“There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” If all you care about is having your name in the headlines, the old P.T. Barnum adage may be right for you. However, for most businesses bad publicity can have a very negative impact on their bottom line. Most seasoned print professionals know the most important thing you can do to build a good reputation is to deliver on your promises. But even if you do, amplifying your success in doing so has become essential. In an age in which customer trust is hard to come by and easy to lose, search rankings can make or break businesses, and buyers are increasingly turning to AI overviews in their searches for information, meaning reputation is everything. The Importance of Managing Reputation Influencing what people say and even think about a business is the bread and butter of the public relations (PR) profession. We work to manage, improve, and sometimes repair perceptions of companies and organisations held by the public – usually a mix of customers, investors, employees (and potential employees), community stakeholders, industry peers, and the media. Whilst it often – and particularly so within the print industry – works in concert with marketing, PR’s focus is on driving ‘earned’ media coverage, whilst advertising is ‘paid’ and content marketing is ‘owned’. The overall communications strategy behind these channels tends to mean the lines between them blur, which is why communications agencies like Karis Copp Media offer both content and PR services. In essence though, earned media is exposure achieved through reviews, commentary, and mentions in channels such as trade or consumer media, newspapers, local press, blogs, and even word-of-mouth and social media that aren’t controlled by the brand itself. The reason PR is so important for businesses is that earned media often has a greater impact on influencing attitudes and purchasing behaviour than other channels. Or in the words of Richard Branson: “A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front-page ad.” Increasing Visibility by Amplifying Performance Boosting visibility has always been one of the reasons businesses have invested in PR, but its role in search engine optimisation (SEO) has made it even more important over the past decade. SEO used to be about the right mix of keywords and backlinks but today search engines factor in the intent behind users’ search queries Kerry Rice, senior account manager at Karis Copp Media, discusses how PR can help print and display businesses build their brand, reputation, and visibility in a more human way Earning Performance Recognition 62 email: editor@printmonthly.co.uk September / October 2025 - Issue 356 USING A PR AGENCY | KARIS COPP MEDIA ▲ PR companies work to manage, improve, and sometimes repair perceptions of companies and organisations held by the public
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