JMGPR Blogs

We’ve seen this happen countless times: brands pour their heart and soul into a campaign, only to watch it fall flat. The culprit? A weak or nonexistent hook. 

Storytelling is at the heart of PR, but even the best campaigns can falter if they’re struggling to catch their audience’s attention. 

To reach your audience in today's content-rich environment, your story needs a hook that grabs them, sparks their curiosity, and keeps them engaged.

Are you curious as to how you can cut through the noise and make your message heard? We’re sharing five powerful tips to help you find the perfect hook for your next big story.

The start of a new year is a time for new beginnings and ambitious goals. Whether you're setting personal resolutions, planning for client success, or strategizing for business growth, the possibilities are endless.  A fresh start is always exciting, but it’s also a critical time to take stock of your current strategies and identify the areas that could use improvement. While we equate a new year with new goals, the end of the year should be when you analyze your past success as well as failures.

From a PR standpoint, look at the strategies that resonated most with your audience. Which ones fell short of expectations? Once you understand your yearly performance, you can work on building a more effective and data-driven PR strategy for the year ahead. 

If you ask most people, they’ll tell you the thought of standing in front of a room full of people scares them.  Palms are sweating, heart’s beating fast, and the mind is racing. Even the most seasoned of professionals struggle with public speaking, so trust us when we say, you are not alone! Glossophobia, aka, the fear of speaking in public is a common fear, with almost 1 in 4 people reporting that they have some related anxiety when it comes to getting up in front of others to present their ideas and share information. Being able to speak effectively, whether in a room full of people or in a virtual meeting, is a valuable skill that requires strong communication and the ability to engage with others. The goal is to not only get your audience’s attention, but to keep them engaged in what you’re saying.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term, ‘digital PR,’ and you might be wondering, is there a difference between digital and traditional public relations? 

While the end goal remains the same, to build and maintain a positive image and reputation for your client’s business or brand, the strategies implemented in this form vary slightly from the practices put in place with traditional methods.

Digital PR focuses on building an online presence and engaging with your audience through digital channels (ie social media) whereas traditional PR focuses primarily on offline methods such as print media and face to face communication.

If you work in PR, you’ve likely heard the term 'pitching under embargo'. While you may encounter embargos often, it is a concept  all PR professionals should be familiar with.

For anyone who is not familiar with it, an embargo pitch is one in which you, the PR professional, is sharing information with a journalist or a media outlet under the agreement that it is not to be published until the information is allowed to be discussed at a specific date and time. 

Embargos are usually shared in advance of  the press release to allow a journalist time to consider the story. This practice allows for ample time to prepare coverage before the story goes live (i.e. the day the embargo is lifted) and ensures a coordinated release of the story across various media outlets.