Whether you're a fast-growing brand, a small in-house comms team, or a PR agency looking for a more intuitive, flexible, or cost-effective solution, this guide will help you explore the best Cision alternatives of 2025.

Below, you’ll find a breakdown of tools that offer strong media relations capabilities—many with faster onboarding, more user-friendly interfaces, and modern features built for agile teams.

You will also learn about alternatives to Cision’s PR Newswire in the areas of:

• Alternative to PR Newswire: media pitching tools
• Alternative to PR Newswire: distribution websites

TL;DR: Why consider Cision alternatives?

Cision is a legacy platform with powerful capabilities—but it isn’t always the right fit, especially for smaller teams. If you’ve experienced any of the following, it might be time to explore your options:

• Lack of pricing transparency
  Cision does not publicly share its pricing plans; subscriptions often start around $10,000/year, average between $12,000–$15,000, and can reach up to $30,000/year depending on contract scope and features.
• Complicated interface and steep learning curve
  Adjusting search queries often requires advanced Boolean logic, making everyday tasks harder than they need to be.
• High cost for diminishing value
  Many users report rising prices alongside declining monitoring quality, especially since migrating to CisionOne.
• Inconsistent coverage and missed mentions
  Even long-time users have noted gaps in tracking—sometimes for outlets previously monitored.
• Fragmented customer support experience
  Frequent turnover among account reps and long response times can lead to delays and repeated explanations.
• Built for enterprises, not lean PR teams
  Cision’s structure and features are often better suited to large corporations with compliance-heavy needs, not smaller teams looking for efficiency and flexibility.

When to explore Cision competitors

Not every PR team needs an enterprise-grade platform. Here are a few signs that it might be time to consider alternatives to Cision:

• Your team is small but growing
  If you're part of a lean in-house comms team or a mid-sized agency, you may not need all the advanced, compliance-focused features that Cision provides.
• You value usability and speed
  If your team spends more time navigating the platform than using it to get results, a more intuitive tool could save hours each week.
• You want more flexible, transparent pricing
  Budget-conscious teams often find Cision's pricing hard to justify—especially when costs increase without a clear return on value.
• You need modern outreach features
  Tools like AI-powered journalist discovery, real-time analytics, or Semrush-backed media insights can dramatically improve pitching outcomes—and aren't always available in legacy platforms.
• You’re not getting the support you need
  If switching reps, long wait times, or lack of onboarding are blocking your progress, it may be time for a more responsive solution.

Best Cision alternatives: shortlist

Here’s a quick overview of the top Cision alternatives to consider in 2025:

• Prowly – best all-in-one PR platform for small and mid-sized teams
• Meltwater – ideal for enterprise teams needing deep media intelligence
• Muck Rack – known for a strong media database and journalist profiles
• Mynewsdesk – suited for companies focused on newsroom publishing
• Critical Mention – strong real-time broadcast monitoring
• AgilityPR – balanced mix of media database and distribution tools
• Brand24 – lightweight, budget-friendly media monitoring option

Cision alternative #1: Prowly

Prowly is an all-in-one public relations software solution that helps small and medium PR agencies and in-house PR teams manage media relations, create press releases, pitch the right journalists, and monitor PR campaigns, all backed by the power of AI.

Best for: Small to mid-sized PR teams looking for smart journalist targeting and built-in PR tools.

Pricing: Starts at $258/month, billed annually.

Free trial: Free 7 day trial available.

Key features:

• AI-powered journalist search enhanced by Semrush traffic and audience insights
• Pitching tools with personalization and automated follow-ups
• Press release creator with built-in newsroom hosting
• Advanced email analytics (open rates, clicks, optimal send times)
• Print and broadcast media monitoring
• Intuitive UI and fast onboarding
• Live customer support and dedicated onboarding help

Prowly vs. Cision: Which one’s right for you?

If your team is smaller, more agile, or just tired of overbuilt legacy software, Prowly may be a better fit. It’s designed to help you get results faster—without needing to decipher Boolean logic or go through layers of account reps to make changes.

Where Cision leans towards enterprise, Prowly is optimized for usability, flexibility, and modern PR workflows.

Why PR teams choose Prowly

Prowly stands out for teams who value speed, flexibility, and smart workflows over complex enterprise features. Here’s why small and mid-sized PR teams are making the switch:

• Faster, smarter media outreach
  With AI-powered journalist discovery backed by Semrush audience insights, Prowly helps you target the right contacts with less guesswork.
• Intuitive and easy to adopt
  No complex setup, no long learning curve—teams can get started quickly without training sessions or tech support tickets.
• Support that feels like an extension of your team
  Real human support, one-on-one onboarding, and responsive live chat make a difference when you’re on a deadline.
• Built for your budget
  Transparent pricing, a 7-day free trial, and no enterprise upsells. Prowly is designed to deliver real value without the overhead.

“As a fast-moving agency, we needed a tool that scaled with us—not slowed us down. Prowly gave us speed, flexibility, and access to niche media that larger platforms just didn’t.” — She-PR agency team. Read the full case study →

Lakesha Cole, CEO and Founder at ShePR, after evaluating various options, chose Prowly to streamline their PR workflow. A choice which saved them time, effort, and on the costs associated with running their agency.

Cision vs Prowly: pricing

Cision alternative #2: Mynewsdesk

MyNewsDesk is a digital PR and communications platform that helps organizations manage public relations efforts. It allows users to create and distribute press releases, manage media contacts, and analyze PR campaign performance.

Best for: Companies that want to centralize their PR content and focus on visibility through an owned newsroom.

Pricing: Unknown.

Free trial: Yes.

Key features:

• Digital newsroom creation and hosting
• Press release distribution to Mynewsdesk's media network
• Basic media monitoring and analytics
• Contact database and pitching tools
• Multimedia content support (images, videos, documents)

Cision vs MyNewsDesk: pricing

Mynewsdesk offers an all-in-one PR solution: from preparing and pitching press releases, to newsrooms, media monitoring, and a contact database.

✅ Pros

• you can manage the entire pitching process, together with communication analysis
• content agency offers

source: G2

🔻Cons

Users on G2 complain a bit about their editing tool. One person also advises you to keep track of the notice period and remember to terminate it 3 months before the contract expires.

source: G2

Cision alternative #3: Meltwater

Meltwater is an enterprise-grade media intelligence platform offering global media monitoring, social listening, and analytics. It’s best known for its extensive data coverage and advanced reporting capabilities for large-scale PR and marketing teams.

Best for: Large enterprises and corporate comms teams managing complex, multi-market campaigns with high compliance or investor relations needs.

Pricing: Based on our research, Meltwater costs an average of $15,000 to $20,000 per year.

Free trial: No, you can only request a demo call.

Key features:

• Global media monitoring (online, print, broadcast, social, podcasts)
• AI-powered sentiment analysis and brand tracking
• Influencer identification across earned and social media
• Competitive benchmarking and market intelligence tools
• Collaboration and workflow features for large comms teams

Cision vs Meltwater: pricing

Both tools require custom quotes, but Meltwater can often be slightly more affordable than Cision depending on the scope. However, many teams find both platforms overbuilt or overpriced for small to medium PR operations.

✅ Pros

Cision shares many similarities with Meltwater. According to user reviews on G2, Meltwater assists in identifying relevant media for pitches and offers strong media monitoring capabilities, as well as the following benefits:

• quality of mentions
• no limits on queries
• customer service is often praised

source: G2

🔻Cons

Users have reported outdated information in the media database and slow responses from customer service.

source: G2

Cision alternative #4: Muck Rack

Muck Rack is a PR software platform known for its journalist database and media monitoring capabilities. It offers tools for media outreach, press release distribution, and coverage tracking, with a strong focus on transparency and reputation management.

Best for: PR professionals who prioritize journalist research, tracking their brand's media presence, and pitching based on verified reporter profiles.

Pricing: We estimate that Muck Rack costs an average of $15,000 annually.

Free trial: No, you can only request a demo call.

Key features:

• Verified media database with dynamic journalist profiles
• Real-time media monitoring and alerts
• Pitching tools with engagement tracking
• Centralized newsroom for press release hosting
• Collaboration tools for agencies and large teams

Cision vs Muck Rack: pricing

✅ Pros

Users on G2 commend Muck Rack for its effective TV and radio monitoring capabilities. Additionally, the tool is noted for its excellent user experience and intuitive interface. The coverage reports are particularly valuable for identifying new individuals discussing your company.

🔻Cons

Muck Rack is positioned at the higher end of the pricing scale, making it suitable for teams with larger budgets. However, despite the cost, it has several drawbacks, such as inconsistent results compared to other tools and an abundance of media alerts without the ability to prioritize key mentions.

Cision alternative #5: Critical Mention

Critical Mention is a media monitoring service that tracks and analyzes broadcasts, online channels, and social media content. It provides real-time insights and analytics to help organizations manage their media presence and public relations efforts.

Best for: PR and comms teams that prioritize broadcast media monitoring—especially in regulated industries or high-visibility campaigns.

Pricing: Critical Mention costs between $2,500 and $10,000 per year.

Free trial: No, you can only request a demo call.

Key features:

• Real-time monitoring of TV, radio, and online broadcasts
• Instant access to video/audio coverage and transcripts
• Searchable media archive
• Media contact database and distribution tools
• Coverage reports and engagement metrics

Cision vs Critical Mention: pricing

✅ Pros

• they monitor various sources: broadcasts, podcasts, and even paywall content (through print-only stories)

source: G2

🔻Cons

• no details on their media database - you need to schedule a demo to learn more
• to cover other PR activities, you'd need a separate PR tool

source: G2

Cision alternative #6: AgilityPR

Agility PR Solutions is a comprehensive PR platform offering media database access, press release distribution, and media monitoring. It’s positioned as a more affordable, mid-market alternative to traditional enterprise platforms like Cision.

Best for: Mid-sized PR teams that want a mix of media outreach, monitoring, and basic analytics in a single tool.

Pricing: Unknown—you need to request a demo call to find out.

Free trial: No—you can only schedule a demo call.

Key features:

• Global media contact database
• Press release distribution via AgilityWire
• Media monitoring and sentiment tracking
• Customizable coverage and performance reporting
• Email outreach tools with limited automation

Cision vs AgilityPR: pricing

✅ Pros

• if you need to cover just one area with a PR tool, you can buy one package
• you can ask the team for a full editorial review of your press release
• the customer service is widely appreciated
• a bunch of recognition badges from G2

Source: G2

🔻Cons

• with annual plans, there's little space for flexibility
• they offer poor message personalization options
• users claim its pricing lies on the higher side
• some features are only available for extra money

Source: G2

Cision alternative #7: Brand24

Brand24 is a social listening and media monitoring tool designed to track online mentions across news sites, blogs, forums, and social media platforms. It's lightweight, fast, and built for teams that want to stay on top of conversations about their brand.

Best for: Small businesses, start-ups, and marketing teams looking for a simple, affordable way to monitor media and social chatter.

Pricing: From $199/month.

Free trial: Free 14-day trial available.

Key features:

• Real-time media and social media monitoring
• Sentiment analysis and trend detection
• Shareable reports and alerts
• Influencer identification
• Slack and mobile app integrations

Cision vs Brand24: pricing

✅ Pros

• cool brand monitoring options and mention sources
• clear interface
• numerous teams (marketing, product, customer service, sales) will benefit from Brand24

🔻Cons

• it's not a PR-focused platform - you'd need other tools to support different PR activities

💡 Brand24 is a great choice if you only need media monitoring and want to keep your PR work in Excel. When you prefer to keep your work all in one place, an all-in-one solution like Prowly might fit you better.

Alternative to PR Newswire: media pitching tools

PR Newswire is a global news distribution service by Cision that helps companies and organizations disseminate their press releases and other information to media, investors, and the public.

PR Newswire pricing

Starting price: From $195 per release

🔻Additional costs:

Determining the exact cost of a service can be challenging, especially with no free plans or trial offers available. Additional add-ons or membership fees can further complicate an understanding of the final amount you'll need to pay.

Pitching vs. Cision PR Newswire

PR Newswire is a news distribution service from Cision. It ensures broad reach and visibility, but what about outcomes?

Here's why you should consider sending personalized emails to journalists as a PR Newswire alternative:

• targeted outreach: with a personal email pitch, you increase the chance of getting published
• strategic releases: media pitching lets you go with exclusive pitches and embargoed releases - a valuable aid in building relationships
• measurable ROI: the stable, monthly cost of Prowly gives you a clearer expense and ROI estimation - and a chance to make an impact with each press release
• investment in strategic partnerships: the focus for 37% of PR specialists, according to our latest research in PR trends for 2024, well-thought out, personalized messages help you foster closer relationships

The difference? PR platforms offer a noteworthy advantage regarding the volume of press releases you can send. Using their extensive media databases, you can efficiently reach out to numerous media contacts for announcements for a fraction of the cost.

Pitching tool examples

You can try pitching the right media with Prowly, where you can get everything: from a media pitching tool to craft your message, through a huge database to find the right contacts right away, to an AI Assistant that helps you write your pitch, tweak it, and find the best media contacts.

Plus the press release creator, PR reports, media monitoring and online newsrooms are already counted into the price.

Who is Prowly best for?

PR agencies and in-house teams that are focused on building relationships and don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a single press release. A perfect mix of efficiency and cost effectiveness.

No newswire service can guarantee your story gets picked up - so you need to invest in other distribution methods anyway.

Alternative to PR Newswire: distribution websites

Another alternative to Cision’s PR Newswire is to use other PR websites, like Business Wire, for their press release fee distribution.

Who is it best for?

Corporations who need to share press releases through newswire services - e. g. for legal reasons.

You can try out solutions like:

• EIN Presswire (from $99.95 /release)
• Globe Newswire (contact for a quote)
• Newswire (from $349.00 /release)
• Presswire (from $250 /release)

💡 Compare the most popular choices and learn more about the best press release distribution websites in this article.

Which solution fits you best?

With numerous Cision alternatives, it can be challenging to make up your mind. Here are our takeaways:

• pricing might be the biggest differentiator, especially with tools that don't share it upfront
• all-in-one PR platforms let you combine data from various PR areas all in one tool
• not all media databases are equal, so make sure to test them out or ask for a sample

While there’s no simple answer, the best way to choose your solution is by trying it out on your own.

Ready to start testing your options?

Besides transparent pricing plans, Prowly offers you a full 7-day free trial period. No credit card required, no pressure 👇

The post The 7 Best Cision Alternatives for 2025 (Features & Pricing) appeared first on Prowly.

Understanding who's discussing your or your client's brand, knowing their sentiment, remaining well-informed, swiftly addressing issues, and fostering a positive brand image are key tactics in PR. 

Prowly is the best brand monitoring software that ticks all the boxes, but there are plenty of other solid choices. In this article, we take a look at the best brand monitoring software for PR professionals, agencies, and in-house communication teams:

1. Prowly
2. Semrush
3. Brandwatch
4. Brand24
5. Sprout Social
6. Mention
7. Google Alerts
8. Talkwalker
9. Hootsuite
10. BuzzSumo
11. Awario
12. Keyhole
13. X Pro

In the second part of this article, you'll find answers to the following questions:

• How do you monitor a brand?
• How to choose a brand monitoring tool?

What is brand monitoring software?

Brand monitoring software is a tool that helps businesses keep track of how their brand is being mentioned and perceived across various channels. It collects and analyzes brand mentions from sources such as:

• news sites
• blogs
• social media
• forums
• and other online sources

Such software typically includes media monitoring, social listening, and journalist tracking features.

It can identify when your brand is mentioned, flag emerging stories or narratives, and analyze the tone and sentiment behind each mention, whether positive, neutral, or negative.

Brand monitoring software is especially useful for understanding consumer perception, spotting potential PR risks early, and identifying media or influencer relationships worth pursuing. It allows brands to stay informed and control how they are talked about in public.

Key features to look for in top brand monitoring software

When evaluating brand monitoring tools, look for features beyond basic tracking. The best platforms offer a combination of speed, depth, and workflow support. Here are the most important ones to consider:

What to monitor for your brand (and why)

To understand how your brand is performing, it’s important to track more than just mentions. Here are some of the most valuable brand metrics to keep an eye on:

• Share of voice – How often your brand is mentioned compared to competitors
• Sentiment – Whether mentions are positive, neutral, or negative
• Media reach – The potential audience size of your coverage
• Top sources and channels – Where your brand is getting the most attention
• Key topics and narratives – What themes are consistently linked with your brand
• Audience engagement – Likes, shares, and comments on brand-related content

These metrics help you measure visibility, reputation, and relevance over time. For a full breakdown, check out this guide on brand metrics.

