Article by Carlo Occhinegro
Activating a Digital Pr effort means telling your story to the media, and doing so requires a strategy tailored and built around the brand.
A suitable path is constructed to meet the set goals and show what the company's true competitive advantage is so that it is clear in mind what elements need to be conveyed through the construction of an overall press release that tells the story and strengths of a company.
However, it is not uncommon for the Digital Pr Manager to find himself in a meeting with a client who prefers to focus on an element that is yes important, but should not be included as a main ingredient within a press note: competitors.
Finding your competitive edge means presenting yourself best to the media
A brand needs to know exactly what sets it apart from others not only in terms of product and service, but also in terms of personnel management, production processes, partnerships entered into, financial history, and the path that led it to be still alive and active in the economic and business ecosystem.
Very often people use the words "market leader," "number 1," and the like because they do not realize what the value and advantage they are really trying to convey.
Because that is what the media is most interested in: knowing what the brand's true added value is, what features set it apart from others, and once that is understood and "translated into news" (this is the task of the Digital Pr Manager), you need to enhance that element within a press release that does not just celebrate, but emphasizes what makes the company unique.
Who are your competitors?
The next step might be to understand what the competitors' narrative is: on which elements have they focused their communication? What, on the other hand, are the areas left uncovered?
But it is necessary to take a step back: who are the competitors?
The situations are often two, totally opposite to each other. There are those who reply, "We have no competitors!" - which is never true, because even if the service is innovative and unique, one has to think about indirect competitors, those who may one day include that product or service in their portfolio-and there are those who know well what their competitors are, but worry a little too much about them because "We do the same thing."
It is not impossible for this to happen, but it is also not totally true: all communication agencies embrace a similar portfolio of services; it is their distinctive detail that drives a client to prefer one over another.
And so it is for those companies that are so similar in their offerings, but are actually divided by different distinctive elements that must be the core Of the press release and all communications to come.
Competitor analysis: knowing their story via media means enhancing one's press release
The final step before writing the first press release, the evergreen one that tells the company's story that will need to be updated over time, is to analyze competitor communications.
One finds in this second step the certainty of having found the real distinguishing feature of the company we need to talk about: analyzing what strengths are stated by competitors is a good move to evaluate one's own and to give them more resonance should they be, data in hand, better.
Having studied how others have presented themselves to the media world then one can point to all those elements that really show how valuable the choice of one brand over another is.
And it is extremely important for both the company and the Digital Pr Manager who will be responsible for talking to the media about his or her client to be clear about what the brand's real strengths are, so as to avoid those phrases like "market leader" that are an invitation for journalists to ignore or trash that email.
Article by Carlo Occhinegro