Ripley PR

3 tips for choosing the right manufacturing public relations agency

Despite the challenges introduced by the pandemic, including tariffs and supply chain issues, many U.S. manufacturers and those focused on localized production are already experiencing a strong recovery. While cause for celebration, this also means that competition is mounting. To bolster capacity with effective recruiting and attract the attention of more buyers, it’s a great time to team up with an agency specializing in manufacturing public relations.

Should you add PR to your marketing plan?

Amar Hanspal, CEO of Bright Machines, recently cited in Forbes 5 reasons he believes manufacturing will evolve for the better over the course of this year. From investment in workforce development to focusing on sustainable initiatives, and from digital innovations on the factory floor to positive responses to increasing demand, manufacturers making the best of 2021 will have stories to tell. Increasing ad and marketing spend will help, certainly, but the right public relations team will be able to take these stories and translate them into earned media coverage, building trust, credibility and brand awareness for your company.

How do you choose the right agency?

When you decide to incorporate manufacturing public relations into your growth plan, it’s critical to find the right agency to represent your brand. Here are three tips for finding the next extension of your team, a true partner rather than a vendor:

Search for a firm that truly understands the unique challenges facing manufacturers and can speak the language of the markets you serve. Whether you manufacture sustainable solutions, HVAC and plumbing equipment or automotive parts, your PR team should be able to competently speak the language.
Do you need content support? Choosing a public relations agency with an experienced in-house content team will ensure proper development of case studies, bylined contributions, blogs and more.
There’s more to building your brand than simply announcing new product updates. Are you recruiting? Have you unveiled a new scholarship program? Do you give back to the communities you serve? Seek an agency that will develop strategies to announce all of your good news, not just the latest advancements to your facilities and products.

If you would like to explore adding manufacturing public relations to your marketing plan, contact us at Ripley PR today by calling (865) 977-1973.

This post was written by Grayson Shockley on April 9, 2021

Serving Up Kindness: The Importance of Partnering with Nonprofit Organizations

Many home service contractors give back to their communities. They raise money for schools and animal shelters. They collect food and supplies for areas impacted by natural disasters. They support scholarships and youth sports, or they contribute their time and services to neighbors in need.

But contractors, like other small business owners, often feel like they should keep their community efforts quiet. They worry that their involvement will seem insincere if they share it on social media or tell customers about it. They believe work should speak for itself.

That impulse is understandable. But don’t overlook all the good that can come out of spreading the word. Working with a local or national nonprofit organization on a charitable project makes a difference. Sharing your commitment with your friends and neighbors can boost your contribution exponentially by raising awareness of an issue, promoting a great organization and inspiring others to give back.

Consumers are looking for businesses that share their values. They want the money they spend to go back into the community, not to a faceless out-of-town corporation. They’re eager to support companies like yours — but they have to know that you’re the kind of business they’re seeking.

At Ripley PR, we specialize in helping HVAC, plumbing and electrical service contractors deliver the good news homeowners are searching for. Our team of home services public relations experts can help you shape a message that authentically connects with your community and helps build a lasting reputation as a trusted, valued neighbor.

For more information, call (865) 977-1973 or visit www.ripleypr.com.

This post was written by Matthew Everett on April 7, 2021

Let PR keep you relevant today and for years to come

The construction industry has long been known as one a sector most hesitant to adopt technology. But smart construction tech has a role to play in the industry, and slowly, the industry is realizing it, too. The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything on so many levels. As Becky Schultz at For Construction Pros put it, construction teams had to come up with a brand-new way of getting things done:

New offerings catered to construction business owners who may have been on the high-tech fence prior to the pandemic but were forced to look at new avenues to communicate both internally and externally; monitor project progress; manage employees and safety on site; ensure fleet maintenance demands were being met, etc. – with most of it being done remotely. A tech “revolution” of sorts began to emerge.

Priorities have shifted

Construction technology is more important now than ever before. Contractors are looking for ways to minimize their costs, streamline projects and meet deadlines. In other words, they’re looking for innovative solutions, and your construction tech might be exactly what they need.

