Role of PR in franchise business

Public Relations is widely known as PR. It is a multi-faceted discipline, which is used as a marketing tool to promote and create awareness of your brand. The prospect seeking attention may be an individual, an institution, a political party or a business house. So when you have decided to do franchising, it is important to reach out to a spectrum of audience and aspiring entrepreneurs about your franchise business.

As a franchisor, you may have to hire a PR agency that would build up and execute your franchise business plan in an effective way. Public relations should constitute a key component in your marketing mix. Srinivasan Sudarshan, Owner, Prognosis PR says, “The aim of a PR agency is to popularise the brand by ensuring its presence and enhancing its global lineage.” It is essential to develop effective PR strategies, which is not possible without a good PR professional.

Prepare PR plan

When you start offering franchise, you may have to take into consideration many key points. Primarily, project your business as the paramount franchise opportunity by emphasising on its finest prospects. This is what your PR professional is going to do for you. He would take care of all your publicity needs and advise you the right strategies to be adopted from time to time. He is going to draw a blue print of your PR programme and suggest you about the mode of media to be adopted and features of  business to be projected, and how often?. Let us discuss in detail.

Press Release:

The PR agency is entrusted to write the press release, which introduces the profile of the business and its prospects through media to a wide variety of audience and prospective investors. A PR professional has the knack to make full use of the traditional 5Ws and 1H (who, what, when, where, why and how) which is an essential aspect of the press release.

Whom to contact and where to send

As a franchisor, you may not have the list of contact details of journalists and editors. But a public relations officer has a long distribution list that incorporates the names of journalists of local and national media. When you are through with the script, the next step is to find the accurate media to disseminate your message. The circulation of newspapers, magazines, their availability, ratings of internet websites affect the readability and accessibility of the news. Therefore, it is important to place it in the right media, such as newspapers, magazines, radio or internet. Once the list is prepared, it is time to send the press releases to the concerned media agency to place it in the available and accessible media that reaches to your target audiences (aspiring entrepreneurs).

When to repeat and how often:

Like in advertisement, repetition is the key to success in press releases also. A franchisor has to come up with new stories to promote himself and his business. The success increases with the increasing coverage of media. So, keep sending your news stories on a regular basis until you achieve your desired goal.

An effectual PR strategy is the foundation of a successful franchise system as it helps you reach the entrepreneurs who are looking to invest in a franchise. So, start your franchise business by using PR as a part of marketing strategy to create and retain the awareness among the target audience.