What are the best PR tools and platforms for your budget?

Public relations (PR) is a vital skill for any business or organization that wants to communicate effectively with its target audience, media, and stakeholders. However, PR can also be costly and time-consuming, especially if you rely on traditional methods and channels. Fortunately, there are many PR tools and platforms that can help you plan, execute, and measure your PR campaigns without breaking the bank. In this article, we will explore some of the best PR tools and platforms for your budget, depending on your goals, needs, and preferences.

1 Media monitoring

Media monitoring is an essential part of PR, allowing you to keep track of what is being said about your brand, industry, and competitors. To do this, you can use media monitoring tools to monitor online news, blogs, social media, podcasts, and more. Google Alerts is a free and simple tool that sends email notifications when keywords are mentioned online. Additionally, Mention and BuzzSumo are paid tools that offer more features and customization, such as sentiment analysis, influencer identification, competitive benchmarking, content analysis, and more.

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Rahul Mandal

Public Relations & Marketing Professional
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Google Alerts: Set up free email notifications for specific keywords or topics to monitor online mentions. Hootsuite: The free version allows you to manage and schedule social media posts, making it useful for social media monitoring and management.

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Atiqah K.

Communications Professional | APAC and Middle East
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Investing in media monitoring tools depends on your business' communication objectives, size, region and of course ultimately, your budget. For SMEs, recommend starting with Google Alerts covering alerts about your business, the industry as well as competitors. In Southeast Asia, there are a few more options to consider if you can invest. Two rather comprehensive monitoring tools that come to mind include CARMA (provides an excellent media sentiment analysis) and Meltwater (preferable for social listening).

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2 Media relations

Another key aspect of PR is to build and maintain relationships with journalists, bloggers, influencers, and other media outlets that can help you spread your message. Media relations tools can be invaluable in this regard, as they can help you find, pitch, and follow up with relevant media contacts, and manage your outreach campaigns. HARO is a free tool that connects you with journalists who are looking for sources and experts for their stories. Muck Rack and Prowly are both paid tools that offer comprehensive databases of journalists, bloggers, and influencers. They also provide tools to create and track personalized pitches, press releases, and media lists.

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Rahul Mandal

Public Relations & Marketing Professional
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Buffer: Offers a free plan for basic social media scheduling and analytics. Mention: The free plan allows you to monitor brand mentions and basic social media engagement.

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3 Content creation

Content is essential for any PR campaign, as it displays the brand's story, value proposition, and thought leadership. Content creation tools can help you craft and share interesting and relevant content for your audience, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts. Canva is a free tool that enables you to make beautiful graphics, logos, flyers, posters, and more with templates, icons, fonts, and images. Lumen5 is a paid tool that uses AI to transform blog posts, articles, or scripts into videos with stock footage, music, and text. Anchor is a free tool that allows you to record, edit, and distribute your own podcasts using your smartphone or computer.

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4 Measurement and analytics

The final aspect of PR is to measure and analyze the results and impact of your PR campaigns, and to optimize your strategy accordingly. To track and evaluate your performance, such as reach, engagement, sentiment, reputation, and ROI, you can use measurement and analytics tools like Google Analytics, CoverageBook, and Brand24. Google Analytics is a free tool that provides data and insights on website traffic, conversions, behavior, and goals. CoverageBook is a paid tool that generates beautiful and interactive PR reports with media coverage, impressions, social shares, domain authority, and more. Brand24 is a paid tool that measures online reputation, sentiment, and social media engagement with actionable feedback and recommendations.

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5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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What are the best PR tools and platforms for your budget?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Media monitoring

2 Media relations

3 Content creation

4 Measurement and analytics

5 Here’s what else to consider

Public Relations

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What are the best PR tools and platforms for your budget?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Media monitoring

2 Media relations

3 Content creation

4 Measurement and analytics

5 Here’s what else to consider

Public Relations

Rate this article

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