What are you doing to get the word out? It’s time you take a hard look at your marketing plan, and if PR isn’t a part of it, you need to make it a priority in 2021. At Ripley PR, we specialize in construction public relations, and we’ve seen the industry evolve and grow. We’ve also seen it struggle and deal with major issues, such as the pandemic and a skilled labor shortage.

A partner who understands

PR can help get your tech in front of decision makers. From content creation to earned media opportunities, our talented team understands this industry, and we know how to help you succeed.

The pandemic forced a lot of construction companies to adopt new technology, but the industry is going to continue to grow and evolve. Let us help you be a part of it. Contact us today, and find out what PR can do for you.

This post was written by Amanda Greever on April 5, 2021

Attract more talent with home service public relations

The home services industry is booming. Throughout the pandemic, the skilled trades, including plumbing, HVAC, electrical and more, continued their essential work for homeowners around the country. Many companies recorded growth as businesses in other industries struggled to maintain and keep their doors open.

So, what’s the problem?

Despite the stability and opportunities present in the industry, there continues to be a skilled trade labor shortage that leaves many owners with limited capacity to meet the demands of their market. With a smaller pool of jobseekers looking for positions such as HVAC technician, plumber or electrician, business hoping to grow have to standout from the competition.

Many home service companies have a solid marketing plan, but it’s not often that they include PR as a staple component. Public relations can often be thought of as only relevant for large entities or crisis control, but the truth is that positive PR can benefit even smaller businesses and help them with recruiting. Partnering with an agency already experienced in home service public relations, like Ripley PR, will ensure you have a team that speaks your language and understands your unique challenges.

How can PR help?

Driving applications from top talent requires more than simply keeping Facebook, Indeed and Monster hot with ads and listings. What happens once they see the listing and look into your business? Will they find a great brand? Will they notice evidence of a positive culture? Will they see awards and recognition, and will they read articles and news stories about your company?

While this certainly isn’t exhaustive, here are a few ways a solid home services public relations agency can help make the decision easy for your next rock star employee:

Identify and submit your business for awards to add credibility
Provide content support that tells your brand’s story and increases online visibility
Execute PR campaigns that leave a memorable presence in local and regional news
Effectively manage any crises, burying bad news with positive press

To learn more about Ripley PR and find out if we can help with your home service recruiting efforts, contact us today by calling (865) 977-1973.

This post was written by Grayson Shockley on April 1, 2021

Healthcare IT public relations can overclock your marketing

One of the greatest challenges healthcare IT companies face is distilling complex and complicated information about their services into a consumable and newsworthy format. Whether your company is focused on improving the care continuum, client experience, interoperability or providing secure network access, you need a partner in healthcare IT public relations who can align your key messages, speak your language and secure media placement to attract your target clients in the healthcare industry.

Your innovations, announcements and achievements are meant to be shared to draw customers. A PR agency that truly understands your industry will function more as an extension of your team, using strategy, proven tactics and established relationships with the media to increase awareness of your brand.

An article by BMC Health Services Research offers this on the benefits of healthcare IT public relations:

Prudently deployed and led by guiding strategies, public relations offers health and medical organizations opportunities to engage audiences in an efficient and highly credible manner. Courtesy of its unique properties, public relations capably can complement other marketing communications, operating synergistically to help healthcare institutions achieve their conveyance goals, fostering exchange and bolstering market share. Careful operationalization of this marketing communications avenue can help healthcare establishments realize their full communicative potential.

This also holds true for B2B healthcare IT companies utilizing public relations to garner the interest of executives, marketing managers and other decision makers.

At Ripley PR for example, our role as a healthcare IT public relations team is to help refine – or develop – your key messages and develop an effective strategy for keeping your business top of mind for your target audience, establishing credibility and building trust in your brand. We will put the strategy into action with tactics that deliver tangible results, like developing and pitching press releases, developing case studies on your best projects and creating engaging content for your blog and social media channels.

If you’re interested in taking your marketing plan to the next level with an agency that understands healthcare IT public relations, please call us at (865) 977-1973 or contact us online.

