Every marketer knows that the key to any public relations campaign is the human touch. But the reality of the industry is that we need the help of innovative technology to take your public relations strategy to the next level. From media outreach tools to advanced reporting, I’ve compiled my top nine tools for improving and measuring your PR coverage.
CISION
Cision is a holistic public relations management tool. Its platform allows PR professionals to identify influencers, create and track campaigns, and automate reports and analytics. One of its most prominent features is the Influencer Search tool, which enables users to search for influencers, decision-makers, and media contacts from media outlets all over the globe. You can pinpoint these contacts through filters such as contact topic, demographic area, outlet type, and more.
MUCK RACK
A cheaper “all-inclusive” PR management tool, Muck Rack is another great option for PR professionals to keep all of their public relations campaign elements in one place. A key feature of Muck Rack being the ability to create a profile as a contributor to showcase content you have written on multiple platforms.
GOOGLE ALERTS
Google Alerts is a “hidden gem” functionality within the Google G-Suite, allowing you to set up personalized notifications sent directly to your inbox notifying you of trends, interesting topics, or really anything on the internet. For example, you can set up an alert for your clients, which will notify you when the media is talking about them so you can be in the known of any buzz. You can also set up an alert for a trending topic or story. This allows you to take control of your newsfeed and have curated news delivered straight to your inbox.
MELTWATER
MeltWater is one of the most intelligent PR platforms on the market. What sets MeltWater is AI-driven insights. They’re one of the first providers on the market to offer AI-driven media intelligence, ensuring you are always on top of the latest news and trends pertaining to your clients, including tracking impact and sentiment analysis in real time.
COVERAGEBOOK
CoverageBook is a simplified PR reporting tool. It allows you to just copy and paste the links of media placements into the platform, and CoverageBook compiles a visually appealing report that displays valuable metrics including social media shares, estimated coverage views, average domain authority, just to name a few. This tool is essential for agencies who want simplified, accurate reporting for any type of PR coverage, whether it be online or print.
GRAMMARLY
An essential tool for any writer, Grammarly is a virtual writing assistant. This AI-powered product allows you to upload any document or piece of writing, and Grammarly takes a look at it, providing specific recommendations for improvement including spelling errors, plagiarism-check, and word/grammar suggestions. No piece of content, article, or social media posts at Fifth Avenue Brands gets published without the help of Grammarly.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
As a PR professional, chances are you’ve heard of Google Analytics. But are you using it to help measure the impact of your PR campaigns? Set up correctly, Google Analytics allows you to track the number of website or landing page visits a particular media placements yields. This is essential when determining the reach and impact of each media placement.
TRENDKITE
TrendKite is an intelligent communications platform, focused on earned media. Their PR Attribution capability helps PR pros understand content and publications that are driving the most traffic. This enables you to pivot your strategy to focus on the most powerful publications you should be honing in on for future strategy.
YESWARE
Your own personal “inbox assistant,” Yesware is an email tracking tool that tells you what happens after you click send. Designed to help you understand who is and who isn’t opening your email, Yesware can be installed in your email inbox, and is offers feature to help better streamline your inbox such as open rate stats, a meeting scheduler, and Salesforce integration.
Modern public relations is much more than relationship building. Use these tools to foster and grow your relationships with the media, and ensure your PR efforts as impactful and laser focused as possible.