Top brand monitoring software to try in 2025

Now that you know which features you need to measure brand awareness, stay on top of industry trends, and improve your overall brand health, let's discuss the best brand monitoring tools you can choose in 2025.

1. Prowly

• Price: starting from $258 monthly
• Free trial: Yes, for 7 days
• All-in-one PR tool: Yes
• G2 rating: 4.2/5 (103 reviews)

Prowly is the only tool on our list that's focused entirely on a PR specialist's needs. It covers your entire PR workflow - with an online newsroom, media database, AI press release creator, and, of course, tracking brand mentions.

Prowly offers fast onboarding, with a clean user experience, allowing anyone to track their brand mentions online without a steep learning curve.

Prowly's data is powered by Semrush, which means it's accurate and up to date. It also offers cutting-edge features such as advanced email analytics and AI-powered journalist discovery.

Track brand mentions

Prowly's Media Monitoring helps you track brand mentions and analyze metrics that are PR-specific, like AVE, SOV or outlet reach. Together with regular metrics, like reach or sentiment, you can estimate the effects of each campaign.

Prowly’s AI detects the context, sentiment, and over 15 other attributes of every press hit and social mention. Leverage this data to establish tailored filters for viewing only the mentions that matter most to you.

Examples of filters:

• Keyword combinations & context
• Topic of each mention and website (1000+ available)
• Estimated mention reach
• Region and language
• Platform (Instagram, X, Facebook, Tiktok, Youtube)

Build custom reports

The top brand tools make your life easier with clean and neat reports. In Prowly, you can generate a coverage report whenever you need it to sum up a particular month or a full campaign. Create coverage reports tailored to what you need with multiple metrics, chart types, and filters. Show how your outcomes correlate with business objectives and save the time usually needed to fill the report manually.

2. Semrush’s Brand Monitoring App

• Price: $79 for the add-on
• Free trial or demo: Yes, you can try the tool for free and schedule free training
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: 4.5/5 (2651 reviews)

Semrush is a comprehensive tool for online marketing — from SEO and content to paid promotion and PR. It's often chosen by agencies and huge players, and that's why it made our list.

If you work for an agency or a big company, chances are you already use Semrush. If your company already uses several marketing tools, you might consider switching to an all-in-one solution.

Then, for brand monitoring purposes, you can add the Brand Monitoring App, developed by Prowly. It covers the entire media monitoring functionality of Prowly's original platform.

💡 Tip: When choosing a media monitoring service, make sure it's tailored to local media — for example, the UK market.

3. Brand24

• Price: starting from $119 monthly
• Free trial or demo: Yes, for 14 days
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: 4.6/5 (296 reviews)

Brand24 is focused solely on your brand's online presence. You can analyze all publicly available data coming from web pages, social media, or - and this is pretty unique - podcasts and newsletters.

With sentiment analysis, estimated awareness metrics, social media monitoring tools and alerts, you'll be the first to find out about an upcoming crisis.

If you're looking for more tools that can help you with crisis prevention, check out this Best PR Crisis Management Software Comparison.

4. Brandwatch

• Price: pricing available upon request
• Free trial or demo: you can book a meeting
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: 4.4/5 (635 reviews)

Brandwatch is one of the most advanced brand monitoring software offerings on our list. Brandwatch tracks brand mentions in both online and offline areas. For example, you can access paywalled news, broadcasts, YouTube, or TikTok - with datasets going back more than 10 years.

You get advanced analytics solutions to manage this impressive list of data sources, backed by machine learning algorithms. Also, you can track your data and brand management efforts on real-time dashboards.

However, if you're looking for a tool that can monitor not only online media but also print and broadcast (meaning radio and TV programs), Prowly is a great choice.

With Prowly's print and broadcast monitoring, you can track mentions not just online but across newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV, ensuring you never miss important coverage. While manual tracking might work for a small client, securing comprehensive media insights—both nationally and internationally—requires automation.

Prowly streamlines this process, combining digital and traditional media monitoring in one powerful platform so you can access all your relevant mentions.

5. Sprout Social

• Price: the Social Listening add-on starts from $999 monthly
• Free trial or demo: Yes, you can try it for 30 days or get a demo call
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: 4.4/5 (4,181 reviews)

Sprout Social is a complex social media management platform. It offers social listening features, such as profile or location monitoring, that you can use to monitor brand reputation, collect customer feedback, or monitor your marketing campaigns.

For each query, it retrieves all historical data, so you can start your analysis right away. With complex queries and filters, you'll get valuable results.

For PR purposes, you can also use trend identification and influencer recognition.

💡 Learn how to create effective media monitoring queries using Prowly from this article based on real-life examples.

6. Mention

• Price: starting from $41 monthly 
• Free trial or demo: Yes, there's a 14-day free trial available, and you can book a demo call
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: 4.3/5 (440 reviews)

Mention is another tool for social media management, combining social listening with post-scheduling. You can track brand mentions from blogs, online news, social media channels, and videos (including YouTube and TikTok).

Moreover, you can track chosen review pages (like Booking or G2) and social media accounts to ensure you don't miss new content.

Mention also lets you evaluate each hit with sentiment, reach, and influence score. In higher-priced plans, it offers insights and more advanced analytics.

7. Google Alerts

• Price: free
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: N/A

Google Alerts is the only free tool on our list. It's popular, easy to use, and (again) free, but you might struggle with getting actual value out of it.

When Google indexes a new page that mentions a phrase you wish to observe, you get an email notification. And basically, that's it. But it can be enough if you need a simple tool or are just getting started.

For professional PR purposes, it's pretty limited. You get the results with a delay, it doesn't cover sources like social media channels, and it might not send you all relevant results. Plus, you don't get analytics, like sentiment info, reach, or trends in your data.

To learn more, check out our article on Google Alerts alternatives. It covers in detail why it is worth making a switch.

8. Talkwalker

• Price: available upon request
• Free trial or demo: No free trial, but you can book a demo call
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: 4.3/5 (132 reviews)

alkwalker is one of the most comprehensive brand tracking tools on the market. It covers over 30 social media channels and 150 million data sources, giving insights into even the most niche topics.

It provides your PR campaigns with sentiment, reach, and engagement analytics. You can use the advanced Boolean search to get only relevant resources. Moreover, Talkwalker tracks visual content, meaning you get information from images and videos too.

You can compare your brand reputation with the competition based on sentiment, engagement and reach. Also, the tool will assist you in finding appropriate influencers.

💡 Tip: If you want to make your PR strategy truly robust, read these articles to learn how to manage your brand reputation and protect its reputation.

9. Hootsuite

• Price: starting from $99 monthly, though Social Listening is an add-on and not included in the main product
• Free trial or demo: Yes, a free 30-day trial (or up to 60% off the plans if you skip it)
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: 4.2/5 (6,216 revie

Hootsuite was created for social media management, with post scheduling, indicators of the best time for posting, and a social media inbox. And it does offer some social listening options that can help with brand monitoring.

Hootsuite analyzes most major social media sites and monitors mentions, keywords and hashtags. It also integrates with other brand monitoring tools, like Talkwalker and Brandwatch.

10. BuzzSumo

• Price: starting from $199 monthly 
• Free trial or demo: Yes, a free 30-day trial
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: 4.5/5 (103 reviews)

BuzzSumo gives you tools to generate buzz about your company or client, either via PR or marketing strategies. It offers a wide range of tools to generate content ideas, spot influencers, and support content research.

In terms of brand monitoring, you can track brand mentions for yourself or your competitors. You can also get alerts when given authors or outlets publish something new. This option can prove valuable if your PR outreach strategy involves engaging with specific people.

11. Awario

• Price: starting at $39 monthly 
• Free trial or demo: Yes, free trial available
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: 4.0/5 (41 reviews)

Awario is a full-time brand monitoring tool. Its web crawler analyzes over 13 million pages and social media channels daily. You can look for results in given locations and use the Boolean search to refine your query.

To analyze the data, you get a simple dashboard with the crucial information on hand. In higher priced plans, you can download white-labeled reports with brand mention analysis.

12. Keyhole

• Price: starts at $179 monthly
• Free trial or demo: Yes, free trial available
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: 4.3/5 (69 reviews)

Keyhole was designed for social media platforms. It lets you analyze profiles, hashtags, or phrases across different channels.

This solution is your ally if you run many PR campaigns on social media channels. You can get insights on your performance, see the most engaging post for your searched term, or find the best influencer for your campaign. What's more, it comes with detailed reports and comparisons.

Apart from the social listening options, you can use it as your social media planning tool. With scheduling and profile analytics, Keyhole helps you squeeze more from social media — both for marketing and PR.

13. X Pro (formerly TweetDeck)

• Price: only available in the X (Twitter) Premium subscription
• Free trial or demo: No
• All-in-one PR tool: No
• G2 rating: 4.3/5 (653 reviews)

Formerly called TweetDeck, XPro was one of the most useful free tools for heavy Twitter users. It lets you open a few X threads on one screen and follow the conversations simultaneously.

Although it's not full-time brand monitoring software, we decided to include it here for those who already spend hours on X threads. It's a nice addition to keep the conversations flowing!

Nevertheless, it won't be enough for more advanced insights. For example, it lacks social media reach and sentiment analysis.

Right now, it's available only with an X Premium subscription.

P.S. Discover more ideas and inspiration by exploring this guide to brand awareness campaigns, complete with examples to spark your creativity.

How do you monitor a brand?

Brand mention monitoring effectively means turning raw mentions into usable insights. Here’s a simple 5-step process to follow:

1. Choose your monitoring tool
   Pick a platform that fits your needs across PR, marketing, or customer teams. Prowly helps automate this process by integrating monitoring with outreach and analytics.
2. Set up keyword and brand name alerts
   Include your brand name, product names, key personnel, relevant hashtags and common misspellings.
3. Track mentions across media types
   Make sure your tool scans online news, blogs, forums, podcasts, review sites, and social platforms for full coverage.
4. Analyze sentiment and reach
   Use built-in AI tools to understand the tone and audience size behind each mention, helping you assess overall brand perception.
5. Take action
   Respond to the press, engage with customers, flag PR risks, and compile internal reports. With tools like Prowly, you can do all of this in one place.

What is a brand tracking tool?

What are brand tracking and monitoring tools? They are based on crawlers - robots that go through (crawl) the Internet, looking for specific information. Depending on the tool or technology it uses, you may access varied sources, such as forums, websites, social media, or offline news, in search of people mentioning your brand.

When you set up a project, choosing keywords, geographical area, or other factors that are important for you, the brand tracking software starts to gather information. In most online monitoring tools, you can get alerts when relevant brand mentions are found.

Most monitoring tools give you access to analytics. These often consist of one main brand tracking dashboard and more detailed views. This way, you can easily compare data for given campaigns or timeframes.

Beware, though, that keeping data for a long time is costly. That's why some news monitoring tools gather data only after you set up a project and store it only for a fixed period. Tools that let you go way back in time usually reflect it in higher pricing.

What is a brand monitoring tool used for? 

Brand monitoring software supports several high-impact use cases across PR, marketing, product, and customer teams. Here’s how companies typically use it:

• Track media mentions
  See where your brand appears across online news, blogs, and media outlets. Tools like Prowly help PR teams identify the best media opportunities and track who’s covering their brand.
• Detect potential PR crises early
  Real-time alerts and sentiment analysis help you catch negative mentions before they escalate into larger issues.
• Analyze brand sentiment
  Understand how your audience feels about your brand over time and spot changes in tone across key channels.
• Measure earned media performance
  Evaluate which media placements delivered the most value in terms of reach, tone, and alignment with campaign goals.
• Monitor campaign impact
  The best brand monitoring tools track how brand mentions increase during campaigns and where your message is landing.
• Identify journalist sentiment and relationships
  Understand which journalists are writing about you, how they frame your brand, and where to build stronger connections.
• Support cross-functional insights
  Sales, product, and support teams can spot patterns in customer feedback and market perception through brand conversations.

Tools like Prowly combine monitoring with outreach and reporting features, making them especially valuable for PR professionals looking to connect insights with action.

Choose your solution

The choice might be difficult, but it's well worth implementing a brand monitoring tool in your daily work. With this kind of intel, you'll be empowered to make better decisions and improve the quality of your PR results.

Read a few more comparisons, try a few chosen platforms yourself, and get the benefits rolling in from brand monitoring. Good luck!

The post 13 Top Brand Monitoring Software for PR Managers Compared (2025) appeared first on Prowly.

Until you can prevent all public relations crises, you can - and should - prepare for them in advance.

What is PR Crisis Management?

PR crisis management is an organizational strategy to manage and mitigate unexpected events that pose a threat to the reputation or survival of a company.

This approach focuses on thorough planning to promptly and efficiently respond to any crisis that could impact the company's image or stakeholder relationships.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of PR crisis management is gauged by how well a crisis is handled, how swiftly the company recovers, and how the crisis impacts long-term trust and relationships with stakeholders.

Usually, brands plan ahead with PR crisis management strategies, which define:

• what potentially harmful situations look like
• what steps should be taken (and by whom)
• how to handle the media during a crisis
• and what to do after the crisis has been managed

Crisis Prevention: The Real Game-Changer in PR Crisis Management

Identifying Hidden Vulnerabilities

Most brands focus on external risks - negative press, social media backlash, or customer complaints. But the real threats often come from within. Weak internal policies, poor leadership decisions, and unmonitored employee behavior can trigger PR disasters. Conduct regular audits to identify blind spots before they explode.

Monitoring & Sentiment Analysis: Staying Ahead of the Storm

A crisis doesn’t start when the media reports it, but starts when warning signs go unnoticed. Investing in real-time brand monitoring and sentiment analysis can alert you to emerging problems. Track customer sentiment, competitor narratives, and industry shifts to detect early indicators of trouble.

Pre-Crisis Communication Playbook

A well-structured crisis communication plan can be the difference between swift recovery and prolonged fallout. This should include:

• Pre-approved messaging templates for different scenarios
• Designated spokespersons trained in crisis communication
• A rapid response team with clear roles and decision-making authority
• Internal and external communication protocols

Spot a PR crisis in time

The first rule of crisis management in PR: the sooner you know, the better.

Learn our methods of spotting upcoming trouble.

1. Monitor mentions around your brand

If you haven't already started media monitoring, it's high time you did. Why?

You can learn what journalists and social media users say about your brand or the topics you care about in real-time. It's the single biggest reason to use media monitoring. With this intel, you can react appropriately and promptly, which is crucial in PR crisis prevention.

The immediate nature of alerts helps you find out about potential threats and tackle them before the media, your stakeholders, or your client base becomes concerned.

Of course, media monitoring proves insightful all the time. When the situation is stable, you can use it to measure your PR results, like earned media. It also shows you potential new initiatives or cooperation opportunities.

Media monitoring gives you an understanding of what makes up the usual level of noise. With these numbers in hand, you can easily assess what changes should concern you.

→ Interested in diving into the details? Read our Media Mentions Guide.

2. Use media monitoring tools to prevent a PR crisis

You don't have to scroll through the internet in search of media mentions to analyze. Tools like Media Monitoring do it for you, and even add more information, like sentiment, estimated reach, and context.

You can get real-time notifications about the content. Even before it appears on Google search.

Prowly AI helps identify the context of each press hit so you can filter the results and get only those that are relevant to you.

There are some free tools for brand monitoring, like Google Alerts, but they can provide you with inaccurate and outdated mentions. For professional purposes, and especially in PR crisis prevention, you should definitely choose Google Alerts alternatives and limit the drawbacks.

3. Implement a social listening tool

Currently, there's a high chance of a PR crisis coming from social media. That's why your audience might be the first to spot a problem, way before it crosses your team’s radar.

With proper social listening tools, you can prevent an escalation in time. This can even save the company's bottom line, as it can be vulnerable to an untreated PR crisis.

Prowly's Social Listening tool gives a wide range of options, helpful in PR crisis prevention. It can help you understand how your audience feels about your brand. Also, you can gain insights into countries and languages where you have the highest engagement.

All of this helps you make decisions based on real data, instead of a gut feeling.

Noticing a sudden drop in sentiment and a peak in mentions' number? That might be one of the first signs of a PR crisis on the rise.

P.S. Check out this guide on social media crisis management to fine-tune your strategy with a few practical tips.

Pay attention to the volume of mentions

The volume of mentions will naturally rise and fall, all depending on your PR activities, marketing, and other factors. With media monitoring in place, you can set up your baseline — the normal or expected amount of chatter.

Then an unexpected rise in volume certainly won't leave you indifferent. It can be due either to a sudden earned media success, or the alarm to man PR crisis prevention stations. Together with sentiment analysis, they can keep you informed on how to react.