This post was written by Grayson Shockley on March 30, 2021

How PR can benefit your Knoxville business

Running a business in Knoxville can be exhausting. The competition seems to keep growing, and it’s more difficult than ever to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Coming into 2021, do you have the right public relations strategy to increase your visibility beyond the region? Are you using the right tactics to stand out from your fellow business leaders? What platforms hold your focus? Are they the right ones for you?

The right PR team can answer these questions for you. Being a Knoxville public relations agency with a national reach, Ripley PR is ready to help.

What are your local competitors doing?

Keeping up with the local competition is vital if you want to stay ahead. Is their market the same as yours? If so, how are you standing out? Do you have dreams of expanding nationally? Are you getting media coverage outside of the local marketplace? We can dig deep for you and figure out the best strategies to boost your visibility.

Are you using PR practically?

Let’s translate public relations into your business. Are you using your accomplishments and expertise to showcase your business? Are you getting others to talk about your business for you? We can coordinate interviews and create features that local, regional, and national journalists will want to use, generating publicity from what you already offer. No gimmicks. No tricks. All you.

What are your connections?

In order to get good PR, you need connections. Being familiar with your area, a local PR team knows the best outlets to use, and may have already built relations with those outlets. We know your target audience, and we know the best ways to communicate with them.

As your business continues to grow, you need more than just advertising. Public relations can take you a step further than your competition, and Ripley PR knows the best ways to get you there. If you want to grow your business even more, PR is the right addition to your marketing strategy. If you want to take your business further, give us a call at (865)-977-1973 or visit Ripley PR online.

This post was written by Audrey Love on March 25, 2021

How Public Relations Can Give Your B2B Tech Company a Boost

Now, more than ever, time management is crucial for conducting business. Skilled trade companies are searching for avenues to maximize time and are relying upon B2B tech companies for solid solutions. From the small business owner to large corporations, the competitive market is driving owners to explore tech-centered management platforms and cloud-based software as a viable streamlining option.

At Ripley PR, we recognize the call for an experienced B2B tech public relations team who knows and understands the skilled trades. We have spent considerable time immersing ourselves in learning not only their business but their core challenges and constraints. This is what qualifies Ripley PR to act as a conduit in ensuring your company is recognized and connected with the right target audience.

An article by Entrepreneur on the role of PR in B2B reported:

Effective PR helps a B2B firm step outside the echo chamber that limits it to players in the same domain. Such a firm replaces difficult jargon and boring self-promotional messages that the boardroom loves but the audience loathes with relevant messages for the target audience. This enables businesses to achieve their objectives.

We can appreciate the hesitancy of some businesses to embrace the transition to a paperless office format. But, as a B2B tech public relations firm, our role is to highlight your company’s uniqueness and the positive aspects that your product brings to the market to ease those concerns. Our seasoned team knows how to craft and pitch your tech stories to emphasize your innovation that will attract owners and decision makers in the skilled trades and bring new business to your door.

Ripley’s years of relationship and network building with local and national media contacts affords us the opportunity to be recognized as an influential and trusted public relations firm for both B2B tech companies and businesses operating in skilled trade industries. Let our home service, construction and manufacturing experience work for you and give your company the boost it needs to bridge the gap from an ordinary to extraordinary PR strategy.

To find out more about how a well-developed PR strategy can help your B2B business, contact the team at Ripley PR today. Call us at (865) 977-1973 or contact us online.

This post was written by Heather Ripley, Founder/CEO on March 23, 2021

3 Important Things When Hiring a PR Agency

As a B2B, it is important to find the right public relations agency to represent your company. An experienced public relations partner will help to enhance and build the reputation of your company as well as protect you if there is crisis management that needs to take place. Once you are ready to hire a PR agency, there are three things that are important to choose the best partner. public relations typewriter

Does the agency understand you? An experienced B2B public relations agency will get to know your company deeply. This means a deep dive into knowing your team, your products, your competition, and your target market. They will learn the voice of your brand and make sure that all messaging is consistent with it.
Does the PR agency know who your target customers are and how to reach them? They should always be looking for ways to get your name out in the media via pitches and press releases, and sending those out to the right trade publications, newspapers, TV stations, podcasts, and other outlets. They should be increasing your company’s visibility and boosting its reputation.
Does the agency actually understand the B2B industry? Make sure the PR agency you hire has actual B2B experience. An expert PR agency like Ripley PR will have great results to share with your company to show how successful they have been with their other clients. And they will have a large portfolio of clients in multiple business categories.

