Blog

Is your brand getting the attention it deserves?

For the past 12 months, life has been a struggle. We have changed the way we live in ways we never could have imagined.  It has been especially challenging for business owners, particularly those who’ve had to close their doors for long periods due to lockdown restrictions.

But finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel! The government announced its ‘roadmap out of lockdown’, and by June 21, we will be living in a world as close to the way things used to be with no limit on social contact.

From 12^th April, ‘non-essential’ shops, salons, hairdressers, theme parks, zoos, outdoor hospitality, holiday and camping facilities can all reopen, and it will be extremely important for businesses to tell their stories and get the attention it deserves.

Many people think that PR is only for large, multinational brands that have huge marketing budgets, but this is certainly a myth! PR is super essential for small businesses.  It can help you reach new customers and establish credibility for your business in ways that otherwise wouldn’t be possible with other marketing channels.

To help get business owners thinking about reopening once lockdown restrictions end, we have shared six key benefits a small business will gain from doing PR.

1) PR helps build credibility and won't break the bank

For small business owners, every penny has to go a long way. Getting journalists and influencers to write about your business won’t cost you a lot of money, but it does take time.

By investing in PR, you’re building credibility for your brand without breaking the bank. By getting others to consistently bring up your name in a positive context – be it journalists, influencers, happy customers, and even employees – will undoubtedly make your business grow in the long run.

2) It’s more effective than advertising

PR content provides an authentic touch to your business and getting a favourable mention of your brand, or providing an expert comment, holds much more weight than an ad.

While advertising builds exposure, Public Relations builds trust.

3) PR is supportive

PR is great for supplementing and supporting your initiatives and campaigns. Use PR to provide and deliver real value to your audience.  You’ll win people’s attention with something useful, educational, or inspiring.

To develop a successful PR campaign, you need to know and understand your audience to as much provide something they would consider valuable.

4) PR boosts brand visibility

Unlike traditional media, online media doesn’t have a shelf life. News articles remain visible on search engines indefinitely. This means any PR content you create can gain more value as it lives on.

Moreover, other news outlets, bloggers, and even customers may link and share the media coverage. By sharing timely and relevant stories across earned, owned, and shared channels you will keep your business high up in search engine rankings, which will, in turn, bring more customers knocking on your door.

5) Good PR strategies prevent problems

A key part of PR is to stay on top of what’s being said about your business and making sure that the information is accurate.  If you’re not monitoring your business, you could be risking your reputation. Remember, one negative comment can escalate and ruin your brand while building real trust and credibility takes years – so don’t take the risk.

6) PR helps you reach the right audience

With a PR campaign, you can be hyper-focused and reach out to the publications and online communities that are most relevant to your business—increasing the likelihood that any traffic back to your website is going to be more relevant and more likely to convert into a sale.

Whether you are interested in becoming a client, or just have a question in general, let’s talk. We’d love to start a discussion. Please give us a call on 01260 271450 or send us an email to anthea.fosti@zeuspr.co.uk

by Zeus PR

Wrapping up 2020 on a high note

At Zeus PR, we are proud to offer a tailored approach to propel our clients into the limelight. We are experts in product placement and we work extremely closely with our clients to deliver press exposure and substantial media coverage.

With the covid pandemic consuming most of the news over the past 10 months, we continued to remain positive and stay focused in delivering our targets for each and every client.

Over the past few weeks, our hardworking team has secured national consumer pr coverage for each of our lifestyle clients including Weru UK, Not a Box, Holly Johnson Antiques, Kanula, and Beelivery.

We have achieved enormous success, landing on pages of some of the most prominent media titles, including Living Etc, Woman & Home, The Sun, The Guardian, Style at Home, and Homes & Antiques!

Managing Director, Anthea Fosti said, “At the heart of everything we do is truly understanding what makes our clients stand out. We take a deep dive in our clients’ brand values and then activate thoughtful and proactive campaigns to get them noticed.

“For example, when Beelivery informed us that they were recruiting 20,000 drivers by Christmas, we executed a plan and landed the brand across many national media titles including The Sun, The Daily Mirror, and Hello! Magazine. And, to top it all off, we secured a feature on regional news programme, BBC NW Tonight, where they highlighted their successful year and ambitious plans for growth.”

by Zeus PR

Education PR in the Face of Adversity …

Throughout the pandemic, our inspirational school and college clients have continued to provide a first-class education, and so as education PR specialists the team here at Zeus has continued to use our sector expertise to secure media coverage for their latest news and views, helping to raise awareness and drive pupil recruitment in an increasingly competitive market.

