No doubt, marketing is one of your organization’s most important priorities. Are you a public agency trying to keep the public informed about services, policies, or procedures? Are you an equipment provider looking to reach new customers? Are you a consultant hoping to find new clients and strategic partners? It doesn’t matter what type of organization you are, every agency, company, and consultancy needs to constantly be communicating with key constituencies to let them know what they do, how they do it, and why it’s important.
There are numerous elements to any marketing program, and two of the most effective are public relations and digital marketing. PR has always been the most effective way to reach large numbers of people. An article in an industry publication can reach tens of thousands of people with an interest in your project or expertise; a story in a local media outlet can reach hundreds of thousands; and a national placement can reach millions. When you want to demonstrate the superiority of your products, your people, or your services, PR has always been the effective and cost-effective strategy.
Now, technology is raising the bar when it comes to business development and marketing, as digital marketing has become ubiquitous. The advent of social media and emailings and other digital tactics, allow parking organizations to reach stakeholders directly and can dramatically increase the effectiveness of their public relations and marketing programs. By posting coverage on LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter, and other social media platforms, you can reach people in numbers that were unimaginable just a few short years ago. And by using emailings, you can send strategically crafted messages to your most important audiences.
PR guru Bill Smith, and digital marketing practitioner Craig Wilson, both from Smith Phillips Strategic Communications, will offer a presentation titled Getting the Word Out: Leveraging PR and Digital Marketing to Promote Your Organization. In their presentation, Bill and Craig will discuss how public relations and digital marketing can combine to maximize the impact of any parking organization’s marketing effort. They will offer best practice advice on how to create an effective public relations campaign, how to build a robust digital marketing strategy, and how to combine the two to increase the effectiveness of both.