Use filters to focus on valuable mentions

Not all mentions bring value — especially if you track popular or generic keywords. Prowly's tool lets you filter the results and show only what's interesting for you. So  you can save time on extracting the signal from the noise.

You can set various types of filters, like date range, article language, domain country, domain relevance, and sentiment. Group them together to get to the specific media mentions you need.

Set up alerts

Get email notifications for chosen types of mentions. You can choose what situations need your immediate attention. With alerts, you can react quicker and put out a fire before it spreads.

You can set up various alerts and choose who should get them. For example, your communication front line can be notified about negative sentiment mentions so that they can quickly assess a situation as it arises.

Create reports for crisis management

Using technology in Public Relations results in a lot of numbers. And you can use reports to showcase the impact of your work. This way, you'll be able to better communicate the value of your work to the board.

The reporting feature helps you organize mentions, show their estimated reach and views, and translate them into reliable metrics. 

Showing relevant data is especially useful once you educate your stakeholders. If you need to explain to them why it is so important to have a PR specialist on board a crisis team, the numbers can help get your point across.

Insights you gather in a clear, easy-to-digest format will definitely help you prepare for an upcoming PR crisis. They are invaluable in assessing the efficiency of your strategies. With reports, you don't have to go through each situation in detail - just the crucial information.

Keep an eye on your competition

You could limit your monitoring to your brand or go beyond and observe your competition.

If your competitor faces a PR crisis, you'll be able to assess the situation and make sure it doesn't impact your business. Also, you can analyze their reactions and draw insights for future use.

How to handle a PR crisis

It all starts with preparation. Here’s how to manage a PR crisis:

Step 1. Identify potential crisis triggers

This helps you spot potential problems sooner. If you notice a trigger, you can observe how the situation develops and adjust your response.

Potential crisis triggers can be:

• New challenges faced by your competitors or the industry in general
• A PR crisis of one of your competitors
• A negative review of your business
• Mismatched marketing communication
• An executive scandal
• Harassment or discrimination testimonials

Classify the triggers to quickly assess how serious the situation can be.

Step 2. Prepare procedures for PR crises

Adjust your plan of action to how severe the situation is, as one of the crucial rules claims: don't overreact. Your reaction is also crucial in calming (or worsening) a PR crisis. Putting more effort into putting out a fire than is necessary gives the impression that there is something more to hide.

Come up with a few procedures to follow. They can quicken your reaction time.

Specifically, you’ll want to establish:

• Who is the first response line
• Who makes up the crisis PR strategy team
• What type of media you use to reply
• When it should be escalated

If the situation can seriously threaten your company, make sure the public relations and crisis management teams cooperate. As you'll have to work on the unified message you send out to the public, having at least one PR specialist on board is a must.

Step 3. Craft a crisis response strategy

When a crisis hits, you don't have much time to come up with your first words from scratch. A few versatile forms of addressing the problem should be prepared in advance. You can opt for a press release, social media posts, video statements, or blog posts.

In PR crisis management, an effective emergency response to negative publicity includes:

• Reassurance
• Transparency
• An appropriate, respectful tone

Make sure to highlight that you're investigating the situation. Show that you care and respect your clients and stakeholders, and above all treat the issue seriously.

Your quick reaction can show you have control over the situation and gives you time for a more detailed response, and that's gold in crisis PR management.

Later, when you know more about the situation, a press release or more advanced content forms are definitely your go-to tool. Check out our crisis press release examples and see how to craft your own.

Revise your actions after each PR crisis

Learning from real-life situations plays a huge part in PR (and crisis) management. Make sure to assess the efficiency of your PR strategies for crisis management and build them up with new insights as you gain them.

Of course, it'd be best to do it after each PR crisis you spot in your industry. Potentially, you may face similar issues as your competitors, and the audiences’ reactions can guide you in improving your messaging.

Implement helpful technology

PR tools like Prowly help you in efficient media crisis management at all stages of a PR crisis:

• Media Monitoring helps to spot incoming crises and tracks how they develop over time.
• Media Database provides access to over 1 million contacts and helps you build targeted media lists and pitch your side of the story with a personalized message.
• Online Newsroom and Press Release Creator give you the tools to share your narrative and respond to a crisis.
• PR Reports let you analyze the numbers and assess the final impact.

Good PR Crisis Management Examples

The best way to learn is from real-life PR crisis examples, and believe me: when it comes to this topic, it's a never-ending story.

That's why we’ve collected some recent PR crisis examples — both good and bad. Read our analysis and give it some thought. What would you do in such situations?

Let's start with one of the best crisis management examples:

PR crisis management example #1. Slack

Imagine losing access to your company's main communication tool — for 5 hours. That's what happened to Slack users back in 2022.

The company faced the challenge with transparency, keeping their users updated. They even spoke openly about the errors they made in the process. Finally, a sincere apology (with a bit of the sense of humor well known in their overall messaging), made a perfect finish to the crisis.

Slack kept the trust of its users with transparency and honesty. They owned their errors and made sure their users were informed about their progress.

PR crisis management example #2. Aldi's #freeCuthbert

What is an example of good crisis management? Aldi can certainly share some insights.

Back in 2021, M&S, a UK-based food store chain, called their competitor, Aldi, to court. The reason? Aldi's caterpillar cake, Cuthbert, seemed to bear a resemblance to M&S’s version, Colin. If M&S had succeeded in court, it would have had severe consequences - and have caused a huge PR crisis.

And what was Aldi's reaction?

Together with their agency, McCann Manchester, they held a brilliant social media campaign which aimed to win people's hearts. It all started with a simple tweet:

Their entire campaign consisted of about 20 posts, published on Twitter and Facebook for around a week.

And the results were impressive:

They were featured in the media (gaining around £5m in earned media), and significantly increased their followers and social engagement rate. #freeCuthbert was the most popular hashtag on Twitter… twice. People started to make memes and widely used the hashtag.

Also, the entire situation changed the news’ sentiment (Aldi +8.5%, M&S -134%), as well as purchase consideration (Aldi +6.1%, M&S -15.3%). Those are serious numbers that impacted both businesses' bottom lines.

Aldi went further, calling all supermarkets to donate money to cancer foundations - with a new campaign, #caterpillarsForCancer. Cuthbert is still present in their marketing actions, being a big part of their company easter eggs.

The campaign not only turned the PR crisis into a massive win. It even took the Grand Prix at The Drum Award for Social Media, and another Grand Prix at Eurobest Awards in the category of "Influencers and Social."

PR crisis management example #3. Burger King

Brands are getting increasingly more engaged in social issues, especially on dates like International Women's Day. It can be either successful, shedding light on the cause by raising controversy, or a disaster.

Taking a harmful statement and trying to give it a new meaning was a bold decision. In this case, Burger King made the wrong call and provoked their own PR crisis.

What was Burger King's Public Relations response to the crisis? The company owned their misjudgment and sincerely apologized. Pro tip, there's no place for "To all those who felt offended, I want to apologize." They proceeded with showing the aim of the campaign, which was in helping women pursue their dreams of becoming professional chefs.

Also, they explained their decision to delete the original tweet. As the team claimed, comments that appeared in the following thread were abusive and they didn't want to allow them. Without this context, it might have been seen as an attempt to clean up their image and pretend that nothing happened.

Best PR crisis management examples: a wrap-up

Let's summarize the most important take-aways:

⬛ The golden rule is transparency and owning your mistakes. This alongside acknowledging the feelings of your audience helps maintain their trust.

⬛ Even when you're hit by a crisis, PR communication allows some space for humor. Make sure to choose the appropriate moment, though, like Slack - they only became humorous again after solving the problem. Also, it needs to keep in line with your brand voice.

⬛ The last point is, don't forget about giving legitimate reasons for the company's decisions. Burger King deleting the original tweet without explanation would garner more criticism, not praise.

In the best crisis management examples you can spot a common thread of transparency. Even Aldi, with its playful campaign, didn't run away from the fact that it was sued for their cake’s similarities.

P.S. Here’s an article that might come in handy if you’re looking for a tool to measure the impact of your communication efforts.

Bad crisis management examples

Let's go through some cases where crisis management in PR heavily and negatively impacted the company:

PR crisis management example #1. Silicon Valley Bank

This might be the first bank run fueled by social media - a media crisis example to learn from.

The SVB specialized in tech sector financing. With the boom for tech companies that arose with the pandemic, it became the 16th biggest bank in the U.S. and provided financing for about half of all U.S. venture-backed technology and healthcare companies.

Nevertheless, inflation and poor managerial decisions caused a drop in the bank's portfolio value.

On March 8, it started to sell its bonds at a loss to gain capital. As a result, people became alarmed that their money wasn't secure. They started withdrawing it, and a wildfire spread across Twitter and WhatsApp, inducing panic.

As a result, the next day SVB's stock plummeted by 60% and, on March 10, it collapsed.

The relationship between the Twitter noise and the bank’s stock price decrease was confirmed on a larger scale by experts at The Conversation. Their research shows how impactful social media can be - up to the point of predicting a banks' destabilization. And, as the SVB example shows, it can even lead to bankruptcy.

PR crisis management example #2. Twitter becoming X

What is an example of a PR crisis in 2023? Twitter, under the lead of Elon Musk, certainly had its share. But we'll focus now on their rebranding. Twitter was renamed to X — the everything app, which would include payments, video streaming, and e-commerce.

What caused the problem?

First of all, the rush. When the rebranding was announced, the company visibly wasn't ready for it. From a lack of changes in copy to issues with the domain name, it added up to a quickly diminishing trust.

What's more, it was an attempt to eradicate a well-known name, which had grown into everyday language. People still tweet their tweets even now, instead of x-ing their x-es. With Twitter traces still visible in the service, the X name has a long way to go before it can ever Twitter.

Musk also (famously) used Twitter (errr, X) polls to make the final calls on rebranding, like setting the default platform color to black. As you can see on the tweet date, it was posted soon before the rebranding was announced.

This chaotic rebranding communication is only a part of what was a somewhat dubious attempt at media crisis management. Public Relations experts shared their insights with Forbes, talking about how Musk's actions contributed to the Twitter crisis.

PR crisis management example #3. Ticketmaster vs Swifties battle

Taylor Swift definitely has one of the biggest and most active fan bases in the world — and Ticketmaster, a ticker vendor site, faced their anger. Imagine: you're a die-hard fan who can't get tickets to her first tour in years.

And that's exactly what happened.

Ticketmaster kicked off the sign-up process for their Verified Fan presale, giving Swifties the opportunity to get their tickets ahead of the crowd. Its aim was to exclude bots and smooth out the buying process.

Yet, there arose the first problem. When the presale was about to start, they randomly handed out presale codes to 1.5 million fans, leaving a whopping 2 million registered Swifties out in the cold. Nevertheless, the site was hit by over 14 million visitors.

As you can imagine, the servers couldn’t manage the load.

Even fans who got the code couldn't buy tickets, yet at the same time, bots began to appear on the site. This proved that the Ticketmaster system was not prepared for the flood, and was still vulnerable to bots.

Finally, there weren't enough tickets left for a public sale, which was eventually canceled. Tons of fans ended up without the possibility of buying a ticket. What's worse? Tickets available on resale platforms reached prices of up to several thousand dollars.

Swift herself published a statement where she expressed disappointment, comparing the buying process to going through "several bear attacks."

The issue led fans and the ticket platform to court, boosting the discussion about Ticketmaster’s monopoly. The case was even tackled (again) by the U.S. Congress.

As for Ticketmaster and their reaction, they committed various mistakes along the way.

When the problem appeared, they didn't opt for proactive communication, leaving most of the fans uncertain. They also didn't comment on any actions they would take to alleviate the problem.

Their tweet about canceling the tour sale lacked any form of acknowledging their fault, pushing it on "extraordinarily high demands." As Swift stated, she and her team insisted on ensuring that the service would meet the spike, which is contradictory to Ticketmaster’s own words.

Later, they re-published a previously deleted statement with slight edits and added an apology. The first version worsened the audience's reaction and finally got taken down from the company's website.

A lack of transparency and accountability fueled the development of the PR crisis it had to face.

Worst crisis management examples: a wrap-up

Let's sum up these PR disasters with three takeaways.

⬛ The major mistake is chaotic communication - or its lack. In difficult times, each word is assessed by everyone involved. Your choice (even to remain silent) weighs heavily on how a crisis evolves.

⬛ Furthermore, a lack of ownership which contradicts the basic PR rules of an effective apology. These classic rules can guide you on how to approach common situations. Finally, they help get you out of a brand reputation crisis.

In all of the above examples, we have to acknowledge the impact of social media. It seems obvious and well-worn already, but the consequences we saw in 2023 - as serious as taking down a bank - have to be respected.

Key takeaways: effective PR crisis management

PR teams have an increasingly more challenging task. Firstly, companies (and their leaders) are sending out more communication all the time, so the chance of missing the mark continues to rise. At the same time, anyone can reply and start a fire. In this environment, the way you handle it can make or break (or at least damage) your company.

Remember the stages of crisis management in public relations: preparation, damage assessment, take action, and analysis.

The most important part of managing any PR crisis is preparation. Think about the problems you could face and plan ahead with possible solutions. They can prove invaluable when time literally becomes money.

Proper technology helps you face any PR crisis more effectively. Prowly proves useful not only in times of PR crisis, it covers your entire PR workflow: with media pitching, an online newsroom, and press release creator.

Sounds interesting? Give it a try for 7 days for free.

The post PR Crisis Management Playbook: What the Pros Won’t Tell You appeared first on Prowly.

The format of a press release has a huge impact on its efficiency.

Yet, this is a rare topic, as most guides focus on the writing aspect. We're happy to add our two cents and broaden your press release skillset!

Stay with us and we'll share all the secrets about press release formatting we know!

Why should you follow the standard press release format?

The short answer: that's what journalists expect. And by making their job easier, you get a better chance of being published.

Yet, there are more reasons to stick to the standard format.

Press release examples that follow it:

• are widely accepted. When in doubt, go with the standard option. It ensures your press release isn't rejected because of looking unprofessional.
• arrange information. That's helpful for you, too! By following the standard format for press releases, you can be sure you don't miss out on any important detail. And journalists can easily extract what they need.
• open the door for journalists' stories. A good press release gives out all the important pieces and suggestions for a story, but not the story itself. That's where the journalist takes over and puts the story together.

There's one exception to this rule — when your target audience has other needs. We'll cover that in a moment.

How to format a press release?

Let's jump straight into the details. Here's the standard way to format your release — and a sample of a press release format.

Press release structure:

1. Headline
2. Subheader / Lead
3. Dateline
4. Body
5. Quote
6. Company info (boilerplate)
7. Logo
8. Media contact information

Time to look at each element and get a press release sample format. 🔎

Headline

The headline can either convince journalists that your press release is worth their time — or make them skip it. That's why you need to give those few words a lot of thought.

Looking for tips on writing catchy headlines? Check out our guide on writing press release headlines!

From a formatting point of view, your headlines' length must fit how it will be displayed. For example, you can check your online newsroom or link previews on social media. You want to make sure that your audience can see the entire headline.

This way, you won't waste the effort you put in coming up with that perfect headline.😉

💡 Here is an excellent guide on How to Write a Great Press Release Headline.

Lead

The lead shows what's crucial in the press release and why it is worth reading. It works as a confirmation that your headline (aka, the hook) will deliver the value it has promised.

You can opt for a standard paragraph formatting or make it slightly different. Here's an exemplary press release coming from Epignosis:

They highlight their lead by choosing a bigger font size than they use for the body paragraphs. This helps organize the information visually.

Dateline

Press releases are about news — and datelines help journalists assess its relevance. The most important piece of information in this is, naturally, the date. Yet, optionally, you can also provide the city from which you share the information.

Let's talk about various approaches in a press release format example.

Universal Music Canada represents the most traditional approach, adding date and city at the very beginning of their press release text. That's the go-to format you'll find in most PR guides, and it comes from the tradition of newspapers.

As seen in this example coming from Apple, the date and place can be presented apart. The PR team from Apple opted for a blog-like layout, with the date placed above the headline and the city at the beginning of the news release text.

This last case is from Spotify, where the PR team completely skips the city. Their dateline consists only of the date, which is the most important information. As long as your news isn't local, the decision of whether to add or skip the city is up to you.

Body

The body of your press release is where you expand on your story, providing key details and background information. This section should focus on the newsworthy angle of your announcement, making it easy for journalists to pick up and develop.

To keep your press release clear and readable, follow these best practices:

1. Keep paragraphs short — aim for two to four sentences per paragraph, ensuring each one covers a single idea.
2. Use a logical flow — start with the most essential details, then add supporting context, quotes, and relevant data.
3. Highlight key points — use the bold font strategically to emphasize crucial details and make scanning easier.
4. Maintain readability — stick to a standard, non-italicized font with single spacing for a clean, professional layout.