First and foremost, a priority was to showcase how each school and college swiftly adapted to online teaching and learning.

Abbey College Manchester adopted a global approach to education during the college shutdown, ensuring that while it may not have been ‘lessons as normal’ it was certainly ‘learning as normal’, as it extended its educational reach to territories as far afield as the Far East. The college also switched to virtual open events, holding webinars which the agency promoted to the Cheshire-based media. Coverage was secured in key local and education titles including In Cheshire, Living Edge, Cheshire Life magazine, Independent Education Today and BBP Media.

Following a period of virtual teaching and learning, and online musical soirees, the extraordinary academic year at Beech Hall School culminated with an exciting digital awards ceremony, which saw 300 attendees from the school community join together virtually to commend the triumphant efforts made. Great coverage was secured in publications including Living Edge magazine, School House and the Macclesfield Express.

A Level and GCSE results days are always a significant event in the academic calendar. This year, in addition to preparing and sharing press releases and success stories, the team at Zeus was busy reacting to the latest government announcements to negotiate radio and TV interviews for our leading principals and head teachers to offer their views. We generated significant broadcast coverage for our clients including a duo of interviews on BBC Radio Manchester’s Mid-Morning Show with Mike Sweeney and That’s TV Manchester, as well as Cheshire’s Silk FM and Hits Radio.

As well as working with radio and TV stations, and, online news sites and newspapers, the agency is in regular contact with specialist independent education publications including Independent School Parent Magazine, School Report, Absolutely Education, School House and Tatler. To discuss how we can support you with education PR, get in touch with us here!

by Zeus PR

Generating News Through a COVID Lens

The wake of coronavirus and the UK lockdown has left many businesses reeling, and we have all had to adapt quickly to change. With further uncertainties looming in the months to come, we have all had to consider new ways of operating with creativity and resourcefulness.

As we watched the news agenda change completely over the past 6 months, our team at Zeus has been working as close as ever with our clients to contribute news and information that is relevant, helpful and appropriate to their sector under the circumstances.

One thing that has remained true is that good news is always worth shouting about.

Anthea Fosti, Managing Director of Zeus PR said, “When lockdown first hit in March, journalists and reporters were keen for positive stories, which helped break up the barrage of the negative stories that took centre stage for a few months. As things start to feel slightly more ‘normal’ and people are coming back from furlough, we are seeing publications continuing to share good news. As experts in PR, it our job to find the golden nuggets of relevant, good news stories, and we have had some great success in securing coverage for our clients through the pandemic in national, regional, local and trade press.”

Throughout the pandemic and ever-changing times, we have been asking ourselves a few questions to help generate the right type of exposure with the right tone of voice for our clients.

• Is your business doing anything to support others during this time?
• Is there anything positive or uplifting happening within your business that is relevant to the general public?
• Have you spotted any new or emerging trends within your sector?
• Has your business adapted something new or unique due to covid?

Here are some examples of coverage secured for our clients through a Covid lens:

Beelivery, the UK’s largest on-demand grocery delivery service, announced that the company is hiring 20,000 drivers as well as home-based HQ staff between now and Christmas in response to this year’s rising demand for their service.

The company was featured in BusinessLive, Insider Media, Retail Times, Love Money, and A1 Retail. The business editor of BusinessLive also interviewed Lee Parkinson, Co-Founder and CEO of Beelivery for an exclusive in-depth interview about the business growth and how they have continued to flourish throughout the pandemic.  Read more about Beelivery’s job creation news here

Teletext Holidays was keen to share recent key insights and trend data on the success of their Christmas bookings. Despite the travel industry thrown into disarray due to ever changing travel restrictions, Teletext Holidays has seen a highly impressive 97% Week on Week increase in bookings for the Christmas period (and an overall 164% increase in passengers), driven by Canaries, despite it still being on the quarantine list. Read more here

The positive news story featured in The Independent, The Telegraph and Travel Weekly!

To discuss how we can support you, get in touch with us here!

by Zeus PR

What a Year! Our 2019 Key Highlights…

Well, another year has flown by extremely quickly here at Planet Zeus – a whirlwind of product launches, events, news placement and digital content provision with busy schedules of social campaign planning and influencer outreach.

Here is a flavour of what we have been up to…

We absolutely love shouting about our client’s latest products and services from food & drink and cleaning products to wellness brands, luxury high-end interiors, fashion companies and online travel agencies, and have relished in the national media response we achieved for each and every one.

We started off the year with a majorly successful press and influencer launch with Englana, and their brand ambassador and former supermodel Jodie Kidd at The Ivy in Soho.

