Strategies for Success in a Shifting Economy
Official figures for the last quarter of 2023 confirmed that the New Zealand economy is experiencing its second recession in eighteen months, ensuring that “cost-of-living crisis” has replaced “pandemic” as the worry du jour. Organisations need to be more careful and creative than ever when it comes to how, when and where they invest their money, but a savvy communications strategy will ensure that they continue to build relationships, foster trust, encourage innovation and maintain visibility.
Customers cannot buy your products or services if they are not aware of them. They probably won’t buy your products or services, even when they are aware of them, if they have no sense of connection to them or the brand they represent, or aren’t clear on the problem they solve. The power of a great communication strategy does not lie solely in its ability to make the customer know something – it also needs to make them FEEL something.
Why does NSPR believe your business needs a digital PR/comms strategy?
Participation in the digital world has become integral to a well-rounded communications strategy – but if you’re a newbie in this space, it can be hard to know how and where to start.
Effective digital PR and communications should encompass a variety of strategies that work together to enhance your organisation’s reputation, visibility and credibility. It looks different for every organisation, but we can help you with:
- Creating and distributing of high-quality, shareable, optimised content including blogs, thought leadership articles, videos and social media posts
- Creating a content hub that sits on your own channels and speaks to your core pillars
- Building relationships with online journalists, influencers, and industry experts
- Pitching ideas and expert commentary to digital media outlets and monitoring online media coverage
- Using social media platforms to engage with your audience, amplify your message and manage your reputation
- Collaborating with influencers and content creators
- Developing tools and strategies for digital crisis management issues and negative publicity
- Using analytics to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of your digital communications strategy
Why does NSPR believe that effective search engine optimisation (SEO) is important for your business?
When someone is looking for information, their journey typically begins with an online search – using a search engine such as Google or, increasingly, via social media platforms. Search engine optimisation is about improving their chances of finding and engaging positively with your brand.
The science and art of SEO can be divided into three areas: technical optimisation, on-site optimisation and off-site optimisation. If your online presence was a house, technical optimisation would relate to its architecture. Is it well constructed and easy to move around, and does it provide a good user experience?
On-site optimisation is about the quality of your content – in other words, what’s visible to customers and to search engines after the house is built. To create high quality content, you need to consider readability, relevance and originality, while incorporating appropriate keywords, meta descriptions and images or video.
Off-site optimisation comes from the activities which help build your brand organically via third-party engagement – aka earned media. When another digital entity (such as a website, online news media or social media account) links to your site, it creates a backlink for your site. From an SEO perspective, backlinks improve your credibility with search engines and in doing so, they boost your visibility in search results.
Why does NSPR view ‘earned media’ as important to your overall digital PR/comms strategy?
Media (both traditional and digital) is comprised of three key areas:
- owned media (digital property created and controlled by you, such as websites, blog sites, social media presence)
- paid media (paid digital content and advertising, including influencer collaborations, pay per click advertising and investment in social media boosting)
- earned media (visibility from unpaid, third-party coverage ranging from press and tv coverage to social media mentions and testimonials).
When your organisation is mentioned in earned news articles, blogs or social media posts, the resulting high-value backlinks serve to improve your search engine ranking and visibility. What’s more, because it comes from independent sources, earned media is a useful and cost-effective method of building that all-important credibility and loyalty for your brand.
Why do I need a communications partner like NSPR?
Given the rapidly evolving natural of the digital media landscape, it’s a good idea to partner with someone who knows their SEO from their SERP. From content creation to social media management and the pitfalls and potential of AI, the NSPR team have the tools and expertise to help organisations navigate the digital communications landscape effectively.
Get in touch if you’d like to discuss how NSPR can create a digital PR strategy for your business.