💡 Pro tip: Use AI to streamline press release writing

AI-powered PR software, like Prowly, can help structure your press release by providing:

• AI-generated press release drafts — get a solid starting point in seconds.
• Pre-built templates — ensure all the key details are included effortlessly.
• Smart recommendations — reach the right journalists with AI-driven insights.

How to effectively use AI for press releases

Use Prowly's AI Assistant to quickly draft press releases, get helpful editing suggestions, and find relevant media contacts — making it easier to share your story with the right audience.

We’ve created two step-by-step guides to help you get it right:

📌 How to Use an AI Press Release Generator — learn how to create effective press releases with AI assistance.

📌 Writing & Sending Press Releases with AI — get expert tips on crafting and distributing AI-powered press releases for better media coverage.

Quote

Quotes are gems for journalists, as they show the personality of your story’s heroes. And that's why your press release needs at least one.You could opt for putting them directly into the text, just like Under Armour did with their new CEO press release:

Yet, for increased visibility, you can use a separate section for quotes. For a proper press release format, make sure they are distinct from the body paragraphs.

This opens a few possibilities for different formatting choices.

You can use the LEGO approach, as seen in this sample press release format:

They used bold to highlight the speaker and italic to make the quote stand out.

Or, you can opt for an entire quote section, just like Prowly does:

With a quote marker, larger font size and attribution text, your quote instantly calls attention. This way, your press release layout becomes more interesting.

Easily add quote sections in Prowly's Press Release Creator.

Company info (press boilerplate)

Hopefully, your press release gets so much traction that it attracts people who haven't heard about you yet.

To make sure they learn enough about your company or organization to get the full context, you should include a boilerplate below each press release. Find out more about this content in our article 'How to Write a Press Release Boilerplate'.

Let's talk format. Usually, you add a header "About [company name]" and a body paragraph — just like in this Prowly example:

In the Prowly Press Release Creator, you can automatically add your boilerplate to your press releases. One click, up-to-date info — what's not to like?

Logo

Your press release makes perfect branding material. After all, it can reach people who don't recognize your brand. To help build brand recognition, make sure your materials include your logo.

This is way easier if you use an online newsroom to share and store your press releases. Then, the logo is visible on all your materials, and you don't have to add it manually.

A great example comes from Spotify, where they play with the newsroom's name. A music streaming service that names the newsroom "For the record" — just a perfect example of wordplay.

Media contact information

This section helps interested people find out more about your story — or opens a door to cooperate with you.

Add a simple CTA like "Please direct all the media inquiries to..." to indicate where to ask additional questions.

The format of sharing your contact information depends on you. Here's a shortlist of options:

• a personalized email address (like, johnblack@yourcompany.co)
• a phone number
• email addresses to your PR representatives
• social media handles

Remember that while a lot of professionals use social media, you should always give out at least one email address.

Additional press release elements

These additional elements won't appear in all press releases, yet each of these can seriously upgrade your document.

Think about them in terms of making your press release more useful to journalists. Anything you add that they can use to make their story more attractive increases the chance of it getting published.

Let's start with the most obvious non-obligatory element of a press release: visuals!

Basically, they make your press release more versatile. Most stories that appear online have at least one image — and it's better to have control over that.

Among visuals, you can find:

• photos and images (events, people, products, or anything you mention in your press release)
• videos (also with additional story elements, for example, a CEO commentary)
• infographics (for example, summing up the key points from your report)

In some cases, you can even think about having a separate part of your online newsroom complete with visuals.

If you have simply too many images to share neatly, you can follow in the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team's steps. They share photos from each race event in an easy-to-browse-and-download way.

Make sure you choose your visuals like a pro! Read our tips on images in press releases.

Another interesting element is a quick preview — close to a TL;DR section. For example, LEGO included it in their press release.

Why is it worth it? If your press release is fairly long, this is another way to quickly show why your story is newsworthy. Think of it as support for your headline and lead.

In terms of formatting, bullet points and short phrases are your go-to solutions.

The last element we'll cover here are tables. They are great for visually displaying and comparing important information. As a result, journalists can quickly pick up some data points of interest.Let's take a look at a table from a press release that announced Lewis Hamilton would leave his Mercedes team.

The table is fairly simple — a few categories like starts, wins and podiums, divided into the two teams that the racer was a part of. And that's the key — it's all about readability.

Types of press releases by format

Usually, you divide press releases by the topic or area you cover. In this article, though, we'll take press release layout as the main factor and show you the most important exceptions to a standard format for a press release.

You'll find links to press release templates here as well. As much as they're focused on the press release content, feel free to treat them as a press release format template resource.

When and why should you follow a different format for a press release?

In our approach, it boils down to the audience’s needs. Your press release should make journalists' jobs easier. They'll be very eager to cooperate with you in the future if you're known for quality press release materials.

Standard press release format

Most press releases follow the format we talked about in previous paragraphs. Usually, journalists need a quick way to assess and extract information so that they can work easily on their stories.

Go with the basic press release format for:

• event press releases
• new hire announcements
• new product releases
• rebranding press releases
• crisis press releases
• partnerships press releases
• concert press releases
• restaurant press releases
• CEO resignation press releases
• art exhibition press releases
• nonprofit press releases

In case you have doubts, the best way is to look online for benchmarks and examples.

In need of templates? Check out our 13 press release templates for any occasion — for free!

Particular press release formats

Let's analyze two special press release format examples, where the audience demands particular solutions.

1️⃣ The first one has already appeared in the text — it's the sports press release. Let's analyze the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 press release formatting:

• they put the most important facts in bullet points
• most of their press release is made of of quotes
• they add lots of images from different moments in the race

This way, sports journalists can get into the story they need quickly.

To go deeper into writing a sports press release (and examples), check out our handy guide.

2️⃣A social media press release is a different topic, as there are two main differences: the audience and the way you share it.

Let's start with the latter. A social media press release is shared via social media channels. That's why each channel can come up with its own format requirements, influencing:

• the length of your content
• multimedia elements
• link sharing options

The most important difference is that your social media press release reaches everyone. Including non-journalists, like stakeholders and your audience. It's definitely a topic for a separate article — and we'll cover it soon.

As it requires a special approach, read our guide on social media press release.

FAQ about press release and formatting

Let's quickly answer some more common questions around the press release area!

What are the 7 steps to a press release?

1. Choose an appropriate story angle
2. Set your goal
3. Work on a catchy headline
4. Write your story
5. Remember about the call to action
6. Add a boilerplate
7. Choose the right images

You'll find more details in our guide on writing a press release.

What format should a press release be in?

The short answer is to use an online version and share links.

When you reach out to specific journalists who would be interested in your topic, you increase your chance of getting published and lower the costs of press release distribution. Check out our article on tips for contacting journalists!

Prowly's Media Database helps you identify matching journalists and establish relationships with them.

Yet, if you opt to send your press releases as files, a PDF document is the safest option. You can then be sure that anyone can open and view it exactly as you intend. With other file formats, like .docx, there's a chance your journalist won't be able to open it correctly.

Where can I find free press release templates?

A press release template helps you keep high standards for each piece — without putting in additional hours. You can find quality examples in our free press release template database from Prowly.

How to make it look good?

The best press release format also makes for a great design. For a deep dive into this topic (and examples!), check out our article: How to design a press release.

7 key takeaways on press release format

If you need grounds for a standardized press release layout, you'll find them here:

1. When formatting a press release, take into account the needs of your audience: whether it's about additional elements or opting for a different display.
2. Usually, reinventing the wheel and unconventional approaches to formatting diminish the efficiency of your press release — think twice before you try it.
3. Common press release elements make sense to journalists — make sure you cover them.
4. Additional press release elements widen the range of stories that journalists can prepare — and make your press release more valuable.
5. Look for online examples to get inspired — they make great learning resources (for free!)
6. A press release template is a great way to keep your formatting consistent.
7. And a Press Release Creator makes it even more efficient!

The post Press Release Format and Structure (w/ Tips and Examples) appeared first on Prowly.

This guide shows you exactly how to analyze a brand and transform raw data into actionable insights for your PR efforts.

Turn your insights into results with Prowly – an all-in-one PR platform.

What is brand analysis and why should you do it?

Brand analysis is a systematic evaluation of your brand's performance, perception, and position in the market. It combines quantitative metrics and qualitative insights to give you a complete picture of your brand's health and effectiveness.

But what's in it for PR pros? Isn't it just a marketing thing? Well, not really.

For PR professionals, brand analysis is more than just tracking numbers – it's about understanding the story behind them and using those insights to shape future strategies.

How does brand analysis differ from a brand audit?

Let's see how these notions differ:

• Brand analysis is an on-going process: a continuous monitoring of your brand health and performance.
• Brand audit is more of a-point-in-time assessment: a deep dive that's needed when you face strategic changes.

Both are needed and they complement each other, as during the brand audit you'll often refer to your brand analysis findings.

How to do analysis of a brand? 3 steps

Step 1: Define goals and KPIs

Before diving into your brand analysis process, establish clear objectives. Are you looking to:

• Increase brand awareness?
• Enhance brand equity?
• Measure campaign effectiveness?
• Track brand performance?

Brand analysis makes sense only when you get actionable insights after, and starting with a clear goal in mind helps to focus on the outcome you need.

Step 2: Collect data

Gather data from all the channels you use that could inform your brand analysis. Some examples are:

• News media and press mentions
• Social media platforms
• Review sites and forums
• Industry publications
• Competitor channels

In Prowly, you can use a Brand Query to gather all the data you need, or just use preprepared dashboards. If you haven't started monitoring your brand yet and want to learn more about it, you can read our Guide to media monitoring.

Don't overlook traditional media when conducting your regular research! Be sure to check mentions in print magazines, radio programs, and television.

You can do this manually if you work for a small client, but to ensure you capture mentions nationally and internationally, consider using a tool that automates the process. That way, you'll never miss a mention—whether it's online or offline.

Combine online media monitoring with print and broadcast monitoring in Prowly to have mentions from both digital and traditional news sources at your fingertips—all in one place.

💡 Want to make the most of your print coverage? Discover how to turn print media monitoring into a powerful part of your PR strategy.

Step 3: Choose key metrics to track

1️⃣ Website traffic

Website traffic tells you how many visits you get online and what people do on your site (browse more, click, or maybe close the tab). In a PR context, you need data about visits to branded pages, blog posts, or referral traffic from PR campaigns.

Google Analytics 4, the go-to tool for website analytics, lets you set apart PR results from marketing efforts by defining the traffic source.

Why it matters: This part of website traffic reflects brand awareness (how many people looked up your brand or clicked on a search result because they recognized it) and the effectiveness of PR campaigns in driving interest.

Practical examples:

• Page views on press release landing pages
• Time spent on brand story pages
• Traffic spikes during PR campaigns
• Referral sources from media coverage
• Conversion rates from PR-driven traffic

2️⃣ Marketing channels distribution

Marketing channels distribution pinpoints the sources of your web traffic ratio. It's a great tool for competitive brand assessment, as looking at this chart tells you a lot about your competitors' strategies.

Let's see the brand analysis example from Ahrefs with data pulled from SimilarWeb. As you can see, over 1/3 of their traffic comes from organic search results. Ahrefs is known for their SEO strategy (after all, they're an SEO tool!), and it finds confirmation of its abilities in this chart.

Why it matters: You can observe where they put their PR and marketing efforts (and budgets) and where they reach their potential customers. This intel will boost your brand analytics process.

What does each metric mean in a PR context:

• Direct traffic (brand awareness)
• Organic search (SEO effectiveness)
• Referral traffic (media coverage impact)
• Social media traffic (social PR success)
• Email traffic (newsletter effectiveness)

3️⃣ Media mentions

Media mentions give you information about the frequency and context of discussions about your brand across media outlets. It's the results of your PR campaigns, and as such, make up an important part of brand analysis.

Media monitoring tools, like Prowly, let you track and analyze brand mentions in digital and traditional media. You can track them on dashboards and add them to your brand analysis report.

Interested? Read more in our Media mentions guide.

Why it matters: Media mentions indicate PR effects and brand visibility in traditional and digital media.

Practical examples of metrics:

• Mention volume trends
• Publication tier analysis
• Message pull-through rates
• Spokesperson quote inclusion
• Story angle adoption rates

4️⃣ Sentiment analysis

There's one key quality of each media mention – the sentiment.

In brand analysis, sentiment helps you understand how your brand is perceived in media.

With brand monitoring software, you can have this data at your fingertips. Each mention is categorized as positive, negative, or neutral.

As you can see, it shows you the distribution of positive vs negative vs neutral mentions, which is key information in each brand audit process.

You can spot trends or correlations between media and social media sentiment.

Check out how to use sentiment in brand analysis in our Sentiment analysis guide!

Why it matters: Sentiment reveals how your brand is perceived and helps identify potential brand reputation issues.

Practical examples:

• Positive/negative/neutral ratio
• Sentiment change after campaigns
• Crisis impact on sentiment
• Product launch reception
• Executive communication effectiveness

5️⃣ Social sentiment

Even if your branding strategies don't involve social media, you need to know what people think about you – especially in places where PR crises are often born.

Just like with "official" media mentions, each post or comment gets rated with its emotional value. Let's take a look at Prowly:

With social sentiment, there's more than just analyzing a brand's performance. When you spot a potentially harmful comment, you can quickly work on mitigating the situation, and make sure no negative mention is left unattended.

Read more in our Social listening guide!

Why it matters: Social sentiment provides real-time feedback and identifies emerging issues.

Practical examples:

• Comment tone analysis
• Hashtag sentiment tracking
• Response rates to brand content
• Community manager effectiveness
• Social crisis early warning signs

6️⃣ Reputation tracking

Reputation tracking tells you more about how certain actions impact brand loyalty and perception among key stakeholders: your customers, investors, or potential partners. It highly impacts brand strategy and setting priorities: your focus will change when you need to build, strengthen, or restore your reputation.

Why it matters: Reputation directly impacts business success and stakeholder relationships.

Practical examples:

• Trust scores
• Employee sentiment
• Customer loyalty metrics
• Industry reputation rankings
• Crisis recovery tracking

💡 Tip: If you want to make your PR strategy truly robust, read these articles to learn how to manage your brand reputation and protect its reputation.

7️⃣ Audience engagement

You want to create brand content that resonates with people and audience engagement is one way to check on it during the brand analysis process.

Measuring behaviors like shares, comments, or newsletter openings can tell you how actively people interact with your brand content and communications.

Why it matters: Engagement indicates message resonance and relationship strength.

Practical examples:

• Content sharing rates
• Sentiment on social media
• Comment frequency and quality
• Event participation
• Newsletter engagement
• Community growth rates

8️⃣ Share of Voice

There's only so many brands to be seen in a given context and Share of Voice shows how visible you are vs your competitors.

It's one of the best pieces of strategic advice you can give to top management and the strongest argument to get them more involved in PR actions.

Why it matters: Share of Voice shows your brand's market position and PR effectiveness.

Practical examples:

• Media mention share
• Social media presence share
• Industry conversation share
• Speaking opportunity share
• Award recognition share

9️⃣ Competitive coverage analysis

When your brand appears in the media, you're competing for attention just like in the marketplace.

Competitive coverage analysis shows you not just where you stand, but what stories and angles get your competitors featured. It's your window into understanding what journalists and media outlets find newsworthy about your industry – and how to get your brand into these conversations.

It's a great point to guide your brand strength analysis, as you can put them into specific context.

Why it matters: Reveals competitive advantages and areas for improvement.

Practical examples:

• Coverage volume comparison
• Message effectiveness analysis
• Share of positive coverage
• Spokesperson visibility
• Story placement quality

🔟 Performance metrics

Showing the impact of marketing efforts is hard: with PR, it's another level of challenges.

Performance metrics in a PR context can translate the brand's strengths into tangible ($$$) business results. They focus on quantitative measures of PR and communication effectiveness, showing the reach and price of PR campaigns – the costs of which are often lower than aggressive marketing messaging.

Why it matters: Shows ROI and helps justify PR investments.

Practical examples:

• Campaign reach vs. goals
• Message adoption rates
• Lead generation from PR
• Cost per impression
• PR-attributed conversions
• AVE (Advertising Value Equivalency)

1️⃣1️⃣ Top keywords

Every time someone talks about your brand, they're adding to its story.

Top keywords reveal the actual language people use when discussing your brand – not what you want them to say, but what they really say. This insight is pure gold for PR pros: it helps you speak your audience's language and shape the narrative in terms that actually resonate.

Why it matters: Keywords reveal how people think about and look for your brand.

