As a manufacturer, expanding your public relations campaign across multiple countries can unlock huge potential for your brand—but like most things, it doesn’t come without careful planning.
When it comes to global PR strategies, a one-size-fits-all approach won’t cut it. To get the results you deserve, your approach will require a clear strategy that considers cultural nuances and media landscapes of that specific market.
Remember that age old saying, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day?’ Well, the same can be said for building a PR campaign. It takes time and careful planning, which we can help you with. Whether you’re planning to enter a new market or simply strengthen your presence in established ones, we’re here to help you make sure your message lands and generates the traction it deserves.
Starting with a strategy
Before you start looking at your approach, we advise you to first think about your end goal and what it is you want to achieve. To get the best results, an international campaign should start with a sense of direction because a campaign without purpose is just noise.
Before starting work on any international campaign, we will always ask our clients three key questions. These questions help us to lay the foundation for the campaign and in turn helps you to think about the bigger picture:
Is this a full market entry with a new product or service?
If you are entering a new market, one press release simply will not work. You will need strategic, sustained communications to introduce your company and services, and build credibility amongst a new audience.
Do you already have a presence in your target market, or do you need to look at brand-building?
If you don’t already have a presence, you will need to think about brand building to start reaching your target audience. The first step is to identify how your brand is currently perceived (if at all) in that market and put together a bespoke strategy that reinforces your reputation, expands your audience, or increases visibility in the sector.
Do you need to shift perceptions or reposition your brand in a specific territory?
Think about your current reputation, and the overall reputation of your industry in the media landscape. Having this information up our sleeve will help us shape your messaging, manage the narrative of your campaign and ensure the message aligns with local culture, audiences, and news agendas.
By answering these questions, we will be able to create an effective, focused media campaign that communicates the right message in a way that will resonate with local audiences.
Stay true to your core values
Before you start communicating in a new market, take a step back and consider your brand values. While your messaging may change to suit local audiences, your core identity and brand values should remain consistent, this helps you to build and retain credibility.
Think of your brand values as a thread that ties your communication together. Your brand values define who you are as an organisation, what you stand for, and how you want to be perceived. Whether it's your commitment to innovation, sustainability, overall quality of your products, or your customer focus, your core values should be clear throughout all of your communications.
A PR expert, such as ourselves can help you craft compelling messages that align with your brand values, translating them for an overseas market. We can also advise on overall tone of voice, and act as your brand guardian to ensure every campaign reflects who you truly are.
Get to know the locals
Think about your target audience(s). Simply putting a UK press release through Google Translate doesn’t create a global strategy and certainly won’t secure you results. We advise getting to know the local audiences and understanding what the media landscape looks like in that market.
Remember, every market has its own culture and agenda meaning what is newsworthy here in the UK, might be irrelevant elsewhere. Again, we can support you here. With our global contacts, we can identify what local journalists want and tailor your messaging to suit them.
It’s not just about translating the language, you may also need to tweak the angle or news hook behind your message to reflect the cultural context, values, and specific interests of each market.
If you already have an industry contact in that country, get to know them and make sure they understand your intentions, this will help your credibility through word of mouth, ultimately making your sell that little bit easier.
When your campaign feels native to the market, it stands a far better chance of cutting through the noise and generating results.
A global PR strategy isn’t about blanket coverage—it’s about smart, focused storytelling that is tailored to each individual market. Set clear goals, tailor your approach, and keep it cohesive - this will help you stand out from the crowd.
If you’re ready to start planning your global PR strategy, let’s have a chat. As part of the global iPR Team network, we work with a trusted network of experienced PR and marketing professionals across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the USA to help bring local insight and global coordination to your campaign.