I think people often hear, “Oh, you need some PR,” but at that point they don’t truly understand what PR actually is or what it can do for a business. So, why do you need PR, what are the PR benefits, and how do you know where to start when it comes to creating a PR strategy?
Let’s break it down so it’s a little more digestible.
What is PR?
We often find at VerriBerri that when potential clients come to us, they all have a different idea of what PR is and how it works. A lot of people believe PR is advertising, while others mistake it for social media or marketing as a whole.
For us, PR, or public relations, is about building your brand’s reputation in the right way, with the right audience, and maintaining how your business is perceived from the outside. It’s not a paid advert or a social media post. It’s about securing targeted placements in relevant publications, positioning you as an expert, and making sure your brand is seen in the places that matter.
Ultimately, PR for businesses is about creating a positive presence, raising awareness of who you are and what you do, and giving people a reason to find out more. Whether that’s visiting your website, enquiring about your services, or following your journey, good public relations helps build that curiosity and trust over time.
The biggest misconception is that PR is only for huge brands with massive budgets. In reality, businesses of all sizes can benefit from a well-planned PR strategy. Whether you’re a start-up launching a new product or an established business looking to increase credibility, PR always has a place.
How does it work?
This is probably the question we get asked the most.
A PR strategy starts with identifying what makes your business newsworthy. Journalists aren’t looking to publish sales pitches; they’re looking for stories, expert opinions, trends, data, and insights that their readers will genuinely find useful.
That’s where PR comes in. We take what’s happening within your business and package it into something that is relevant to the media. That could be a thought leadership article, a comment on a breaking news story, a press release announcing a new launch, or a data-led campaign that uncovers interesting industry trends.
Once that story has been created, it’s pitched directly to journalists and publications that are relevant to your industry. If they’re interested, they’ll feature your business, quote you as an expert, or include your story within their publication.
The process is much more relationship-driven than people realise. A good PR agency spends years building contacts with journalists across different sectors, understanding what they write about, and knowing how to pitch ideas that stand out in a busy inbox.
It’s also important to remember that PR isn’t always about national headlines. Sometimes the most valuable coverage comes from niche industry publications where your ideal customers are already reading and engaging.
What are the PR Benefits?
As briefly touched on, the PR benefits can feel endless for your business. It’s about much more than simply seeing your name in the press.
- Positive brand awareness – The more your business appears in trusted publications, the more familiar your brand becomes. People are much more likely to remember a business they’ve seen featured in a magazine, newspaper, or online publication than one they’ve only seen through advertising.
- Builds credibility and trust – Being featured in respected media outlets gives your business third-party validation. Instead of you saying you’re an expert, someone else is recognising your expertise, and that carries much more weight with potential customers.
- Potential backlinks supporting your SEO and GEO – PR doesn’t just support your reputation; it can also support your digital presence. Many online publications include backlinks to your website, which can strengthen your SEO. As search continues to evolve with AI-powered search experiences and generative engine optimisation (GEO), authoritative media mentions are becoming increasingly valuable.
- Drives traffic to your website and brand – Good public relations creates interest. If someone reads an article where you’ve shared useful insights or commented on a topic they care about, they’re much more likely to click through to your website to learn more about your business.
- Positions you as an expert – Thought leadership is a huge part of modern PR for businesses. Sharing your knowledge consistently helps establish you as someone people trust within your industry, whether that’s customers, journalists, or even potential partners.
- Supports long-term business growth – One piece of coverage can lead to another. Journalists often come back to businesses they trust for future stories, meaning PR can become an ongoing opportunity rather than a one-off win.
Where do I start with my PR strategy?
This can often be the difficult part. How do you package your brand? What conversations do you want to be part of? And how do you reach the right people?
This is often why many businesses choose to work with a PR agency. A PR agency already has established media contacts across multiple industries, invests in software that supports media outreach, monitors the news daily for relevant opportunities, and knows how to turn ideas into stories that journalists actually want to cover.
A strong PR strategy starts by understanding your goals. Are you trying to launch a product? Raise awareness of your brand? Build your founder profile? Increase website traffic? All of these goals require slightly different PR approaches.
Once those goals are clear, you can begin creating content that supports them consistently rather than waiting until you have a company announcement to share.
Thought leadership matters more than ever
Press releases definitely aren’t a thing of the past. They’re still incredibly useful for company news, product launches, business milestones, and updates to technology or services.
However, they can no longer be the only form of PR if you’re looking for consistent coverage and want to dominate industry publications.
Editorial content and thought leadership need to lead your PR strategy. Journalists are always looking for expert opinions, educational content, predictions, and commentary that add value for their readers. By providing genuine insight rather than promoting your services, you become a trusted source they’re more likely to return to.
The businesses that consistently appear in the media are often the ones that are contributing to wider industry conversations rather than only talking about themselves.
Data-led PR is changing the game
Data is king in today’s world.
People want to see evidence, statistics, and trustworthy information that backs up a story. A strong piece of data can immediately grab attention, start conversations, and give journalists a reason to cover your business.
At our PR agency, VerriBerri, we work with clients to build data-led PR campaigns that generate multiple pieces of coverage from a single campaign. We develop the angles, create the questions that will uncover interesting insights, analyse the results, and package that data into stories that are genuinely newsworthy.
This approach not only helps secure media coverage but also gives businesses valuable content they can repurpose across blogs, social media, email marketing, and their wider marketing strategy.
When data is combined with expert commentary, it becomes an incredibly powerful PR tool.
Should I manage PR myself or use a PR agency?
There’s no right or wrong answer.
Some businesses have internal marketing teams that are able to build and deliver a PR strategy themselves. If you have the time to research journalists, monitor the news, create content, and manage media relationships consistently, it’s absolutely something you can begin implementing internally.
However, PR is also incredibly time-consuming. Building relationships with journalists doesn’t happen overnight, and knowing what makes a story newsworthy takes experience.
Working with a PR agency gives you access to those relationships, that creativity, and that strategic thinking from day one. It also means someone is proactively looking for opportunities for your business, rather than waiting for opportunities to come to you.
Public Relations – The Next Steps
Whether you’re reading this thinking, “This is something we could start doing internally,” or you’re intrigued and know you want to build a stronger brand presence with the support of an experienced PR agency, the next step is actually quite simple.
Make the move.
Have that meeting with your team. Start thinking about the stories your business has to tell. Look at the conversations happening within your industry and ask where your expertise fits.
And if you’re looking for a team that lives and breathes public relations, we’d love to help.
At VerriBerri, we create PR strategies that are tailored to your business, your industry, and your goals. From thought leadership and press releases to data-led campaigns and reactive media opportunities, we help businesses build credibility, raise awareness, securing coverage that delivers long-term PR benefits.
Book a discovery call with the VerriBerri team today, and let’s build the PR strategy your business deserves.