Practical examples:

• Brand term search volume
• Associated topic clusters
• Negative keyword alerts
• Product mention tracking
• Executive name monitoring

1️⃣2️⃣ Audience demographics

Your brand message hits differently across various audience segments – what works for Gen Z might fall flat with Boomers, and what resonates in New York might miss the mark in Austin.

Audience demographics tell you exactly who's engaging with your brand, helping you tailor your PR approach to the real people behind the numbers. This isn't just data – it's your roadmap to crafting messages that land and which are coherent with your overall brand identity.

Why it matters: Demographics help tailor messaging and channel selection.

Practical examples:

• Age and gender distribution
• Geographic location
• Industry affiliation
• Professional roles
• Interest categories

What tools work for brand analysis?

The two approaches to tools

When looking for tools to conduct brand analysis, you might opt for two solutions:

1. either a media monitoring/social listening tool like Brand24 or Determ
2. a comprehensive PR platform like Prowly

The first option helps you get intel and effectively lead brand analysis.

The second option, on top of that, helps you turn the insights into actions and execute your brand strategy by providing aid in:

👉 maintaining journalists relationships

👉 shaping the narrative with press releases

👉 creating and sending media pitches

Maybe it would be a good idea to give Prowly a try and have it all at once?

Turn insights into actions

PR software like Prowly isn't just a monitoring tool – it's your command center for both brand analysis and action.

While it helps you track metrics like share of voice and sentiment, its real power lies in turning those insights into results.

You can spot a relevant media opportunity through monitoring, immediately identify and reach out to the perfect journalist through the PR CRM, craft and distribute your pitch, then track the coverage and its impact – all in the same platform.

This seamless flow from analysis to action means you're not just collecting data about your brand; you're actively shaping its story. Instead of switching between different tools for monitoring, outreach, and measurement, you can execute your entire PR strategy in one place, making you more agile and effective in building your brand's presence.

Use the insights from your brand analysis with Prowly.

Common challenges and mistakes in brand analysis

Challenge: getting actionable insights

You conduct a brand analysis to inform your brand strategy and plans. Yet, there are often challenges like:

👉 information paralysis: you get too much data to draw insights from and don't know when you should act

👉 looking at only a part of the picture: for example, you don't join social metrics with social sentiment, and therefore can't identify correlations

👉 limited resources: brand analytics is neglected in busy periods

The key to overcoming these challenges is to establish clear thresholds for action, integrate data sources for a complete picture, and automate routine analysis to maintain consistency even during busy periods.

Challenge: losing context

When you conduct brand analysis, you need to get reliable context info apart from looking at current metric values. These three are the most common mistakes that can cause you to lose perspective:

👉 ignoring competitors: brands don't work on their own and the business environment is crucial to understand and assess a brand's performance

👉 changing measurement methods: when you don't run your metrics in a coherent way, you can't rely on noticed changes or trust the trends

👉 missing historical data: brand loyalty and perception isn't built in a day and trends give meaning to current metric values

To maintain reliable context for your brand analysis, implement standardized measurement protocols, establish competitor tracking baselines, and maintain historical data archives – with this, you'll always have the full picture needed for meaningful insights.

Solution: Use PR tools to work effectively

The common pattern in all the brand analysis challenges is data: either unclear or incomplete. PR tools help you solve this issue with comprehensive, easy-to-understand dashboards.

Compared to manual research, you don't have to worry that some key information is slipping through the cracks.

Try the Mentions Dashboard for yourself: test Prowly for 7 days free.

Next steps

Brand analysis isn't just about collecting data—it's about gaining actionable insights that drive your brand strategy forward and add to your brand equity. By tracking these key metrics consistently and understanding their implications, you can make more informed decisions and demonstrate PR's value to your organization.

Start with the metrics most relevant to your current goals and gradually expand your analysis as you build your monitoring capabilities. Remember, the goal isn't to track everything, but to track what matters most for your brand's success.

Show PR's value and brand impact.

The post How to Conduct a Brand Analysis: 3 Steps + 12 Metrics to Cover appeared first on Prowly.

Let's help you choose from the top crisis management tools available.

What will you find in this article?

1. What features are essential in handling crisis communication?
2. Key info on the best crisis management tools: prices, pros and cons
3. Benefits of using crisis management tools
4. How to choose crisis management software for your team?

TL;DR

Crisis management tools are your early warning system for PR disasters. We've compared six leading options across a wide range of price points ($119-$8,000+), features, and use cases.

Whether you're a one-person PR team or managing global brand reputation, we'll help you:

• pick the right tool without getting overwhelmed by features you'll never use
• use the free trials to their fullest
• understand what to look for in a tool and why

What is a crisis management tool? Essential features

Let's talk about what makes crisis management software actually useful in today's fast-paced PR world. We all know the basics aren't enough anymore - not when a single tweet can spark a social media crisis in minutes.

Here's what you really need from crisis management tools:

Media monitoring in real time

A key point for any crisis management tools: real-time media monitoring - and I mean real real-time like in Prowly, not the "we'll send you a daily digest" kind.

Here's why this is non-negotiable: most PR crises don't just explode out of nowhere. They simmer first, showing warning signs a day or two before things get hot.

Your crisis management software needs to act as an early warning system for the crisis team, scanning everything from news sites to that one Reddit thread that could blow up in your face. And when a social media crisis is brewing, you need to know immediately, not when you check your email the next morning.

P.S. Check out this guide on social media crisis management to fine-tune your strategy with a few practical tips.

Sentiment analysis

Usually, you'll see some fluctuations in brand sentiment: some rises or drops in positive to negative sentiment ratio.

What makes a reputation management red flag? 🚩

A sudden peak in mentions number accompanied by dropping sentiment. It's one of the early signs that a PR (or social media) crisis is about to blow up – and the role of crisis management tools is to spot it and let you know as soon as possible.

Alerts and notifications

Alerts and notifications might seem obvious in crisis management tools, but there's an art to getting them right. Too many alerts and you'll start ignoring them (we've all been there). Too few and you'll miss something crucial.

Look for software that lets you fine-tune your alerts based on what actually matters for your brand. And make sure those alerts can reach your team wherever they are - a crisis doesn't care if it's Sunday night.

With Prowly, you can set up multiple alerts with advanced filters and custom email subject lines. This way, you can quickly identify negative mentions with huge potential reach or those coming from a given market.

Media list management

Media list management might sound basic, but it's a lifesaver when things go wrong. You don't want to be scrambling for journalist contacts when your brand is trending for all the wrong reasons. 

Your crisis communication software should keep your media contacts fresh and organized, ready for quick outreach (and even quicker in crisis management times).

And I'm not just talking about a glorified spreadsheet - you need something that helps you maintain those relationships and knows who covers what.

Trust me, sending your crisis response to the wrong journalist is the last thing you need in damage control.

Analytics and reporting

Finally, let's talk analytics and reporting. When things go sideways, your stakeholders will want updates - lots of them. Your software needs to give you the full picture in a format that makes sense, and fast! 

The top crisis management tools let you generate reports quickly (because you won't have time for pretty formats during a crisis) and help you track how your response is working.

Plus, being able to look back and learn from each crisis management strategy? That's gold for improving your response next time around.

Best crisis management tools: all you need to know

Let's cut through the marketing talk and look at what these tools actually offer. Here's your quick tour of the best crisis management software, focusing on what matters most during a PR crisis.

Which tool is best for crisis management?

Prowly: The all-in-one PR suite 

💰 Starting at: $258/month (annual billing available) 
⏱️ Free Trial: 7 days

The good stuff:

• Real-time monitoring across web and social media
• Print media monitoring and broadcast monitoring available
• AI that identifies context, sentiment, and 15+ other metrics per mention
• Built-in media database for quick outreach during a crisis
• Email notifications with customizable digests
• Sentiment tracking in 44 languages
• Complete PR toolkit included (monitoring, outreach, newsroom – indispensable for crisis communication tools)

The not-so-good:

• Might be feature-overkill if you just need monitoring
• Price point isn't small-business friendly
• Annual commitment required for the best pricing deal

Perfect for: PR agencies and in-house teams who want everything under one roof. Especially good if you need both crisis monitoring and PR tools.

Brand24: The social listening specialist 

💰 Starting at: $119/month 
⏱️ Free Trial: Available

The good stuff:

• Strong social media monitoring
• Clean, intuitive mention feed
• Real-time alerts
• Professional PDF/Excel reports
• Great data visualization

The not-so-good:

• Limited keywords in basic plans
• No traditional media monitoring
• Real-time updates reserved for pricier plans
• No media contact database

Perfect for: Social media-focused teams who need solid monitoring without the full PR suite or crisis communication tools.

Meltwater: The enterprise heavy-hitter 

💰 Starting from: $15,000 to $20,000 per year (estimate)
⏱️ Demo: Available (no free trial)

The good stuff:

• Monitors 300,000+ online news sources
• Comprehensive traditional and social monitoring
• Two decades of experience
• Global coverage

The not-so-good:

• Enterprise-level pricing
• Annual commitment required
• No free trial period
• Training costs extra
• (Too) complex for smaller teams

Perfect for: Large organizations needing extensive coverage and with deep pockets to match.

Sprout Social: The social media manager's choice

💰 Starting at: $249/month 
⏱️ Free Trial: Available

The good stuff:

• Excellent social media management
• Strong reporting features
• User-friendly interface
• Regular platform updates
• Solid engagement tools

The not-so-good:

• Social listening is an extra cost
• Limited crisis-specific features
• Focused mainly on social channels
• Light on traditional media monitoring

Perfect for: Teams primarily worried about social media crises who also need management tools.

Brandwatch: The data lover's dream 

💰 Starts from: $800/month 
⏱️ Demo: On request

The good stuff:

• Advanced keyword queries
• Deep social analytics
• Customizable dashboards
• Ongoing feature development
• Comprehensive training materials

The not-so-good:

• Steep learning curve
• Complex query setup
• Longer onboarding time
• Price matches sophistication
• Can be overwhelming

Perfect for: Data-driven teams who need deep analytics and have the expertise to use them.

💡 Read the full article on Brandwatch and its alternatives to find estimated pricing.

Determ: The multilingual monitor 

💰 Price: Not publicly listed (requires demo) 
⏱️ Trial: Available after demo

The good stuff:

• Smooth, easy-to-navigate interface
• Monitors in 250+ locations and 107 languages
• Powerful Boolean search operators
• White label solution available
• AI assistant (Synthia) for data analysis
• Historical data on request

The not-so-good:

• No pricing transparency
• Limited mobile app functionality
• No traditional media monitoring (print/TV/radio)
• Lacks social media management features
• Gives digital monitoring, but without crisis communications

Perfect for: International brands needing strong language coverage and teams who prioritize clean data presentation. Especially good if you need white-label reporting options.

The real benefits hidden in crisis management tools

Let's talk about what actually changes when you get proper crisis management tools. Skip the fancy buzzwords - here's what you're really getting:

#1 Speed that actually matters

Remember when Slack had that massive outage in 2022? They managed to keep user trust despite their service being down for 5 hours. How? They caught the issue immediately and kept everyone in the loop: before it escalated into a social media crisis.

That's what good crisis management software does - it gives you that crucial early warning. Instead of finding out about issues from an angry client call, you're the first to know when something's brewing.

Before (or instead of) your morning coffee, you can spot potential issues, track sentiment changes, and catch those first few negative mentions before they become a trend.

What used to take hours of manual monitoring now happens automatically. And in crisis management, those hours can make the difference between "minor issue resolved" and "trending on Twitter for all the wrong reasons."

P.S. Here is a list of The Best Twitter Monitoring Tools for PR Specialists in 2025 (paid + free options).

#2 Team coordination that actually works

Gone are the days of "Did you see that tweet?" messages flying around.

Modern crisis management tools turn your team into a well-oiled machine. Everyone sees the same data, gets the same alerts, and works from the same playbook.

Think about it: your social media manager spots a brewing issue, your PR director gets an instant alert, and your spokesperson has the context they need - all before the first journalist calls. It's not just about being faster; it's about staying synchronized.

#3 The power to shape the narrative

Here's where it gets interesting. With proper monitoring, you're not just reacting - you're getting ahead of the story. Take Aldi's #freeCuthbert campaign: they turned what could have been a legal PR nightmare into a viral success. How? By spotting an opportunity and controlling the narrative from the start.

Good crisis software helps you:

• Catch negative sentiment trends before they spiral
• Track how your response messages are landing
• Identify your allies and critics in real-time
• Measure the actual impact of your crisis response

Real numbers that matter:

• Cut response time from hours to minutes
• Track sentiment across multiple channels at once
• Measure the effectiveness of your crisis response
• Know exactly when a crisis is actually over (not just when it feels over)

#4 The bottom line: it's not about the tools, it's about control

Look, you can handle a PR crisis without specialized software. Plenty of people do. But it's like trying to build a house with only a screwdriver. Technically possible, but why make your life harder? The real benefit isn't in the fancy features: it's in the confidence of knowing you're not missing anything crucial.

And here's something most vendors won't tell you: a good crisis management tool often prevents crises altogether. Because when you catch those first few negative mentions early, half the time you can resolve the issue before it becomes a proper crisis.

How to choose the right software (without losing your mind)

Let's be real - picking crisis management software isn't exactly the highlight of your week. But since we're here, let's make it easier. Here's what you actually need to think about before committing to a tool (and a budget).

1️⃣ Assess needs

First things first: what's your actual crisis potential?

There's a big difference between managing a local brand that might face an occasional bad review and running PR for a multinational that could land in hot water across multiple markets. Your crisis risk level pretty much dictates how robust your tool needs to be.

If you have one, check out your crisis management plan. If you don't, drop whatever you're doing and go make one.

2️⃣ How much can it cost?

Then there's budget talk (yeah, I know, everyone's favorite). But here's the thing - while Meltwater might be fantastic with its $8,000+ yearly plan, do you really need all that firepower?

Maybe Prowly’s $369/month plan would cover your needs just fine. Think of it this way: what would cost you more - the software or a badly handled crisis?

3️⃣ Who will be using it?

Size matters too - and I'm talking about your team. If you're a one-person PR department juggling multiple responsibilities, you need something intuitive that won't require a PhD to operate. But if you've got a whole team of PR pros at your beck and call, you might want something more sophisticated that can handle multiple users, different permission levels, and collaborative features.

4️⃣ Tools work better when integrated

Here's something people often forget: integration capabilities. Your new crisis management tool needs to play nice with your existing tech stack.

👉 If you're already using specific tools for media outreach or social media management, check if and how your potential crisis management software can connect with them – or if you can switch to an all-in-one platform.

Switching between fifteen different tabs during a crisis is not fun.

5️⃣ Local or global coverage?

Language and region coverage is another big one. If your brand operates in multiple countries, you need a tool that can handle different languages and cultural contexts. Prowly, for instance, offers advanced sentiment analysis in 44 languages - pretty handy if your crisis could go global.

6️⃣ Make the most of the free trials

And here's my favorite practical tip: take those free trials seriously. Don't just sign up and forget about it. Create a mini crisis simulation. Test how the alerts work. Try generating a quick report. See how long it takes to set up a monitoring dashboard. Whatever feels slightly annoying during a calm demo will become a major headache during an actual crisis.

Quick reality check: no tool is perfect.

Each one has its quirks and missing features. The trick is finding one that handles your non-negotiables well. Make a list of your must-haves (inspired by your own experience if possible) and your nice-to-haves. Then be brutally honest about what you actually need versus what just sounds cool in a sales pitch.

7️⃣ Testing tips

Think about where your crises usually start. If it's always a social media crisis, maybe you don't need the full-suite tools. But if you're dealing with traditional media too, consider the more comprehensive options. 

Always, always test the alerts system during your trial - it's usually the feature you'll rely on most when things go wrong.

Quick 15-minute crisis management tools test

• Set up alerts for your brand name with common misspellings (trust me, they matter)
• Drop a test mention on a personal social account to check alert speed
• Try generating a quick report - you won't have time to learn during a crisis
• Time how long it takes to switch between dashboards
• Send a test email to your team through the platform

Red flags to watch for: 

🚩 Delayed alerts (anything over 15 minutes is concerning) 
🚩 Complicated report generation 
🚩 Clunky user interface that requires lots of clicking 
🚩 Limited or slow customer support 
🚩 Data gaps in your market/region 
🚩 Unclear pricing for additional features

Next steps

After reading this article, it's time to test those crisis management tools! Here's the game plan:

1. Choose 2 or 3 tools (I wouldn't skip Prowly's free trial here!)
2. Use our quick tips on tool testing
3. Pay special attention to alert speed, report generation, and overall ease of use
4. If you're not a one PR specialist army: make sure to involve your team as well
5. And remember: the best crisis management software is the one you'd use on a daily basis

The post Best PR Crisis Management Software Comparison: 6 Options to Consider appeared first on Prowly.

