Actions speak louder than words. That’s a phrase we’ve all heard. It was probably first uttered to us by a parent or teacher when they were suggesting that it was not good enough to say you were sorry, you had to show true remorse. The meaning behind that phrase extends into marketing these days as consumers are wanting to look behind the curtain to see if brands really mean what they say. 

If your brand is preparing for a post-COVID resurgence, whenever it may come, it’s important to consider a marketing plan that strikes the right tone with your employee, consumer or business audience. It’s vitally important that messages are authentic to the brand, and that they hit audiences where their core values are aligned. 

As an example of what we mean by actions speaking louder than words, we don’t have to look very far. More brands today are stepping up to signal their support for ending racism and growing equitable opportunities for Black people.  

It’s one thing to say that you believe in ending racism, but how do you prove it? Are you contributing time, money or expertise in a way that helps to solve issues and problems? Is a core element of your business designed in a way that supports historically disadvantaged people or groups? Are you prepared to change the way you do business, your hiring practices or your approach to align with your marketing? 

If you can answer a quick yes to any of those questions and add substance behind it, then you are putting words into action. However, a word of warning – if there is no “meat on the bone” and if you can’t prove how you support something, don’t bother talking about it.   

Words without actions are meaningless in general, but especially more so today when audiences are more digitally savvy and want to build relationships with brands they can trust.  It’s our belief that in the post-COVID world, consumer and business audiences will want to be aligned with brands that create meaningful engagements, that are human and that are as big on substance as they are on words. 

If you don’t have the substance that backs up what you support, take advantage of this time to operationalize that support. Think about what it looks like, what’s meaningful to your audience, and put effort and money behind it. If you aren’t comfortable giving voice to your support, remember that now is a great time to rethink your marketing and messaging to determine if your message is still relevant and that it continues to resonate with your audience. 

Most importantly, take the time to look inside your operations as well. Your employees are your brand’s largest organic influencers and they will be the first to speak up if your marketing and reality don’t match. Employees are also a great resource for identifying issues and concerns before they become reputational risks, so don’t be afraid to engage and empower them to help move your business forward. 

Words are important and here are some quick tips to put them into action:  

1. Engage your entire team. Diversity of thought is as important now as ever. And, it’s just the right thing to do to ensure everyone on the team has a voice and seat at the table.

    

2. Add meat to the bone by determining ways you can operationalize your brand beliefs and values. As an example, if diversity is important to your brand, how is it operationalized in your business? 

3. Engage with your customers to better align your messaging and operations around what is important to them. 

As always, we’re here to help you think about how to make your words and actions more meaningful to your employees or customers.  

Myth 1: PR is only for the bad times.

Public Relations can serve a variety of purposes in a marketing toolbox, but its main one is tactfully building and managing a brand’s reputation. A good general rule of thumb in the PR world is that consistency builds trust in a product or service, and that trust is what draws in and ultimately motivates customers to keep coming back. This customer loyalty is especially crucial when a brand receives negative attention.

Crisis management is often misconstrued as a reactive process, but in reality, it’s a very proactive approach. PR professionals are constantly working to help create and maintain a positive reputation for their clients in ways that include highlighting people and initiatives that help drive the brand’s narrative, spreading the word about important client news and programs or planning events that help bring together members of the client’s audience and community. All of this work to build a trustworthy brand image helps ensure that, if the brand has a misstep, customers would still be willing to back it up and stand beside it in times of turbulence.

Myth 2: PR has no value because it’s not quantifiable.

Unlike many industries today, the currency of public relations is something that can’t always be easily translated into tangible numbers. A public relations professional deals in credibility and strength of relationships rather than dollars and cents. However, there are a few different ways to measure the value of a PR strategy, such as the amount of media coverage secured surrounding a client’s product or service.

But these measurements are far more valuable than a dollar amount can represent, because the coverage is earned — not purchased. The third-party validation that comes with earned media adds an extra layer of credibility that can’t be bought. So while there aren’t always hard statistics to determine the success of a campaign, what you do receive is far more valuable: trust. Earning and maintaining the trust of the public is absolutely priceless.

Myth 3: PR stands for Press Release

Press releases are to public relations as a Happy Meal is to McDonald’s: while it’s a popular item, it’s certainly not the only thing on the menu. Likewise, press releases and media relations are only a small part of what PR is or what it can do. Public relations encompasses reputation building and management. It’s developing an internal communication plan, a crisis management plan or a social media strategy. It’s engaging in content marketing, event planning, relationship building and influencer marketing. It’s generating ideas to grow your reach, identify and segment your audience and target them precisely.

PR professionals can bolster your image by booking you at events and entering you in awards, and they can cement your reach and position by a shrewd combination of earned, owned and, in some cases, paid media. Can your press release do all of that?

Myth 4: Anyone Can Do It

Just because you can drive a car, fill it with gas or even change the oil, doesn’t mean you can fix a broken transmission — not when the alternative is using a trained mechanic! Public Relations is the same way. You may be able to market your brand effectively, but if PR is new to you, bringing in an expert can get you better results with a lot less hassle.

A successful PR approach requires a wide skillset that doesn’t just include writing press releases and pitching to the media. It entails creating a consistent brand by writing well, communicating strategically and effectively, building relationships with media, having extensive knowledge about your (and your client’s) industry, and engaging in audience identification and strategic targeting. And most importantly: it’s about having the time and resources to do all of those things.

Successful public relations efforts take more than just the few minutes you might have to set aside each day — it is a full-time, multifaceted job. So while you may want to do it yourself and bask in the blissful “I got us that coverage!” feeling, it might require giving up your day job to do so.