smith joined Launchmetrics CMO Alison Bringé for a deep dive into the data, trends and strategies driving the evolution of PR today. ⁠

The takeaways:

• PR needs to show its ROI, and comms pros need to embrace the data to show the benefits of our work
• Owned media has strengthened over the last few fashion seasons
• While in-person events are definitely back, digital offers incredible opportunities to reach larger audiences in disparate locations and often in a cost-effective way
• Brands are still successfully employing a hybrid model, featuring both a physical event with a select guest list, and a digital screening
• Localization is crucial: brands must create unique content for region-specific channels to connect with their audience in a more personalized manner
• Invest in a quality translation to help global users discover and shop your product (via social or ecomm). Poor translation can do real damage to a brand
• Make sure that the images and visuals you use are culturally relevant and representative of the people you’re trying to reach
• Confirm that you’re on the right social platforms and marketplaces and optimizing for the right search engines; Google isn’t the top search engine everywhere
• Invest in SEM and SEO keyword strategies BEFORE you go live in a new market, as people search differently all over the world
• Over 80% of publishing houses in the US use affiliate marketing to generate revenue, which is easy to track / you’ll have tangible sales results
• Always track your social media hits
• Tip: get access to your brands’ Google analytics (or have someone on the team share key metrics with you)
• Not all PR results are trackable – you’re influencing what’s in people’s minds and their purchasing behaviors aren’t always able to be traced
• Stay on top of trending areas where you can not only become more valuable to your organization or clients, but you can also grow new areas of your business (i.e. NFTs, cannabis, sustainability)