We get it. With competition that's faster than ever and strong brands just getting stronger, you need to fight for consumer awareness.

Targeted brand awareness campaigns are the answer.

Let us walk you through crafting campaigns that align with your brand awareness strategies:

• What is a brand awareness campaign?
• Common brand awareness campaign tactics
• Why brand awareness campaigns are essential
• A step-by-step guide to run a brand awareness campaign
• Brand awareness campaign examples
• Metrics & tools to measure the success of brand awareness campaigns
• Seven ways to measure brand awareness campaigns
• Three common mistakes to avoid

A key element of a brand awareness campaign strategy is measuring the right data. Prowly supports media monitoring and measurement, offering a 7-day free trial.

Key takeaways

• Consistency and a long-term perspective: brand awareness campaigns are a slow burn. Patience and consistent messaging are key for raising trust and recognition.
• Eye on the data: use it both when starting new activities and assessing on-going ones. Look for emerging trends and potential threats.
• Multi-channel approach: opt for delivering a consistent message across multiple touchpoints. Leverage tools like online and print media and foster relationships with influencers.

👉 Stay on top of what people are saying about your brand.

What is a brand awareness campaign?

A brand awareness campaign is a strategic marketing effort designed to increase the recognition and familiarity of a brand with its target audience. These campaigns aim to make a brand more visible, memorable, and distinguishable from competitors in the marketplace.

These campaigns should keep in line with your brand awareness strategy – check out our handy guide on the topic!

Key components of a brand awareness campaign

👉 Target audience: Clearly defined demographic and psychographic profiles of the intended recipients of your message.
👉 Messaging: Core ideas and values you want to communicate about your brand.
👉 Channels: Various platforms and mediums used to disseminate your brand message.
👉 Goals: Specific, measurable objectives that define what success looks like for your campaign.

Why is brand awareness important?

Brand awareness is crucial for businesses for several reasons:

• Customer recognition: When consumers are familiar with your brand, they're more likely to choose your products or services over the alternatives.
• Building trust: Familiarity breeds trust. As people become more aware of your brand, they're more likely to view it as reliable and credible.
• Competitive edge: Strong brand awareness can set you apart in a crowded market, giving you an advantage over less recognizable competitors.

Common brand awareness campaign tactics

Increasing social media engagement

It's not only about crafting viral campaigns! Use social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (Twitter) to get closer to your audience. Through posts, contests, sharing user-generated content, and interacting with comments, you can test how your message resonates with your audience and fine-tune it with key insights.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Optimize your website and content to rank higher in search engine results, making it easier for potential customers to find your brand when searching for related topics. This involves keyword research, content creation, and technical website optimization.

Remarketing campaigns

Target ads for people who have previously interacted with your brand online. Here you can build on brand recognition and add associations with your offer or service. The final result should be increased brand awareness and reaching conversion targets.

Cross-channel advertising

Utilize a mix of advertising channels, such as TV, radio, print, and digital platforms, to reach your audience through multiple touchpoints. This approach helps reinforce your message and increases the chances of brand recall.

Content marketing

Create and distribute valuable, relevant content to attract and engage a target audience. This can include blog posts, videos, podcasts, and infographics that showcase your brand's expertise and values.

Influencer partnerships

Collaborate with influencers who align with your brand values to reach new audiences and gain credibility. This can involve sponsored posts, product reviews, or co-created content.

Why brand awareness campaigns are essential

For PR managers, brand awareness campaigns are not just a marketing tool – they're a fundamental aspect of an effective public relations strategy. They tackle the core elements of the PR arena and help shape public perception of a brand, build trust, and establish meaningful connections with the target audience.

PR plays key role in brand awareness campaigns

Shaping public perception makes up the most essential role that PR teams play in brand awareness. After all, what the stakeholders think about your company or client is on your side.

Brand awareness campaigns are strongly related with brand reputation PR. They let you proactively manage and enhance a brand's reputation.

Benefits of brand awareness campaigns for PR agencies

The benefits of brand awareness campaign are a win-win: as you also build your own brand recognition. That's how you:

1. Attract clients: By demonstrating expertise in brand awareness, you attract new clients looking to enhance their market presence. Your portfolio is key!
2. Strengthen client relationships: Keeping your client happy is as important (and profitable) as getting new customers. With successful campaigns, you build long-term, satisfying relationships.
3. Enhance general campaign effectiveness: All your PR efforts get more impactful when they have a strong foundation. And brand awareness is key for any other brand activities.

💡 Tip: If you want to make your PR strategy truly robust, read these articles to learn how to manage your brand reputation and protect its reputation.

How to run a brand awareness campaign: a step-by-step guide

Creating and executing a successful campaign requires careful planning and strategic implementation. Here's a comprehensive guide to help you get started:

#1 Identify your target audience and market

Before launching any campaign, it's crucial to understand who you're trying to reach and where they are. That's why you need to:

• Conduct market research: Gather data on your industry, competitors, and potential customers.
• Create buyer personas: Develop detailed profiles of your ideal customers, including demographics, interests, pain points, and behaviors.

💡 Pro tip: Be specific. Look for detailed descriptions of your target audience: it'll help you in crafting the right message.

#2 Set clear and measurable goals

To measure effectiveness, you need to define what success looks like for your campaign. For example, you can set a goal of achieving a 15% increase in brand recall among target demographics in one year, or in boosting social media followers by 10,000 within six months.

💡 Pro tip: use SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). Another good practice is to ensure they can be marked as done or not done.

#3 Choose the right channels and platforms

Select the most effective mediums to reach your target audience based on your research. Here's some inspirations:

• Social media: Utilize platforms where your audience is most active (e.g., Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.)
• Content marketing: Develop valuable, relevant content that resonates with your target audience.
• Influencer partnerships: Collaborate with influencers who align with your brand values and have a following that matches your target audience.
• Traditional media: Don't overlook the power of TV, radio, and print if they're relevant to your audience. Be sure to check mentions in print magazines, radio programs, and television.

You can monitor the right channels manually if you work for a small client, but to ensure you capture mentions nationally and internationally, consider using a tool that automates the process. That way, you'll never miss a mention—whether it's online or offline.

Combine online media monitoring with print and broadcast monitoring in Prowly to have mentions from both digital and traditional news sources at your fingertips—all in one place.

💡 Pro tip: Media databases make a good ally. In Prowly, you'll find contact details and profiles of over 1M journalists and influencers: definitely enough to find someone for your story. When choosing a media monitoring service, make sure it’s tailored to local media — for example, the UK market.

#4 Create engaging and consistent messaging

Develop a strong brand voice and ensure your message is consistent across all channels.

• Develop a Brand Voice: Create guidelines for tone, style, and personality that reflect your brand's values.
• Craft compelling stories: Use storytelling techniques to make your brand more relatable and memorable.
• Maintain consistency: Ensure all team members and partners understand and adhere to your brand guidelines.

💡 Pro tip: use these guidelines when crafting your press releases! With Prowly's Press Release Creator you can add your own checklists and templates to facilitate the creation step. Then, share it with the right journalists in no time!

#5 Launch and monitor your campaign

Once your campaign is live, closely track its performance and be prepared to make adjustments.

• Track key metrics: Monitor relevant KPIs such as reach, engagement, website traffic, and brand mentions.
• Use analytics tools: Leverage platforms like Google Analytics, social media insights, and PR-specific tools to gather key data.
• Regularly review performance: Set up weekly or monthly review sessions to analyze campaign progress and identify areas for improvement.

#6 Analyze and optimize

Use the insights gained from monitoring to refine and improve your brand awareness activities.

• Identify what's working: Double down on successful tactics and channels.
• Address underperforming areas: Adjust or eliminate elements that aren't meeting expectations.
• Stay agile: Be prepared to pivot your strategy based on real-time data and changing market conditions.

For example, you might notice a spike in positive brand mentions in a notification from Prowly's social media listening tool. This feedback can inform your further steps and content.

Remember that any brand campaign can quickly become a PR crisis. Prowly can help you avoid these thanks to notifications about negative mentions spike.

💡 Check out our guide on PR crises management and have a plan B in place.

#7 Measure long-term impact

While short-term metrics are important, also consider the long-term effects of your campaign on brand perception and loyalty.

• Conduct Brand Surveys: Regularly assess changes in brand awareness, perception, and preference among your target audience.
• Monitor Customer Lifetime Value: Track how increased brand awareness translates to customer retention and overall value.

#8 Document and share learnings

After the campaign, compile key insights and share them with your team and stakeholders.

• Create a Campaign Report: Summarize the campaign's performance, key learnings, and recommendations for future initiatives.
• Hold a Debrief Session: Gather input from all team members involved to capture diverse perspectives and insights.

💡 Pro tip: PR reports are what you need. With Prowly, you can generate clear, visually appealing reports to present your campaign success.

Best brand awareness campaigns

Examining successful brand awareness campaigns can provide valuable insights and inspiration for your own efforts. Let's look at two notable brand awareness campaign examples:

Nike's "Dream Crazy" Campaign

Nike's "Dream Crazy" campaign by Wieden+Kennedy, launched in 2018, was a bold and controversial move that significantly boosted the brand's awareness and affinity among its target audience.

The campaign centered around former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who had become a polarizing figure due to his kneeling protests during the national anthem in order to raise awareness about racial injustice and police brutality.

1️⃣ Objectives

Nike aimed to increase brand affinity among younger consumers, generate buzz and media coverage, and reinforce its brand values of inspiration and empowerment. By aligning with Kaepernick's cause, Nike sought to position itself as a brand that stands for social justice and supports athletes who use their platform for change.

2️⃣ Strategy

The campaign featured a provocative ad with Kaepernick's face and the tagline "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything."

Nike leveraged the controversy surrounding Kaepernick to spark conversations and media coverage. They extended the campaign across multiple channels, including TV, social media, and outdoor advertising, ensuring maximum visibility and impact.

The controversy stemmed from divided public opinion on Kaepernick's protests. While many praised him for raising awareness about important social issues, others criticized him for what they perceived as disrespect to the flag and military. Nike's decision to feature Kaepernick was seen as a clear stance on this divisive issue.

3️⃣ Results

The campaign's impact was profound, demonstrating the power of taking a stand on social issues.

Nike saw a 31% increase in online sales, a $6 billion increase in brand value, and massive social media engagement and earned media coverage (check the full story here).

Most importantly, it strengthened brand loyalty among Nike's core demographic of younger, socially conscious consumers.

BTW, it also won an Emmy award, as well as the Grand Prix in the Creative Effectiveness category at Cannes.

💡 Key Takeaways:
– Nike's campaign showed that taking a stand on social issues can be powerful for brand awareness, especially when aligned with brand values.
– The controversy, while risky, drove engagement and reinforced Nike's image as a bold, progressive brand.
– The multi-channel approach amplified the campaign's reach and impact, making it a landmark example of modern brand awareness campaigns.

Spotify Wrapped Campaign

Spotify's annual "Wrapped" campaign has become a much-anticipated event in the digital world, showcasing the power of personalization and user-generated content in driving brand awareness.

1️⃣ Objectives

Spotify aimed to increase user engagement and app usage, generate social media buzz, and reinforce its position as a leader in music streaming. The campaign was designed to capitalize on the year-end reflection trend while highlighting the platform's data capabilities.

2️⃣ Strategy

Spotify created personalized year-end summaries for each user, showcasing their listening habits in a fun, shareable format. They designed visually appealing graphics optimized for social media sharing and timed the campaign for maximum impact during the holiday season.

The campaign mixed digital and outdoor formats, increasing momentum.

By encouraging users to share their "Wrapped" results on social media, Spotify turned its users into brand ambassadors.

3️⃣ Results

The campaign's success has been phenomenal, driving a massive increase in app downloads and user engagement. Millions of social media shares created organic reach far beyond Spotify's direct advertising efforts while also generating significant earned media coverage.

💡 Key Takeaways:
– The "Wrapped" campaign's success demonstrates the power of personalization in driving engagement and sharing.
– By timing the campaign to align with the cultural moment of year-end reflections, Spotify maximized its impact.
– The user-generated content aspect significantly amplified the campaign's reach, turning it into an annual cultural phenomenon.

👉 An Extra: Spotify Wrapped actually make one of the best B2B brand awareness campaign examples. They took the format to provide insights about people's music taste for advertisers: and believe me, there's ton of interesting points!

We've talked about a similar approach in our Brand Awareness Strategies Overview, where Salesforce promoted its tech through F1 events. It's all about playing to your strengths!

How to measure the success of brand awareness campaigns

Measuring the impact of brand awareness campaigns can be challenging, but it's crucial for understanding ROI and improving future efforts. Here are some key metrics to track:

1. Impressions: The number of times your content is displayed.
2. Reach: The number of unique users who see your content (if you want to know more, here's a deep comparison of reach & impressions).
3. Engagement: Likes, comments, shares, and other interactions with your content.
4. Website traffic: Increases in visitors, especially new visitors, to your website.
5. Search Volume: Growth in branded search queries.
6. Share of Voice (SOV): Your brand's visibility compared to competitors in your industry.
7. Brand recall and recognition: Surveys to measure how well people remember and recognize your brand.
8. Sentiment: The tone and feeling of mentions and conversations about your brand.

Tools for measuring brand awareness

When your campaign focuses on bringing people to a specific site, Google Analytics is your ally.

With appropriate links using UTM tags, you can understand what channels bring the best results, how much time people spend on your site, and what they do next (for example, if they read about your offer).

Prowly, on the other hand, can tell you this and everything else about your brand. From positive and negative mentions across digital and print media to Share of Voice, you will get insights into how people perceive your brand.

Three common mistakes to avoid

When running a brand awareness campaign, it's crucial to steer clear of common pitfalls that can undermine your efforts. Here are some key mistakes to avoid:

Mistake No. 1: Inconsistent messaging

For campaign success, you need a consistent message across all touchpoints. When your message varies significantly, you dilute meaning and diminish credibility.

💡 How to avoid it?
Create comprehensive campaign guidelines and a system to approve messaging and assets.

Mistake No. 2: Ignoring analytics

Make sure to keep an eye on your data. You might miss emerging opportunities (like new trends to hop on) or waste resources on ineffective channels.

💡 How to avoid it?
Review data on a regular basis: especially when you're about to make decisions on where to allocate resources.

Mistake No. 3: Overlooking long-term impact

Brand awareness campaigns impact long-term PR goals. They rarely bring you quick wins, yet it is how you make a lasting impact. Looking at only the short-term (like the click-through rates of a singular creation) won't take you far.

💡 How to avoid it?
Set both short-term and long-term goals. Use both metrics that give you immediate feedback, like click-through rates, and those focused on general brand well-being like brand recall, customer lifetime value, and market share.

Tools for working on brand awareness

• Social media management tools: Use Meta Business Suite or LinkedIn to plan your social media content in advance and observe trends in your followers' behaviour.
• Analytics tools: Google Analytics or SEMrush tolls can give you intel into your SEO. Observe search volume and website traffic to assess your awareness activities: both those planned and running.
• Brand monitoring tools: What do people say about you? What are the hot topics? Here, brand monitoring and social listening tools can provide the answers.
• Content creation tools: Canva, CapCut or maybe a professional content creator? The visuals you use make up a huge part of your stories.
• All-in-one PR tools: The last, but the best, option is to use a platform tailored to your needs. Prowly can help you lead a brand awareness campaign from A to Z – and take care of all the other PR activities.

7 best practices for running a brand awareness campaign

To maximize the effectiveness of your brand awareness efforts, consider these best practices:

Leverage storytelling

People remember stories better than facts and figures. Craft compelling narratives that resonate with your audience and embody your brand values.

Use high-quality visuals

In a world dominated by visual content, ensure your campaign includes eye-catching graphics, videos and images that align with your brand identity.

Engage with your audience

Don't just broadcast your message – create opportunities for two-way communication. Respond to comments, host Q&A sessions, and encourage user-generated content.

Be consistent across channels

While your message may need to be adapted for different platforms, ensure core brand identity and values remain consistent across all touchpoints.

Collaborate with influencers and partners

Partnering with influencers or complementary brands can help you reach new audiences and add credibility to your message.

Optimize for mobile

With most digital consumption taking place on mobile devices, ensure your campaign elements are mobile-friendly and easy to share.

Integrate online and offline efforts

For maximum impact, consider how your digital campaigns can be supported by offline activities like events, guerrilla marketing, or traditional advertising.

What will your campaign look like?

Brand awareness campaigns are a must-have for PR teams, as they impact the core PR areas. And they're often fun to make: you can really let your creativity shine when looking for ways to showcase your brand qualities.

