Leveraging Good Public Relations | Travel Research Online

Image
Image

Leveraging Good Public Relations

One of the best possible things to happen to a travel practice is to get a much deserved bit of good PR.  A positive public relations media placement ensures more people will hear about your travel practice in a forum providing near instant credibility. The third-party aspect of public relations has the same impact as a testimonial – people inherently trust the experience of others more than self promotion.

As we have discussed in the past, public relations is seldom a happy accident. Typically, a news article, an on-air interview or other media coverage of your agency will be the result of a long series of strategic and tactical planning and effort.  Members of TRO’s travel professional community have had articles in almost every major publication including USA Today, MSNBC, The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, Budget Travel, Yahoo, etc. Once an article or interview about your agency sees the light of day, however, there is more work to be done. This week we are going to discuss ten follow-ups to public relations you should take to ensure you obtain the maximum benefit from the exposure.

 


This 365 Marketing and Sales Tip is provided free to the travel agent community by: Click Here!

A follow-up plan has two important goals.  Firstly, you want to ensure as many people as possible see the public relations placement.  Secondly,  you want to extend the shelf life of the placement as long as possible.  The second goal is more tricky, because even good news quickly becomes old.  Therefore, it’s important for you to act as quickly as possible after your PR effort first bears fruit.

Step One: Social Media

Post links to the interview on all of your social media channels. Be sure to use some type of tracking mechanism such as https://bitly.com so you can determine the success of your efforts.  Introduce the media placement with a brief introductory sentence or two and be sure to show your enthusiasm for the placement.  Importantly, however, don’t indicate you cannot believe your good fortune!  You have earned the placement, you deserve it.  Thus, make your introduction enthusiastic, but confident.

Step Two: Repeat the Placement on your Website

Your website remains your 24 hour a day marketing tool.  Ensure your media placement is given prominent positioning on your site and even consider giving it home page status.  You can certainly place it on your “Press” page if you have one, but many clients will not see it there.

Tomorrow: Spreading the word

 

Share your thoughts on “Leveraging Good Public Relations”

You must be a registered user and be logged in to post a comment.