Digital and influencer marketing have been gaining increasing popularity ever since social media has transformed the entire business world. Many businesses seek the services of influencers to promote their products and services. If you are a business that is beginning to explore the world of influencer marketing, and want to participate but cannot seem to set apart the budget to do so, then a PR gift strategy is what you need.
PR gift boxes are an accessible and somewhat affordable marketing strategy for most businesses and essentially involve the creation and gifting of a carefully curated box full of different items that are sent to a list of influencers with an audience relevant to your customer base. These PR boxes may include a variety of things such as your company’s branded stationery, mugs, candles, personalized tote bags, customized diaries, etc. Given below are the steps you need to follow to create your PR strategy:
Decide your objectives
Similar to how any other marketing strategy works, a PR strategy could only be successful if before its conception you take time to reflect and understand what your business needs to achieve from it.
PR boxes are a great way to build brand awareness, engage a small community, launch a new product, and/or build consumer trust, and if your goals align with the capabilities of a PR strategy, then you should proceed with the next steps.
Select relevant audience and influencers
Since every product has a target market and audience, your PR strategy will have one too. After all, the aim of the PR box you send is not merely something for influencers to consume but for them to promote on their channels and convince audiences to make a purchase.
While deciding on your audience, you may have to look into the product’s characteristics, its relevant audience, and how many of those individuals are indeed present on social media. Depending on your chosen audience, you may have to seek and sort between influencers that seem to have the highest reach among your chosen demographic.
Create a PR list
Once you have selected relevant influencers, the next thing you should do is contact them either through a direct message, email or through their manager. If you are a company starting, making the influencer pay attention to you could be a challenge, and you have to curate your initial message in a way that catches their attention.
In your initial message, be sure to introduce your business and communicate your goals coherently. Also, be sure to try and personalize each message depending on the individual influencer’s personality. A good idea would be to include how your business and its profile can benefit them. Once you receive confirmations from those on board, create a PR list.
Create your PR box
While curating your PR box, you may have to revisit your initial campaign goals. If you are promoting a new launch, then the entire box is going to focus on that new product. However, if you wish to build awareness, you could include a variety of products and relevant gifts in your PR package.
Be sure to include some of your top products in your PR package. For instance, an apparel company could include a few of its best-selling items in each PR package, and even customize the selection depending on each influencer’s taste, preference and size. It may also focus on customized packaging for the PR box and include a few other essentials such as accessories to go along with the clothes, a few pieces of makeup, a gift card, online shopping vouchers, etc.
Complete and monitor the campaign
Once you have sent out all PR packages, be sure to monitor the completion and success of your PR strategy. This may involve visiting each relevant influencer’s profile, assessing their presentation of your PR package, and gauging the customer reaction to it through likes, comments, and shares.
You may also offer exclusive discounts through personalized codes to understand which influencer brought in the most traffic. Some of the performance metrics you may use can include impressions, clicks, increase in your company page’s followers, user-generated content, and sales.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing and PR boxes are an easy-to-achieve way of increasing your brand reach and audience online. By understanding the intricacies of influencer marketing and starting with a humble PR box, you can become a pro in no time