Take care of brand awareness today and become the first-to-mind option for your customers!

The post Guide to Brand Awareness Campaigns for PR Specialists appeared first on Prowly.

In 2020, McKinsey stated it clearly: the top 40 strongest brands significantly outperform the MSCI benchmark in a 20 year perspective.

Strong brands perform better, attracting (and retaining) more clients. It's a must-have for a thriving business in the long-term perspective. And brand awareness is key for becoming an option in your customers' minds.

Key takeaways

• Brand awareness is the measure of how familiar your target audience is with your brand and its associated products or services.
• Effective brand awareness strategies involve a mix of digital and traditional marketing tactics, including social media, content marketing, influencer partnerships, and strategic media placements.
• Tracking and measuring brand awareness through tools like media monitoring, sentiment analysis, and brand tracking surveys is crucial for optimizing your efforts.
• Investing in brand awareness can lead to significant benefits, such as increased customer loyalty, higher brand equity, and ultimately, a stronger bottom line.

What is brand awareness?

Brand awareness tells you if your target audience knows your brand. It includes whether they recall your offer or can identify you among your competitors. It makes a fundamental layer of any brand strategy: if your target audience doesn't notice you, all the other actions won't bring results.

That's the brand awareness definition. In other words, brand awareness puts your brand inside your target audience's brain – and then your work is to become a first-to-mind option.

Brand awareness vs brand recognition

To drive brand awareness, you first need to create brand recognition. What's the difference? Assume you work for a fast food chain:

• brand recognition is when someone experiences your brand assets (sees the logo, hears the jingle etc.) and is able to say it's you: for example, when picking food from an app, they'd recognize your logo.
• brand awareness is when someone thinks they're hungry and your burgers come first to their minds. And they know you offer incredible ice cream desserts as well.

Each brand awareness strategy builds on brand recognition.

Why is brand awareness important? Apple case study

Brand awareness activities, or the consistent delivery of strong, memorable brand messages, ensures your brand gains your target customers' trust. It lets you establish a connection with your audience, increases brand awareness, and lets you stand out from the competition.

Investing in brand awareness is crucial for the long-term success and viability of your business.

Here are some of the key benefits of building a strong brand awareness with examples taken from Apple:

#1 Increased customer loyalty

When your target audience is familiar with your brand and its offers, they're more likely to choose your products or services over competitors. This can lead to higher customer retention rates and a more loyal customer base.

👉 Example: customers choosing different products from one brand

Apple's strong brand awareness has fostered a dedicated customer base. Many Apple users are loyal to the brand, consistently choosing Apple products over competitors. This loyalty is evident in the "Apple ecosystem" phenomenon, where customers often own multiple Apple devices and services, strengthening their connection to the brand.

#2 Higher brand equity

A well-known and respected brand commands a higher perceived value in the eyes of consumers, allowing you to potentially charge premium prices and enjoy greater pricing power.

👉 Example: Apple's brand awareness contributes significantly to its brand equity.

The Apple logo alone is instantly recognizable worldwide, allowing the company to command premium prices for its products. This strong brand equity translates into higher profit margins and overall company valuation.

#3 Enhanced brand recognition

By consistently reinforcing your brand's visual identity, messaging, and unique value proposition, you can ensure that your target audience easily recognizes and remembers your brand.

👉 Example: How to build brand recognition? Consistency is key.

Apple's distinctive design and marketing campaigns make their products easy to identify. Whether it's the iconic Apple logo, the sleek design of the iPhone, or the unique user interface of iOS, consumers can quickly recognize Apple products even from a distance.

#4 Improved marketing effectiveness

With a strong foundation of brand awareness, your other marketing efforts, such as advertising, content marketing, and social media campaigns, will be more impactful and effective in reaching and resonating with your target audience.

👉 Example: Product launch

Apple's high brand awareness impacts the results of their marketing efforts. When Apple launches a new product, it doesn't need to explain who they are or what they stand for. This allows them to focus their marketing on product features and benefits, making their campaigns more efficient and cost-effective.

Apart from this, Apple new product launches make an event in themselves – and no other smartphone brand can compare.

#5 Competitive advantage

In crowded and highly competitive markets, a well-known and trusted brand can give you a significant advantage over your competitors, making it harder for newcomers to penetrate the market.

👉 Example: Apple's brand awareness gives it a significant edge over competitors.

When consumers think of premium smartphones or computers, Apple is often the first brand that comes to mind. This off-the-top-of-the-head awareness makes it challenging for competitors to gain a market share, especially in the high-end market segment.

#6 Increased sales and revenue

Ultimately, all the benefits of brand awareness contribute to a positive impact on your bottom line. Numerous studies have shown a direct correlation between high brand awareness and increased sales and revenue growth.

By prioritizing brand awareness as a key strategic objective, you can unlock a world of opportunities for your business, from building lasting customer relationships to driving sustainable growth and profitability.

👉 Example: Strong brand awareness directly contributes to Apple's impressive sales figures.

When new products are released, they often generate significant buzz and anticipation, leading to high pre-order numbers and long queues at Apple stores. This awareness-driven demand consistently translates into strong sales performance and revenue growth for the company.

How to build brand awareness in 5 steps

To successfully enhance brand awareness, you need to know these two details clearly:

• your audience
• your brand qualities

Step 1: Understand your audience

To ensure your brand awareness strategy will bring results, you first need to understand your audience. Who do you want to reach? What are their pain points? What would they appreciate in your brand?

• Conduct market research to identify your ideal customers' demographics, psychographics, needs, and preferences.
• Create detailed buyer personas to guide your branding efforts.

Why is this the first step?
When you know your audience, you're able to find common areas in their needs and your offer. It helps you ensure that your brand awareness campaign will cut through the noise and reach its goals.

Step 2: Define your brand image

Develop a clear and consistent brand image that resonates with your target audience.

This includes creating a unique visual identity (logo, color scheme, typography) and establishing your brand's personality. Ensure that all brand elements align with your company's values and mission. You'd be surprised how these elements can increase brand presence.

Step 3: Find your value proposition

How to spread brand awareness when you don't have a defined value? Well, you simply can't do it effectively.

Identify and articulate your unique value proposition.

What sets your brand apart from competitors? Focus on the specific benefits and solutions your brand offers to customers. Your value proposition should be clear, compelling, and relevant to your target audience, serving as the foundation of your brand messaging.

Step 4: Discover Tone of Voice

Establish a distinctive tone of voice that reflects your brand's personality and resonates with your audience.

Whether it's professional, friendly, humorous, or authoritative, your tone should be consistent across all communications. This consistency helps build brand recognition and fosters a connection with your audience.

Step 5: Assess various communication channels

👉 Evaluate different marketing channels to determine the most effective ways to reach your target audience.

Consider both digital and traditional media options. For digital channels, assess various social media platforms, content marketing opportunities, email marketing, and paid advertising.

Don't overlook traditional channels like print media, radio, or outdoor advertising if they align with your audience's habits.

You can do this manually, but it's not only time-consuming—you might also lose track in the vast sea of the internet or lack access to local newspapers in another state or country. To ensure you capture mentions both nationally and internationally, consider using a tool that automates the process. That way, you'll never miss a mention—whether it's online or offline.

💡 With Prowly, you can seamlessly track mentions across online, print, and broadcast media—bringing digital and traditional news coverage together in one powerful platform.

👉 When choosing social media channels, focus on platforms where your target audience is most active and engaged.

For example, LinkedIn might be ideal for B2B brands, while Instagram or TikTok are usually a part of digital strategies to increase brand awareness among younger consumers. Consider using a mix of platforms to maximize reach and engagement.

👉 Combine these channels strategically to create an integrated marketing approach.

Use consistent messaging and visuals across all platforms while tailoring content to suit each channel's unique characteristics. This multi-channel approach helps reinforce your brand message and increases the chances of reaching your audience through their preferred mediums.

How to increase brand awareness? Four tactics

Wondering how to gain brand awareness? Let's show you our favorite ways to raise awareness that you can implement in your strategy.

1️⃣ Think about stories

Develop compelling brand stories that resonate with your audience.

Use storytelling techniques to share your brand's history, values, and impact. Create emotional connections by highlighting customer success stories or by showcasing how your brand solves real-world problems. Engaging narratives can make your brand more memorable and shareable.

💡 If you need inspiration, check how to raise brand awareness with PR storytelling.

2️⃣ Find partnerships

Collaborate with complementary brands, influencers, or industry leaders to expand your reach.

Look for partnership opportunities that align with your brand values and target audience. Co-branded campaigns, sponsorships, or joint events can introduce your brand to new audiences and build credibility through association.

💡 How to find potential partners?

• Definitely start with market research, looking for complimentary organizations. Take it further and attend conferences or trade shows, where you can establish personal connections. Remember about the power of LinkedIn as well!
• You can also get creative and think about more uncommon ways you can show your brand qualities in different contexts. Don't limit yourself to companies: partnerships with events, NGOs, or artists can give you unexpected results.

3️⃣ Make use of traditional media

When thinking about how to generate brand awareness, traditional media can get overlooked – and that's a missed opportunity!

Press releases, media interviews, and feature articles in relevant publications can significantly boost your brand's visibility. Develop relationships with journalists and industry publications to increase your chances of gaining earned media coverage.

👉 Check out our guide on brand visibility to learn what it is, how to use it to your strategy and how to improve it.

💡 How to get started with media relations?

The key element of media relations is finding the right people. You might manually look for journalists that cover similar stories and reach out to them via email or leverage professional solutions.

PR software like Prowly gives you tools to manage media relations, like a media database (with over 1M contacts!) and outreach services. Check out our guide on media relations to find out more!

4️⃣ Measure, optimize and refine

Implement tools and metrics to track your brand awareness efforts. Monitor key performance indicators such as brand recall, social media mentions, website traffic, and engagement rates. Regularly analyze this data to identify what's working and what isn't. Use these insights to continuously refine your strategies, increasing brand awareness over time.

💡 How to measure an increase in brand awareness?

For measuring brand awareness, you can check how many people are talking about your brand online – and benchmark it against other periods. It's especially satisfying when you go from no or low brand awareness to huge numbers.

In Prowly, you can use the social listening panel to assess not only how many people are talking about your brand, but also check the sentiment of each mention.

What are brand awareness strategies? (Even more) examples

When you look at any of the Formula 1 race day, they're just full of brands willing to build brand recognition and grow brand awareness. From just displaying their logo to huge campaigns and influencing the sport: let's talk about examples of building brand awareness strategy.

Red Bull

Red Bull is deeply involved in F1, owning two teams: Red Bull Racing and Visa Cash RB. This gives them extensive brand exposure through team liveries, driver suits, and paddock presence. Additionally, they often have track-side advertising at various circuits.

Their involvement goes beyond mere sponsorship, as they are actively participating in the sport, which significantly boosts their brand association with F1's values of speed, precision, and high performance – especially at times when they are the top team in F1.

Most of the teams are owned by automotive brands: think Mercedes, McLaren or Aston Martin. Red Bull leverages being an energy drink maker and you can often spot their drivers or engineers with a can of Red Bull.

💡 Key learning point:
Play your uniqueness card. Who'd have thought that an energy drink maker would win automotive championships?

Heineken

How do you build brand awareness at a race event (POV: you're a beer brand)?

Heineken seems to have found the sweet spot.

Heineken is an official F1 partner, prominently featured in track-side advertising at many races. They've cleverly tied their brand to responsible drinking campaigns, using the slogan "When You Drive, Never Drink" and promoting their non-alcoholic "0.0" beer. This strategy not only raises brand awareness but also positions Heineken as a socially responsible company, aligning with F1's safety messaging.

💡 Key learning point:
A successful beer promotion at a motorsport event in 21st century? With the right values, it's definitely possible. When you plan your brand awareness campaign, make sure to capitalize on the right messaging.

Looking to kickstart your own brand awareness campaign? Check out our handy guide on doing just that!

Rolex

Rolex, as the official timekeeper of F1, leverages its precision and luxury image through prominent placement of its logo and clocks at race starting lines and key timing points. The large Rolex clock at the start/finish line is often featured in broadcasts, reinforcing the brand's association with accuracy and prestige in a high-tech sport.

💡 Key learning point:
Consistency. F1 is just one of many prestigious sports where Rolex is present.

Salesforce

What do motorsports and CRM have in common?

Data.

Salesforce uses its F1 partnership to showcase its data analytics capabilities. They handle the "Driver of the Day" fan vote, demonstrating how their technology can process real-time data and fan engagement. It's a great example of leveraging tech and connecting two seemingly different areas.

💡 Key learning point:
Show your value, don't only talk about it. Salesforce delivers fun, but their target audience can't help but notice their tech prowess.

Pirelli

As the sole tire supplier for F1, Pirelli gains extensive exposure through constant mentions of tire compounds, strategies, and pit stops. Their logo is visible on all cars and in the pit lane. Pirelli leverages this to showcase their technology and performance: after all, what fan wouldn't like their regular car to have something in common with the F1 bolid?

💡 Key learning point:
Don't limit yourself to your service or products: showcase your expertise.

Whole lots of teams' sponsors

F1 bolids are just soaked in numerous brand logos: all looking for ways to increase brand awareness. From regular logo placement to creative ways of showing off the brand: let's go through McLaren sponsors' brand awareness strategy examples.

How creative can you get with showing your brand on a car?

Well, the bar was raised by Google. They use McLaren bolids as a moving billboard for their products, with the Android mascot and Chrome logo creatively integrated into the livery. The Google Chrome wheel on a wheel? Love it!

• Helmets and suits: that's definitely the go-to logo placement and solid B2B brand awareness strategy. It works as "one more" touchpoint, where your customers can see your logo and unwittingly build associations.
• As a luxury watch brand, Richard Mille benefits from association with F1's precision and exclusivity, often featured prominently on driver's wrists, suits and car liveries.
• McLaren went creative with utilizing their car livery for sponsorship purposes. It's the first team to use screens where brand content is displayed.

How will you raise brand awareness?

Strategically, we hope!

On a more serious note, though. Working on brand awareness is a process, not a one-time event. Stay agile and committed to your brand's long-term growth and you'll unlock the true power of brand awareness to take your business to new heights.

As you've surely noticed, there's no one tried and true way to create brand awareness. Building it requires creativity and patience: Apple wasn't built in a day. Yet as we've said, it gives you a super-valuable, intangible asset that your competition can't steal.

So, how will you create brand awareness for your company?

The post Best Brand Awareness Strategies Overview (with Examples) appeared first on Prowly.

Keeping up-to-date with customer perception is essential when you're working on your corporate brand and reputation analysis can give you just that.

Why should you conduct brand reputation analysis?

Brand reputation is the collective perception of your company as held by various stakeholders, including customers, employees, investors and the general public.

It's shaped by direct experiences, media coverage, online reviews, and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Why is brand reputation important for PR?

Let's start with a brand vs reputation comparison:

👉 your brand is your company's intentional presentation: name, logo, colors, messaging

👉 your reputation is how the company is perceived externally: opinions, reviews, and beliefs

You can directly shape your brand and indirectly shape your reputation. And both play a key role in any business.

For you, as a PR professional, understanding and managing brand reputation is critical. It highly impacts the fate of your company, influencing areas like:

• customer decisions and loyalty
• ability to attract and retain talent
• investor confidence and stock prices
• and it can make or break partnerships and business opportunities

No doubt then that you need to keep an eye on your brand reputation and run regular analyses. It can help you identify potential crises, track the effectiveness of your campaigns, and make decisions about your brand's image that are backed up by numbers. A whole new level of delivering results.

Can you measure brand reputation?

You can put a number on brand reputation – and most likely, a few. There are several ways to quantify it and you'll get the best results by combining various metrics. With the right measurements in hand, you can get a comprehensive understanding of your brand performance on the market.

5 key brand reputation metrics

How to measure brand reputation - online and offline? Track the right numbers! Let's talk about the crucial metrics.

#1 Sentiment analysis

Sentiment analysis assesses the tone of each mention, indicating if it's positive, negative or neutral. It's used to gauge public perception and identify potential PR issues or opportunities for brand improvement as they arise.

💡 Here's a whole guide to sentiment analysis in PR or more specifically:
➖ brand sentiment analysis
➖ and a list of the best tools available on the market.

#2 Share of Voice (SoV)

Share of Voice is the percentage of media coverage or conversations that you get vs your competition.

It's used to assess a brand's visibility and influence relative to its competitors, helping you make inform strategies to get more of that pie.

💡 You can learn all about Share of Voice from this article.

#3 Media Exposure

Media exposure is the total amount of visibility a brand receives across various media channels, including traditional news outlets, social media, and other online platforms.

