Building a global PR strategy to support successful business growth
It is almost five years since the pandemic pushed businesses to pivot their offerings online and much of the tech that enabled those changes continues to deliver an increasingly connected world. Many companies that survived and thrived in the years following Covid have seen new global markets becoming more accessible, offering expansion opportunities into different regions. While undertaking global business growth requires specific strategies, PR plays a core part in supporting success as you establish your reputation with a new audience. Whether your company is already operating in other markets or looking to expand, building a unified PR strategy will be crucial to help your business on its global journey.
When do you need a global PR strategy?
Already in-market: For companies that have already expanded into new markets, either via a reseller or a small team on the ground, implementing a global PR strategy will provide the opportunity to raise broader awareness of your company and attract new customers through positive media coverage and focused roundtables or hosted events. With proven in-market experience, your team can be positioned as experts, able to share valuable thought leadership opinions, local client success stories, and company growth news with the media. The messaging included in any PR outreach should be aligned as soon as possible to ensure that your global media coverage reflects the businesses’ core objectives, while also being adapted to the specific interests of local audiences.
Looking to expand: If your business is in the early expansion stages then this is a great time to incorporate local markets into your global PR strategy. A new office opening, in-market employee appointments, or product launches will be a strong platform to announce your arrival and secure media coverage. If you have clients who can share their partnership success stories from the other global markets and discuss why they will be working with you locally too, this can help boost your credibility.
What is needed to build a global PR strategy?
Whatever stage of expansion your business is at, there are key aspects to consider when developing a global PR strategy.
Messaging: As a starting point, consider all the services you can offer and then those that you want to prioritise in each market. For each of these, you need to align the global overarching messaging and develop sub-messaging adapted for individual regions or countries. For example, there could be different regulations in each market that might affect your messaging, requiring you to have different approaches to tackling thought leadership conversations in the media. Or, a topic that you discuss in other markets might be more (or less) advanced in the new market, so your messaging should reflect this.
Local insights: On the whole, your media content (such as byline articles or press releases) can be adapted for each market but it is essential to have specific angles from local experts to make it relevant. It might sometimes work to use insights, like research, from other countries as a comparison or to make a point, but you should always ensure that your content is tailored for the one in which you want it to be published; a French publication is unlikely to use content featuring only UK data or case studies, for example.
Local spokespeople: Journalists will likely prioritise content from a local spokesperson, even if the company they work for is HQ’d in a different country. The presence of a local spokesperson will position your business as a genuine local expert; if you don’t yet have anyone working on the ground, think about who you could have representing you in the media such as a reseller or partner.
Local languages: It might be obvious to make sure that all content is translated into the local language, but you should go beyond that to meet media requirements. A basic translation won’t be suitable for publication, especially if it discusses technical matters, specific business messaging, or complex thought leadership angles. You need to work with an experienced translator who understands both the industry of your business and the language style of media to ensure that your content is high quality and credible.
It is not only translations that require an expert eye – you may be expanding into another market that also uses English as its main language, for example, but you will need to have an in-depth understanding of the preferred tone of voice, style, and phrasing nuances that work best in each country; idioms or colloquial language can vary vastly and might not be familiar across different markets.
How to execute a global PR strategy?
As your company looks to expand, there are various routes you can explore for support with local PR programmes, such as in-market PR agencies, freelancers, or global agencies with specific local expertise in securing powerful media coverage and helping you host targeted events. For a global PR programme to work effectively, it will need streamlined processes run by professionals with experience working across multiple markets, and on-the-ground experts to pitch regional content.
This approach will create efficiencies and ensure a consistent, and proactive narrative that is localised across individual markets, to nurture valuable relationships with priority media targets in each location.
If you’re planning a launch into a new market or considering the best approach for your existing global PR and events strategy and looking for advice, get in touch with our team.