Laptop and smartphone with infographics
The PR world is changing fast and it’s hard these days to have the right tools to stay on top. In the past, you could set a provision and calculate it as a budget entry that both parties agree is necessary. However, in today’s world that is not enough. Content distribution and other areas have an aspect of technology and analytics that is vital to a company’s success. Ignoring that reality will result in falling behind competitors who use the most current and effective resources available. Below is an updated list of the list I wrote in 2018 that should help you identify some of the best tools to help you navigate and thrive in this new PR world.
1. Knife rack
I’ve known Greg Galant since he started the Shorty Awards, and he’s always been committed to building a solid tool with Muck Rack. With their recent increase to 180 million, and resources behind the company, they are on their way to becoming an all-encompassing PR tool. Muck Rack’s robust capabilities can provide a comprehensive database of journalists, allowing you to search for relevant contacts and access their contact details, social media profiles and recent articles. With this database you can identify the right journalists for your media reach, compile media lists and properly manage your relations with the press.
2. Careful
Prowly is a company I’ve worked with in the past and I was immediately impressed. Through their efforts, they have built a PR and content marketing platform that simplifies PR workflows and improves media relations. Later they were acquired by SEMRush, a well-known SEO tool. The combination of the two should produce solid results by combining search and PR resources together. It offers features for managing media contacts, creating visually appealing press releases, and distributing content.
3. OnePitch
Onepitch is a PR platform that simplifies the media pitching process for PR professionals. Because while pitching is a relatively simple process for journalists, it can be a time consuming process. OnePitch helps users create and send concise and targeted pitches to journalists. Not only does that reduce the time and effort spent on traditional outreach methods, but it can also help achieve a greater success rate thanks to the database of journalists. The database analyzes and displays journalists’ preferences, making it easier to identify the right contacts for specific stories. As an added benefit, the streamlined interface is user-friendly and easy to master.
4. Ineligible
Some PR tools allow you to execute your strategy more efficiently and successfully. Others give you vital, data-driven feedback on whether your strategy is working or not and how you can improve it. Onclusive specializes in the latter. I haven’t worked with Onclusive, but I did use them when they were previously AirPR. It offers advanced analytics and insights to help you understand the reach and impact of your PR campaigns. Onclusive tracks and analyzes media coverage, social media engagement, website traffic, and other key metrics. With these hard numbers you can make better data-driven decisions and assess the value of PR for your organization.
5. PrPropel
PrPropel is a media outreach and relationship management tool designed to streamline your PR efforts. It allows you to find relevant journalists and influencers, pitch stories and manage your media relations all in one place. Propel offers personalized email reach, campaign tracking, and media response management, helping you build strong connections with journalists and maximize your media exposure.
6. Grammarly
While not specifically a PR tool, Grammarly is an essential tool for any PR professional or communicator. Good writing is at the heart of effective PR, and Grammarly helps you improve your writing by checking things like grammar and spelling. It doesn’t just signal glaring errors, either. Grammarly has more refined features, such as highlighting passive voices and identifying ways to make your written voice more active. Since it’s often not cost or time efficient to run every single email and word written through a human editor, Grammarly is a quick way to check before you hit “send.” The extra click or two is worth it. Keeping your press releases, pitches, and other written communications neat and error-free improves your credibility and professionalism.
7. Decision
Cision offers a comprehensive platform for media relations, media monitoring and content distribution. With Cision, you can identify and connect with relevant media contacts, track coverage across multiple channels, and distribute press releases. It also includes analytic features to measure the effectiveness of your PR efforts. Cision’s software has a proven track record and is trusted by PR agencies, businesses and government organizations worldwide.
I’m not going to lie and say that the PR world isn’t more challenging than ever. It is an unfortunate reality as the nature of journalism and media has changed with evolving technology. There are fewer journalists with a larger number of publications and there is a lot of noise. The bright side, however, is that there are tools specifically designed to help you make better pitches, reach journalists, and track results. As these tools evolve, there are ways for you and your staff to incorporate them into your processes with great results. By being selective and using the best PR tools for your specific purposes, you can see more success and get noticed in the industry.