For Horlicks, we ran highly successful campaigns launching their New, Improved Horlicks Chocolate, and Horlicks Pods – Original and Chocolate, simply delicious and full of malty goodness that always go down a treat at Team Zeus!

And for Drink me Chai, we loved spreading the word of how you can create indulgent, barista-style beverages at home with the introduction of Drink me Chai’s deliciously aromatic, Spiced Chai Latte and Superblends. Again, the national newspapers, lifestyle mags and lovely high netting influencers loved receiving their samples and were all extremely complimentary in their product reviews.

Building on our travel PR portfolio, we have had major success for our client Teletext Holidays for whom we generated a whopping  229 items of national print and digital media coverage, with an impressive combined campaign reach of 141,130,642  - including 119 write ups in the two largest circulation tabloids The Sun /Sun on Sunday / Daily Mirror / Sunday Mirror.

And for our home and interiors clients; high-end home fragrance brand - madebyzen, premium German glazing manufacturer – Weru UK, and luxury bathroom and tile specialist - Real Stone & Tile, we amassed significant national lifestyle magazine, national newspaper and trade media coverage week in week out.

We also were thrilled to be appointed by two health and wellbeing brands. We are now the retained PR agency for iconic lubricant brand KY Jelly, for which we have been very busy working closely with the wider team, to generate significant exposure across the back end of 2019 and beyond into 2020. After supporting the brand previously, Zeus has also been reappointed by pioneering JL Aesthetics and have since secured press interest for their latest developments.

The year also saw the agency become the PR partner of the prestigious Women of the Year Luncheon and Awards. The glittering occasion took place at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole back in October and was an extraordinary celebration of female achievement.

Not to forget our very important education clients – leading colleges and schools located across the UK, for whom we very much enjoyed sharing news in 2019 of their very frequent successes. Big shout outs to DLD College London, Abbey College Manchester, Beech Hall School, Falcon’s School for Girls, Falcon’s Prep School for Boys and Portland Place School.

by Zeus PR

How to Make the Most Out of your Business Instagram Account

In today’s modern society, social media has become a prominent part of everyday life. In 2018 the average user was said to have spent 45 minutes a day checking their social media feeds!  Because of this, it’s essential that business owners are utilising social media sites, and all their available functions to promote their products or services. Instagram was once called the top platform for engagement by Forbes, and the site now has over one billion monthly active users, so now is definitely the time to log back into your account and get to grip with the site’s full potential!

In this guide we will focus on four key areas, providing you with top tips to ensure you are making the most out your business account.

Posts

It may seem like an obvious one but regular, consistent posts are key to keeping your followers interested and engaged. Everyone creates their own routine, whether that’s posting content every day, every other day or even once a week its completely down to you. However, it's important to stick to this routine once you’ve found it, this enables your followers to know what to expect and when to expect it.

Another way of relaying a reliable, consistent impression could be to maintain a theme within the content you post. Not only does this make your feed look aesthetically pleasing, but it also creates a sense of professionalism as it shows thought is behind each post. One way of sustaining a particular theme could be to ensure your posts feature certain colours or shades, or even simply sticking to the same edit style.

Hashtags

In this guide, we believe hashtags deserve their own heading, as they play a crucial role in driving traffic to your posts. By ensuring that relevant hashtags are included in all uploaded posts, those searching the hashtags will be able to access your feed. This can prove beneficial as those searching your chosen hashtags usually have similar feeds and interests and therefore are more likely to be suited to your business and eager to engage.

Instagram Stories

Launched in August 2016, Instagram Stories are a useful way of keeping your followers up to date on any news or work you may be doing. They provide users with the ability to share content that they may not want to permanently appear on their feed.  An Instagram story can be up to fifteen seconds long, an image, a video or even a boomerang. Instagram Stories allow for a brief snapshot into life behind the scenes, this could give followers the impression that they are partly involved in the business, allowing a loyal fan base to form. This involvement can be enhanced with functions such as the ‘Poll’ tool or the ‘Ask Me a Question’ feature, where users are given the chance to have a say and to share their own opinions. The site also provides you with the option to save your stories onto your feed through the Highlight Reel, allowing users to reflect back on certain posts. These posts can then be organised into themed groups, for example, all Q&A related stories can be placed together, allowing your content to appear accessible for all.

