Trade or Consumer PR?

So you’re considering launching a PR campaign to help you raise your company’s profile – great decision. But are you clear on who your ideal target audience is?

When planning a PR campaign there are several factors brands should consider but deciding if they need to communicate to a trade or consumer audience is one of the most fundamental.

Consumer audience

If a brand is selling directly to the general public, either through its own website or through retailers, then it will need to have a consumer PR strategy aimed atbuilding profile and brand awareness amongst its target market.

The shape that consumer strategy will take may depend largely on the objectives and on the sector the brand operates in. It will make sense to explore agencies with specific experience in e-commerce, food and drink, financial, health and wellbeing, fashion or automotive.

If the brand is selling primarily online then a consumer digital PR campaign will also help to build links to optimise the site in search rankings.

Consumer campaigns are often multi-faceted and integrated into wider marketing disciplines such as content marketing and social media strategies.

Trade audience

But if a brand sells to businesses it will want to focus its marketing efforts on a B2B PR campaign or a trade campaign. These campaigns put the brand’s news and key messages in front of a trade audience.

That trade audience may be business publications and can be specific to the particular trade or profession of the client brand.

Trade campaigns can also help to establish a brand as a thought leader within their own industry and can help them attract investors as well as establishing themas a destination employer – something that can massively help when it comes to recruiting talent.

These campaigns can encompass much more than just media relations. They can also help position you as leaders by winning industry awards.They may suggest producing a podcast or video for you. And when there’s bad news to communicate the agency may suggest a crisis communications strategy.

Trade campaigns can also help to establish brands as leaders when it comes to innovations in their own particular field or sector.

When selecting a PR agency to work with brands should carefully consider which audience they want to communicate with. If they want to reach as many people as possible then they should select an agency with experience of delivering mass market media campaigns.

If on the other hand they wish to be much more targeted with their communications and only want to reach a particular segment of the market or a target demographic then they may wish to consider an agency with specialist knowledge of that particular field.

Briefing an agency

Once you are clear on exactly who it is you wish to communicate with then you will need to think about what you want to convey. What the objectives of your campaign will be and what it is you wish to achieve.

We have put together a handy guide on how to brief a PR agency which you may find useful before you take the step of actually contacting an agency.

We are also happy to answer any questions you may have so if you’re thinking of potentially hiring an agency why not take up our offer of a free 30 minute planning session with one of our senior team.

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