Reach out to your TG

A vital part of PR is determining who your public is – that is, your Target Group (TG).  After all, PR is a targeted approach to reach your clients’ messages to those people, who should notice them. So, a key tool for achieving this is clearly, a defined target audience. This way, PR professionals will be able to target their efforts for optimum results.

Your target group boils down to who you are speaking to – the people most likely to be interested in what your business offers. Understanding your target group is about determining who might be looking out for your product or service.

Your TG or ‘publics’ could be a variety of people – customers (potential or past), shareholders, media, the government, employees and more. It’s important, particularly in PR, to identify who your target audience is – to help you direct your messages and communication to the right people in the right way, that is meaningful to them. Once you have identified your target audience you can create a PR strategy to communicate with them. This will help you to build a relationship with them, encourage them to become customers, build their brand awareness and ultimately increase your sales.

Here are some ways to help you reach your TG or ‘publics’.

• Pitch to the media your TG uses

To help build your brand profile and awareness, being seen by your target audience in the media can help. Your target audience is likely to read publications which interest them such as –  newspapers, magazines or trade publications. Or even websites or blogs. You can use PR tactics to get your business/client featured in select media, thus increase chances of being seen by your TG.

Research and discover the kinds of publications your target audience reads and the journalists who cover the beats. You can then pitch a story idea to a journalist and suggest a spokesperson from your client’s side, who can be projected as an expert to be interviewed on this topic. This extends your storytelling opp for your client. The story idea must be “newsworthy” and relevant to the publication. Apart from this, you could also write an expert article on this topic (it can be a feature too) and pitch it to the publication.

• Look out for speaking opportunities

Speaking at events and conferences can be an effective way of getting visibility in front of your target audience. Here too, research extensively on conferences, seminars and events your target audience usually attends. You can then pitch your client to the organisers of the event, so that he/she can speak on a particular topic in their area of expertise (that’s also relevant to the event). This is a great way to build brand awareness; plus, you can also mix with your target audience directly after the panel discussion or presentation.

• Engage on social media: build conversations

With everyone already on social media, it’s likely your target audience is already active on social media, which is also a direct, cost-effective way to engage people in conversations with the business. Find out which social media channels your target audience uses the most and start engagement like creating profiles on these channels. You can then encourage your audience to follow you. It could be in many ways like – adding social media buttons to your website, or sending them an email inviting them to connect with you. It’s all about conversations here, so you can start conversations with your target audience by posting content they would be interested in, asking them questions, replying to their comments and more.

• Boost your SEO

Searching for products or services is usually done by people by using online search engines such as Google. To get seen by your potential customers, it’s important for your website to appear on top of the page, in search engine results. Some of the ways you can improve the search engine optimisation of your website include –  regularly adding new content, adding the right keywords, creating back links to your website and sharing your content on social media.
So the conclusion is – to help you reach your target audience, make sure to include these tactics in your PR strategy. In the long run, you will also achieve your communication goals.

Shree Lahiri

Shree is the Senior Editor at Reputation Today and hopes to move from one focus area to another in the editions that will be released this year. Having worked in Corporate Communications teams, she has experience of advertising, public relations, investor and employee communications, after which she moved to the other side – journalism. She enjoys writing and believes the power of the pen is indeed mighty. Covering the entertainment beat and the media business, she has been involved in a wide range of activities that have thrown open storytelling opportunities.

She can be reached at: @shree_la on twitter