By our ILS Incorporated Account Team
One of the many interesting aspects of being a part of a public relations firm is the variety of clients and industries in which you can find yourself working. Every field of business needs public relations, whether its an athletic organization, health care, a beverage brand, or a parking lot striping company.
It can be challenging to be unfamiliar with your company’s industry. Our team experienced this when assigned to the client ILS Incorporated, a parking lot striping, and maintenance company. But we broke it down into these basic steps, which helped us better understand the industry and our client.
Research
The first crucial step in any part of public relations is research. Conducting both primary and secondary research not only helps the communications team understand the industry but also helps the client understand it as well. PR Week explained how important it is to have credible data backing your tactics because of how informed the potential public is. Constructing a SWOT analysis based off your research can then help to shape your public relations plan.
A crucial step in researching includes looking at your client’s website and social media platforms as well as those of competitors within the same industry. Researching the sites and blog posts of competitors allows you to understand what is common and what is not within the field of interest.
Social media platforms such as LinkedIn can also give you insight as well because it shows how companies and people connect within an industry. For ILS Incorporated, we found that many of our target audience uses LinkedIn as a way to connect with local maintenance companies and post regularly about industry updates or facts.
Ask Questions
Asking questions is another critical tool in expanding your professional knowledge. Questions can range from a simple clarification to needing a detailed explanation. It is essential to structure your research based on the questions that need to be answered. Who makes up the target audience? What channels do they use? How do we create content for them? These questions allow a public relations team to create a research plan. The client can also offer critical insight to your research that is key to knowing how the brand fits into the industry.
Questions can also be directed toward your target audience. Their first-hand knowledge can help guide your research. We called commercial real estate brokers to learn more about their paving processes, and asked how they go about hiring a paving company, and how often do they prefer to have their parking lots painted.
Immerse Yourself
Immersing yourself in an unfamiliar industry is important to understand where to focus attention and allocate efforts. Put yourself in the shoes of the client as well as the consumer to ensure the best outcome for the industry. Working in an unfamiliar industry can allow you to strengthen your skills as well as discover new ones. The more you immerse yourself and the more effort you demonstrate, the more rewarding your work will be.
Our team immerses ourselves into the parking lot paving industry by asking local commercial real estate brokers and managers which companies do their paving and how their facilities managers hired these companies. We also familiarize ourselves with the average rates and types of parking lot services that small businesses and commercial real estate needs.
We know how hard it is to move into a new industry. Remember as you get deeper into your research to continue asking questions and to utilize your team. The opportunity to take on a client in an unknown industry is a great way to boost your strongest skills and improve your weaker ones.