Insights

Last but not least, when owning a business Instagram account, you are able to access the ‘Insights’, the analytical tools that allow you to monitor, and reflect upon your own statistics. For instance, you are able to check how many people a post is reaching, how many visits your profile is receiving, what days your followers are most active, as well as information about the demographic of your followers. These insights prove useful as you are able to adapt your content and schedule to reflect and suit the needs of your followers according to the data.  For example, you may be inclined to change the days you are posting content, or adapt the language used to be more age appropriate. Consequently, this function allows you to become more aware of the reach and the potential reach of your content, enabling a more pro-active approach to hitting new levels of engagement.

In summary, here are some of the benefits that may occur when your Instagram account is used to its full potential…

• You are able to raise the awareness of your business, as information on the products or services you provide will be made available to a higher number of consumers.
• You become viewed as a reputable brand, as you are easy to contact and frequently posting content.
• The way you use your account will directly suit the needs of your target market, encouraging them to join your loyal fan base.

by Zeus PR

Zeus Goes Back to School

The Zeus PR team have had a busy few months out and about with our education clients, supporting their events and capturing those all-important press shots. We love being in the right place at the right time to gather the information and material we need to propel our client’s message into the limelight. Melissa, our account executive, recently attended the Abbey College Manchester awards ceremony at the prestigious Raddisson Blu Edwardian in central Manchester to assist with photography for the event, speak with attendees and collate information for the media. It’s not only big events that we assist or clients with, we regularly visit the schools to capture a range of different activities. Our account manager has been enjoying her time at Beech Hall School photographing their events such as Wellbeing Day, Musical Soiree and also Grandparents’ Day.

Always on hand to snap up photo opportunities, the Zeus team know what it takes to capture a great press shot. We’ve shared our top-tips below:

• Ensure the photo is relevant to the story and include any appropriate props. For
  example, if a group of pupils have won an award capture an image of them holding a
  trophy/certificate, rather than staff members.

• For group shots in particular, composition is key. Spacing and direction are equally
  as important, get the group to be equally spaced and close together. ‘Get that close
  you’re uncomfortable’ is a phrase we are often heard shouting.

• A cluttered background is a cluttered photo. Are there people walking around or
  standing in the background? Are there any unsightly signs or displays? Does it look
  messy? The people in the shot should be the focus of the image and not
  overpowered by whatever is going on behind them.

• A lovely bright shot is more appealing to the press than one taken in a dark room.
  Try to capture imagery outdoors or in rooms with lots of natural light.

• We’re not suggesting that you hold up huge signs advertising your business, product
  or service, but some subtle advertising can work well. Small touches such as
  wearing a branded uniform can discreetly raise awareness of the brand.

• It’s important that your photo is of a high quality. It might seem obvious but ensure
  that the camera is held straight and still, and then remember to share the image in its
  original file size.

If you would like to generate awareness of your school or college with specifically targeted education PR and marketing, get in touch! We would love to hear from you.

by Zeus PR

Growing your Web Traffic with Digital PR

Many of our clients, especially the smaller, ambitious brands we work with, are increasingly turning to digital PR as a means of improving their Google ranking.

Quite simply put - Google loves organic high-quality backlinks from authentic and highly credible websites and online publications. This is great news for companies that don't have an endless budget for Google Adwords.

With the rapid growth of digital publications, and online influencers (bloggers), there are a multitude of high netting channels to target in your quest for ranking more highly than your competitors, and a whole host of ways you can achieve a presence on their sites.

Here are some examples of how we help clients secure valuable placement, and hence backlinks from the digital media sites and influencers:-

• Produce concise and well written news releases for issue to the relevant digital media - carefully crafted and written for the target demographic in mind. Business, lifestyle or special interest.... These are then sent with strong imagery to the editors or influencers
• Promotions - offering 'the chance to win' for a subscriber, or special offers with a backlink to your site for further information (or even better create a special landing page on your website for the specific promotion). Or set up a special voucher code
• Offer key bloggers an opportunity to review for free your product or service, in return for a write up and a link to your website
• Run a press event or blogger event - allowing for some 'theatre' that promotes an aspect of your business for attendees to film - we recently held an event for Turtle Wax, allowing attendees to get their cars very mucky on a Landrover off-road experience, which made for great filming opportunities!
• If you have an expertise in an area, whether an accountant's firm, car repair business, upholstering or veterinary practice, offer a complimentary advice feature in the form of a feature in return for a brand reference and link back to your website
• Enlist the support of a high profile celebrity, who has a huge social media following, to support your brand presence at an event, product launch or a corporate event.

We are always excited to speak to brands about how we can support their Google optimisation - please feel free to get in touch if you would like to arrange a meeting!

by Zeus PR