The experts at Ripley PR will become a part of your team and work with your company to create the best public relations plan to communicate your messaging. If your B2B company is ready to grow, Ripley PR can help. Contact us online or call (865) 977-1973.

This post was written by Vanessa Coates on March 19, 2021

PR is a Great Way to Share Your Green Thinking

Your manufacturing company works hard to ensure effective sustainability initiatives are in place, but it can be challenging to nail the perfect way to publicize these initiatives and achievements among your stakeholders. By having a strategy in place to show case your efforts in an effective way, you may be able to earn additional business.

By hiring a team of experienced manufacturing public relations professionals, you can focus on doing what you do best while increasing your brand awareness and maximizing your exposure to the public.

Here are some examples of how a team of PR pros can help:

Press releases: Reaching new milestones is never easy in business, especially when it comes to achievements in sustainability practices. The public should be made aware of your successes, and press releases can be a great way for you to share the news in a coordinated, professional manner.

Consistently driving social media: By frequently but strategically engaging social media with updates, you can begin to reinforce your brand and work towards attracting new customers. Sharing a new stat about an increase in operational efficiency or reductions in waste can generate a lot of buzz.

Regular media placement: An experienced team of PR pros will be able to take your updates or interests and come up with unique and captivating story ideas to engage the media and create earned placement. Successful campaigns can position your manufacturing company as an expert in its space and increase interest in your brand and products.

These are only a few examples of how the right team of PR professionals can help you maximize the potential of your sustainability initiatives. By sharing your news and updates by way of coordinated releases, consistently updating your followers about new initiatives, and coming up with unique ideas to become recognized as a thought leader in your industry, a team experienced in manufacturing public relations can help you reach the next level of recognition.

If you have more questions about the importance of PR in manufacturing and how to position your sustainability initiatives to increase your industry competitiveness, we would love to hear from you! Please reach out to Ripley PR at (865) 977-1973.

This post was written by Mark Clifford on March 17, 2021

Retaining Customer using Public Relations

Without customers, is a business really a business? That may sound like an insane question. The obvious answer is no, yet there are still plenty of people who will start a business and develop a product without a potential customer base in mind. Those businesses have a tendency to fail in the long run.

For home service B2B companies, finding the customer base isn’t the issue. You develop a product that can be used in the home service industry and then market it to those in need. The issue comes when you are competing with several other companies offering a similar product. Home service B2B public relations is the answer to your troubles. Experts at Ripley PR utilize a series of strategies that can help B2B companies earn customers.

Earned Media

The experts at Ripley PR use earned media as a way to help you garner customers without paying for them. We take your story and accomplishments and pitch them to both national and trade publications using contacts we have in the industry. These stories can be published for potential customers to read.

While paid marketing is a positive, customers put more weight on information that is published by a creditable, unbiased publication. Has your B2B tech helped hundreds of home service contractors increase revenue? A story on the 8 p.m. news will hit harder than paid advertising making the claim that it has done so.

In addition to pitching stories, Ripley PR experts also write press releases that showcases your company’s abilities in the industry as well as make necessary announcements about new products or leadership changes that can catch the media’s attention.

Social Media

Social media has changed the landscape when it comes to customer acquisition. A high percentage of people get most of, if not all, their news from social media platforms. Ripley PR experts know this and utilize these mediums to our clients’ advantage.

Posting accomplishments to your Twitter, Facebook or Instagram page is a great way to show your customers and potential customers what your company is about. Write a blog about a new product to connect with your base or send out regular tweets to keep your name relative on Twitter.

Using social media to market your company is one tool that can oftentimes be underutilized. Don’t make that mistake. Let Ripley PR help you take advantage of this tool.

If you are ready to promote your brand with B2B public relations, give us a call. Our experts would love to talk to you. We can be reached at (865) 977-1973 or on our website.

This post was written by Anthony Cloud on March 15, 2021