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Creativity and relationship building has always been the cornerstone of public relations; however, many times PR professionals don’t put data in the driver’s seat to...

While making an authentic connection with your audience is the desired outcome for most campaigns, all too often companies fall into the temptation of using an A-list celebrity, popular timing hook or trendy event. At the end of the day, this type of approach does not build a true connection with your target audience or offer your campaign longevity.Don’t just fall into a splashy approach without considering strategies that will authentically connect with your audience.#1: Create a unique campaign narrative
Don’t compete for share of voice and visibility. Create a campaign platform that connects your audience, brand and call-to-action in a meaningful, relevant way. This will organically shift your narrative into a space that is unique to your organization.

This article was originally published in the Chicago Tribune. To view the original post, click here.

Is a campaign really help create positive changes in health habits? When we came across this keynote addressing behavior change strategies, it was great to see that we’ve been reading from the same book on driving healthy change when it comes to developing our client campaigns. Whether we’re encouraging audiences to consider switching to an osteopathic physician for a holistic approach to health, knowing the symptoms to identify a heart arrhythmia or making better decisions to live healthier every day, changes in behavior related to a person’s health come in many different forms.The key to behavior change is to “identify meaningful benefits to the person engaging in the behavior,” stated to Dr. Matthew Kreuter, PhD, MPH, from The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, during his keynote at the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Conference.Dr. Kreuter noted that each of the following elements plays a role in an effective change in behavior, “Promoting behavior change in ways that make it very personally relevant, using authentic stories from credible messengers that stimulate emotion, trying to identify meaningful benefits and meaningful consequences for the behaviors you’re trying to promote…”We use these tactics when collaborating with clients to build health campaigns that target audiences to create a positive change:1. Authentic Stories
For a campaign to be authentic, it needs to have a relatable story that makes sense for the organization and creates a connection with its audience.

Consumers are asked to support many cause marketing campaigns from large and small brands alike on a daily basis. With the number of companies aligning business with cause increasing, there’s a lot of noise to overcome when vying for attention and engaging audiences in your company’s campaign. This competition should not deter you from pursuing a cause campaign, but it begs the question, what can you do to be unique?

A recent report shows that, corporate responsibility has the potential to increase market value up to 4-6 percent, increase revenue by up to 20 percent and reduce the company’s staff turnover rate by up to 50 percent¹.

Most corporations are aware of the positive impacts of CSR and have already implemented these practices into their business. However, there is still a lot that can be done to incorporate key audiences, including employees, customers and other stakeholders, and build brand reputation. It’s imperative for companies to not only have CSR programs, but communicate the values and achievements of these efforts.