More Avenues for Leveraging Good Public Relations | Travel Research Online

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More Avenues for Leveraging Good Public Relations

Your personality is at the heart of media public relations. When the public reads an article about your agency, they engage you as an individual, not as a faceless company. The encounter is intensely personal and carries an authority an advertisement cannot because the brand of the media acts as a testimonial to your expertise. When a consumer sees an advertisement, there is a large credibility gap to be overcome – the ad merely says what the company professes. When a consumer reads an article about you, however, the depth of the encounter is significantly greater due to the third-party context of the media.


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Once you have achieved a media placement, however, you must ensure the message is seen by as many people as possible before the novelty of the news goes stale.  This week we are looking at ways you can manage the distribution of your well-deserved PR. Today, we look at how you can use email to spread the word.

Step Five: Broadcast Emails

Good media placement is a cause for celebration!  Put together an email announcing the placement and send it to your database.  Link to the original placement and encourage the members of your email list to share it with their friends as well. Don’t stop at customers.  Be sure to include your own suppliers as well.  You want the tour companies, cruise lines, BDMs and other members of your host agency or consortia to know of your placement.  You never know where your next opportunity may arise, so learn to blow your own horn!

Step Six: Your Email Signature Block

Just below your email signature block, insert a line that links to the media placement: “As Featured in USA Today or “Read About ABC Agency in Conde Nast Traveler“. This is a very low key way to self-promote, but one which will have wide currency.  Because most of your business emails are transactional or relational, as opposed to promotional, the context of the email allows you to quietly promote without seeming overtly commercial.

Tomorrow: Spreading the Message Verbally

 

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