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The PR world is rapidly changing, and it’s hard to have the right tools to stay on top these days. In the past, you could set a retainer and calculate it as a budget item that both sides agree is necessary. However, in today’s world media outreach, that’s 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 are using the most current and effective resources available. Below is an updated list from the one that 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. Muck Rack
I knew Greg Galant from the days when he started the Shorty Awards, and he’s always been dedicated to building a solid tool with Muck Rack. With their recent raise at 180 million, and resources behind the company, they are on a path to be a comprehensive 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 information, social media profiles, and recent articles. With this database, you can identify the right journalists for your media outreach, build media lists, and manage your relationships with the press well.
2. Prowly
Prowly is a firm I worked with in the past, and I was instantly impressed. Through their efforts, they built out a PR and content marketing platform that simplifies PR workflows and improves media relations. Later, they were acquired by SEMRush, which is a well-known SEO tool. The combination of the two should yield solid results with 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 public relations professionals. Because while pitching to journalists is a relatively simple process, it can be a time-consuming process. OnePitch assists users in creating and sending concise and targeted pitches to journalists. Not only does that reduce the time and effort spent on traditional outreach methods, but it can help achieve a greater success rate due to its database of journalists. The database analyzes and displays journalists’ preferences, making it easier to identify the right contacts for specific stories. As an additional perk, its streamlined interface is user friendly and easy to master.
4. Onclusive
Some PR tools allow you to be more efficient and successful in executing your strategy. Others give you vital, data-driven feedback on whether your strategy is working or not and how to improve. Onclusive specializes in the latter. I have not worked with Onclusive, but I did use them when they were formerly AirPR. It provides 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. These hard numbers can better enable you to make data-driven decisions and assess the value of PR to 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 relationships in one place. Propel provides features for personalized email outreach, campaign tracking, and media response management, helping you build strong connections with journalists and maximize your media coverage.
6. Grammarly
While not specifically a PR tool, Grammarly is an essential tool for any PR professional or communicator. Good writing is at the core of effective PR, and Grammarly helps you enhance your writing by checking things like grammar and spelling. It doesn’t just flag blatant errors, either. Grammarly has more refined features such as flagging passive voice 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 written word through a human editor, Grammarly is a quick way to double check before hitting “send.” The extra click or two is worth it. Keeping your press releases, pitches, and other written communications polished and error-free improves your credibility and professionalism.
7. Cision
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 news coverage across multiple channels, and distribute press releases. It also includes analytics features to measure the effectiveness of your PR efforts. Cision’s software has a good track record and is trusted by PR agencies, corporations, and government organizations worldwide.
I’m not going to lie and say that the PR world isn’t more challenging than ever. It’s an unfortunate reality, as the nature of journalism and media have changed with evolving technology. There are less journalists at a greater quantity of publications, and there’s a lot of noise out there. However, the bright side is that there are tools designed specifically to help you craft better pitches, reach journalists, and track results. With these tools evolving, there are ways for you and your staff to incorporate them into your processes with fantastic results. By being selective and getting the best PR tools for your specific purposes, you can see greater success and stand out in the industry.
