Most brands know that “me, me, me” messages don’t resonate with the media or their audiences, but they may struggle to replace them with “you, you, you” ones.

As Andrew Davis at Content Marketing World so eloquently put it, they’ve yet to shift the center of their PR universes to the customer. They’re trying, but it isn’t an easy thing to do.

Center of Your PR Universe

Still, they must try. They have to look at their brands objectively and understand that they’re a microcosm in their customers’ universes. The only way they’ll be found and landed upon is if they offer the right message at the right time.

The word “offer” is important; brands can’t force customers down a path they aren’t yet ready to journey. Their customers are in charge of charting a path to them, yet brands aren’t left to drift in space. They can use messages like news releases, blog posts, and social media updates to inspire customers to act and to seek safety with them from the next impending asteroid storm.

Think like a customer.

Think Like Customers - PR and Content Marketing

To craft PR messages that are shared and acted upon, you have to understand your customers. What do they want to do? If they want to travel across the galaxy, why do they want to do that? Who do they want to be? Find the larger story within your product and service and share that. Inspire action by sharing the stories that touch emotions and show what is possible to accomplish.

Always seek to create valuable content.

Create Value - PR Content Marketing

Even if you’re writing a news release, you can add value. You have content assets that could supplement your release. You have quotes from satisfied customers. You have datasheets that contain information pertinent to decision makers. You may even have video testimonials. Use those things to add value and spark interest.

Valuable content, not cut-and-dry news releases, increases demand for the product or service you sell. It’s what will cause customers to seek safe haven with you rather than a competitor.

Valuable content, too, drives awareness and interest. If you want to attract attention, you have to create content that entertains, informs, or awes. The first and third get shared the most often, but the second is integral to drawing customers further into your orbit.

Want more content marketing tips? Check out Ann Handley’s free on-demand webinar, “Writing Rules in PR” now!

Track the trends.

Google Trends - PR and Content Marketing

Customers may be in charge of the purchasing journey, but you can steer them in the right direction. Monitor trends, events, and keywords; create content around those three things; and guide customers home with it.

Some tools to use include Twitter and Google Trends. If you’re the pilot of your planet’s spaceship, Twitter and Google Trends are your co-pilots.

Monitor the pathways.

Monitor - Content Marketing PR

Customers come to you for all sorts of reasons, but they tend to find and follow the paths of least resistance. Identify those paths and monitor your customers’ trajectory. You can then segment the paths by those behaviors and fine-tune them so that more and more customers take them.

If you want to create PR that brings the media and customers to your home planet, review who’s at the center of your PR universe. If it’s anyone other than your customers, it’s time to consider a change in perspective and action.

Images: European Southern Observatory, Hubble Heritage (Creative Commons)

About

Erin Feldman is the director of editorial services at Tenacity5 Media. When she isn’t researching, writing, and editing blog posts and white papers, she writes poetry and essays, draws her favorite Write Right character, and plans what art form to study next. She’s based in Austin, Texas and can be found on Twitter @erinmfeldman.