This metric shows you what your general reach is and how effective your PR and marketing strategies are in generating publicity.

#4 Stakeholder feedback

When thinking about product development, customer service improvements, and overall business strategy, you definitely need your stakeholders' insights. Gather direct feedback from the key groups affected by (and affecting) your business. This means customers, employees, investors and partners.

In terms of brand analysis, these are often the key figures in forming general public perceptions of your brand.

#5 Quality of mentions

Contrary to just counting the number of mentions, their quality is an assessment of their substance, relevance and impact.

You could use this metric to evaluate the effectiveness of your messaging and to identify high-value media opportunities that align with your communication goals.

A step-by-step guide to brand reputation analysis in PR

Understanding brand reputation requires a systematic approach. Check out our steps to conduct a corporate reputation review and analyze brand reputation.

How to assess brand reputation?
Comprehensive data + mentions monitoring = staying in the loop of brand reputation.

1️⃣ Choose the right KPIs

Appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are crucial to measuring brand reputation effectively. Opt for metrics that:

✅ Align with your overall business goals
✅ Ensure they are measurable and trackable over time
✅ Include a mix of quantitative and qualitative metrics
✅ Focus on metrics that provide actionable insights

We suggest you combine a few metrics from this list:

• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
• Brand Awareness
• Sentiment Score
• Share of Voice
• Website Traffic
• Social Media Engagement Rates

All together, they can give you a fairly comprehensive view on your brand reputation. You'll learn what your customers think, how it differs from the general audience, and how visible you are compared to the competition.

Psst! Here's a whole article about PR Metrics: What to Measure and Why (with Examples). And to discover more ideas and inspiration by exploring this guide to brand awareness campaigns, complete with examples to spark your creativity.

2️⃣ Set up brand monitoring

For brand reputation analysis, you have to know what's being said about your company: both online and offline.

Brand monitoring software give you exactly that. With instant notifications, you can tackle issues that need your attention now. They're not just for crisis prevention, though: you can use them to assess the impact of your brand activities.

Online monitoring is cool, but imagine getting similar data about print and broadcast news.

👉 Print & broadcast monitoring

It's not true that only digital matters these days.

Not every brand's target audience are young people who spend most of the time online. And even if that would be true - presence in physical magazines, radio or TV, makes the brand look more reliable, genuine and maybe even luxurious.

Prowly lets you combine digital brand analysis with instant access to global and local papers–even those paywalled. With filtering options, you'll get notified about the mentions that truly matter. And you'll see them all displayed in easy-to-use dashboards.

💡 Tip: When choosing a media monitoring service, make sure it’s tailored to local media — for example, the UK market.

To ensure your print monitoring and broadcast monitoring needs are fully understood, contact us and let’s schedule a call to explore how the right features can support your goals.

👉 Social media & digital monitoring

Let's start with the online realm. Social listening tools go through digital content (virtually of any type), looking for keywords of your choice. But that's not all!

You learn more than just who said what. Apart from that, the tech analyzes each mention's context, like sentiment, and gives you a full breakdown.

💡 Tip: Read this full guide on social media reputation to get a complete picture of your PR strategy.

3️⃣ Use sentiment analysis and Share of Voice

• Share of Voice (SOV) measures your brand's visibility compared to competitors. By tracking SOV, you can gauge your brand's market presence and identify opportunities for growth.

• Sentiment analysis helps you understand the emotional tone behind mentions of your brand. It categorizes mentions as positive, negative or neutral, giving you insights into how people perceive your brand.

4️⃣ Set up negative mention alerts

Proactive crisis management is crucial for maintaining a positive brand reputation. Set up alerts for negative mentions to address potential issues as they arise. This allows you to:

• Respond promptly to customer complaints
• Address misinformation before it spreads
• Show that your brand is attentive and responsive

Remember, the faster you respond to negative mentions, the better chance you have of mitigating their impact on your brand's reputation. And the less probable your stakeholders or client base start to get concerned.

5️⃣ Collect & analyze online reviews

Online reviews play a significant role in shaping brand reputation. Regularly collect and analyze reviews from various platforms to:

• Identify common praise or complaints
• Track changes in customer satisfaction over time
• Respond to reviews promptly and professionally

You will, of course, get notifications about them from Prowly, but it's good to store them all in one place somewhere. After all, they make up a part of your brand knowledge.

💡 Aim to respond to reviews within 24-48 hours to show that you value customer feedback and are committed to addressing concerns. Of course, if the review has crisis potential, you need to react much faster – ideally within 90 minutes.

6️⃣ Track your brand’s mentions over time

You should act on mentions immediately, but looking at the long-term perspective is equally important.

Monitoring brand mentions over an extended period allows you to:

• Identify trends in brand perception
• Evaluate whether your plans work
• Measure the impact of PR campaigns and initiatives
• Spot seasonal fluctuations in brand sentiment
• Detect early warning signs of potential PR crises

💡 Tip: If you want to make your PR strategy truly robust, learn how to measure, report, and protect your brand with this article on brand reputation management.

7️⃣ Analyze and report

Regular reporting is crucial for stakeholders to understand the state of your brand's reputation. When creating reports:

• Present data visually using graphs and charts
• Highlight key insights and trends
• Provide context for the data
• Include recommendations for action

Tools like Prowly offer integrated reporting features, allowing you to easily incorporate brand mentions into your reports, saving time and ensuring consistency. And as it's all in one tool, adding a mention is just a few clicks.

This way, you can easily organize mentions and translate them into business language: metrics.

8️⃣ Refine strategies based on data analysis

Get an in-depth perspective on your brand reputation strategy with data analytics. With these in hand, you can both:

• Use positive brand mentions to reinforce your brand strategy with unique, user-generated content
• Address negative comments before they spike

In addition, brand analytics can indicate potential PR crisis threats. Those regular check-ins can inform your PR crisis management strategy and help mitigate damage.

➕ Extra effort: surveys

While monitoring and analysis provide valuable insights, sometimes it's necessary to go directly to your audience.

Think about organizing consumer surveys when:

• You need in-depth insights on specific aspects of your brand
• You want to validate trends observed in your monitoring data
• You're planning major brand changes or launching new products
• You need to measure the effectiveness of a specific campaign

Brand reputation analysis tools

When thinking on how to measure brand reputation, you can't pass on tools. Check out our brief tool comparisons.

#1 Prowly

• Price: Starting from $258 monthly
• Free trial: Available for 7 days
• All-in-one PR tool: Yes

Prowly is a comprehensive PR platform that includes media monitoring, reporting, and CRM features. It's ideal for PR professionals looking for a fully integrated solution.

#2 Google Alerts

• Price: Free
• All-in-one PR tool: No

Google Alerts is a free tool that notifies you when new content matching your specified keywords appears on the web.

While limited in features, it's a good starting point for basic brand monitoring.

#3 Mention

• Price: Starting from $49 monthly 
• Free trial or demo: 14-day free trial available and you can book a demo call
• All-in-one PR tool: No

Mention combines social listening with post-scheduling capabilities.

It tracks brand mentions across various online platforms, including social media, blogs, and news sites.

#4 Brand24

• Price: Starting from $79 monthly
• Free trial: Available for 14 days
• All-in-one PR tool: No

Brand24 focuses on online brand presence, offering features like sentiment analysis, influence scoring, and alerts.

It's particularly useful for social media monitoring and crisis prevention.

💡 Reputation can shift fast. These 16 PR crisis management examples show how brands responded when things went wrong — take a look and fine-tune your strategy if you spot any weak spots.

#5 Determ

• Price: No publicly available pricing
• Free trial or demo: Both – after a demo you get a free trial account
• All-in-one PR tool: No

Determ offers real-time media monitoring across various online sources, including social media and news sites.

How to choose the right tool

When selecting a brand reputation analysis tool, consider:

• Your budget and team size
• The specific features you need (e.g. sentiment analysis, reporting capabilities)
• The channels you need to monitor (social media, news sites, print media)
• Integration with other tools you use
• Ease of use and learning curve
• Quality of customer support

Remember, the best tool for your needs will depend on your specific circumstances and goals. Many tools offer free trials, so take advantage of these to test different options before making a final decision.

Conclusions

How to track brand reputation? All you need is data on what people say about your brand. By measuring the right indicators and staying aware of the relevant mentions, you can assess your brand's reputation with confidence.

That's the first step for conscious work on your brand. And the best way to evaluate your efforts!

The post Guide to Brand Reputation Analysis for PR Professionals (w/ Tools) appeared first on Prowly.

Corporate reputation impacts all business aspects: from who buys your products through partnerships, stock market results, and even job candidates. All of which translates into your financial results.

And the good news is, it can be managed. It's called effective corporate reputation management. It consists on several strategies and techniques that you can adjust to your company needs — and this article is here to help you out.

Imagine having a tool that simplifies your media relations and crisis communication, ensuring your brand’s story is always on point. Ready to take control of your corporate reputation management? Try Prowly for free for 7 days, no strings attached.

What is corporate reputation management?

Let's set some common ground by answering the most important questions first.

1. What is corporate reputation (with examples)?
   Corporate reputation is the image and beliefs linked to your company. For example: Apple tries to link their image with user privacy.

2. What are the four components of reputation management?
   Brand monitoring, responding to feedback, encouraging positive opinions, and dealing with negative comments.

3. What are the top three factors of corporate reputation?
   Quality, safety, and the respect you show in your services and products.

4. What is the meaning of reputation management?
   Reputation management means influencing what stakeholders think about your organization.

Elements of corporate reputation management (w/ examples)

A company's corporate reputation strategy isn't a monolith: each element interacts with the others. Let's see what areas count most in corporate reputation management.

#1 Quality of services

A basic yet often overlooked element of your brand reputation management strategy. Quality (and quality/price ratio) is often the most efficient trigger in word-of-mouth marketing. People enjoy both giving and receiving recommendations.

Often, it's hard to cover up a poor offer's quality — even with the most thoughtful corporate reputation management.

#2 Executives and leadership

Each person that makes it into the spotlight is paramount to any reputation management strategy. Your executives not only decide on the direction your company image takes: they can make it or break it with what they publish.

The most obvious example here is Elon Musk, who both raised and drowned companies with his image. And I'm willing to bet that each industry and niche has their own, lesser-known Musk.

#3 CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)

The impact companies have on the environment (both nature and social) gets even more attention — especially in the face of mandatory ESG compliance regulations.

For PR specialists, CSR actions taken by the company usually make a pleasant topic to share with the world.

#4 Work culture

The way your company treats its employees impacts not only your employer brand — but makes for another element of your corporate reputation.

Google is a company that builds their image on their workplace culture, among other things. Nevertheless, their recent layoffs in 2024 (and the form they took) cast a different light on what was once a carefully crafted strategy.

#5 Partnerships

Brand partnerships might be the strongest way to show what you care about as an organization. From events, like music festivals or sport games, through sportsmen and travellers, there's a wide array of options out there.

#5 Online and media presence

Online and media aren't only about what you say — but also what is said about you. Pay attention to what is visible after a quick Google search.

Prowly gathers and analyzes online mentions from various sources so that you can keep a hold of your online reputation management.

#6 Customer service

The way you take care of your customers after their purchase has a heavy impact on word-of-mouth. Beware that's not only what you promise, but how you execute it.

A good example comes from Osprey, a backpack maker that offers an All Mighty Guarantee, promising to repair or replace your backpack if the need arises. And as Reddit confirms, they stand by their promise.

#7 Crisis management

In corporate reputation management, a PR crisis is as inevitable as taxes. And your crisis management strategy can seriously impact your corporate reputation for years to follow. Remember Facebook x Cambridge Analytica? That was almost 10 years ago — and yet is still associated with Meta, their lack of transparency, and their failure to offer acceptable reactions.

A crisis press release is a powerful tool to mitigate potential harm. Check out our crisis press release guide and have them ready before you need them!

💡 Tip: If you want to make your PR strategy truly robust, learn how to measure, report, and protect your brand with this article on brand reputation management.

Tools for managing corporate reputation

There's technology for almost everything and managing corporate reputation is no exception. The right tools can help you:

• gather precise opinions, meaning you learn what is really being said about your company
• discover trends from your target group
• track how they feel about you

Let's get into the details.

#1 What do they say about your company?

You'll find the answer in social monitoring tools.

First, let's start with an important distinction: social listening vs social monitoring. Social listening is about uncovering trends and the feelings of the general public. Social media monitoring gives you precise mentions and quotes.

And that's why we'll start with social media monitoring tools — to get the "what."

With a tool like Prowly, you can quickly get an understanding of the newest, relevant mentions covering all the keywords you want to watch. You also get more context, with information about the author and outlet (in case of media publications), as well as potential reach.

If you wish, you can get instant notifications or digests of the mentions you shouldn't miss. With this in hand, you can use social media listening for increasing customer advocacy — and boost your corporate reputation.

#2 How do they feel about your company?

Now it's time to get real value from all those gathered mentions: what, in general, does your public think about you?

Here social listening and sentiment analysis tools get center stage.

Social listening tools analyze the sound and context of each mention to rate the sentiment: positive, negative, or neutral. So you can observe changes in mention quality, not only the number.

Dashboards like this are available in Prowly for each mention you choose. So you get all the crucial info at just a glance.

Social listening helps you assess the impact of your corporate reputation management strategy. Connecting the dots between your actions and general public perception, you can choose the most efficient tactics.

Company reputation management: a step by step guide

Let's see what it takes to start managing corporate reputation consciously. What are the company brand reputation must have?

1. Get others on board

Managing corporate reputation isn't a one-person task. You need to cooperate with all types of specialists.

To get started, you need to align with:

• executive board
• marketing
• customer-facing teams

Each area will bring a unique perspective which will prove valuable in setting the ground for corporate brand reputation and brand crisis management.

2. Audit your situation

To get started, you need to know where you are. Gather all the places where your company is mentioned: from official profiles to Reddit threads.

Make sure to cover:

• all type of mentions of your brand
• online reviews
• news coverage, blogs, forums and comments mentioning your brand
• influencers and journalists writing about you
• claimed and unclaimed business profiles
• industry and brand-related search phrases

As you can see, it's mostly online reputation management. And if your company is often mentioned in traditional media, we encourage you to include all sources.

👉 How can Prowly help? Media monitoring can help you track brand and industry mentions across outlets and journalists covering your topics of interest, both online and in traditional media as well.

3. Understand the data

Once you have all the data in hand, it's time for in-depth analysis and interpretation. Drawing appropriate conclusions is vital for planning your next steps as well as for long-term strategies.

Here's where teamwork is most crucial. With appropriate backgrounds and skills, you can gather insights on how your actions and industry events shaped the perception of your brand.

It's also a time for understanding the processes you have in your company, whether it's about PR plans or the way you treat client complaints. All of it impacts your image and are therefore important for any corporate reputation management strategy.

4. Vet your competitors

Your competition is a great source. They're potentially struggling with similar issues and an in-depth analysis of their actions (or lack thereof) may result in surprising insights. While we don't encourage you to literally copy their solutions, competitive research is a definite must-have.

Make sure to check on any of their past brand crises, as they will be relevant for crafting your corporate reputation management strategy.

Apart from your direct competition, you can extend your research to find inspiration. Some companies excel in their corporate reputation management strategy, and certainly there's a lot to learn from. Even if their ideas aren't directly applicable to your industry, they might spark the creative flow and inspire.

Keep reading — we'll provide some examples later on!

👉 How can Prowly help? With Prowly, you can track mentions covering all your competitors across key industries.

5. Identify the risks

As you approach the topic consciously, there are certainly several threats you will be able to spot. Is it about the negative information available online? Or maybe a lack of initiative and control over what's published about your company?

List all the potential threats you've noticed and brainstorm potential solutions. Our article on PR crisis management strategies might be of help!

6. List the opportunities

Hopefully, you have also uncovered some opportunities of where to work on your corporate reputation. Choose ideas based on your available resources, skillsets, and potential impact — for sure you'll spot some low-hanging fruit.

Maybe it's high time to check out influencer PR? Or try and encourage your clients to leave positive reviews?

👉 How can Prowly help? Take a look at Prowly's rich media database to get in touch with relevant journalists and influencers.

7. Act with patience

Even the best corporate reputation strategy can't stay on paper. Nevertheless, results will come with time — especially if the corporate reputation management area was previously neglected.

👉 How can Prowly help? Share your narrative in an online newsroom and track your results across several useful metrics.

Effective corporate reputation management strategy

Each corporate reputation management strategy is a unique mix, yet the main ingredients remain the same. Take a look at some of the areas you'll tackle.

Harmful information management

Negative (or simply false) information that's available online — your worst challenge when it comes to managing corporate reputation. Limiting its impact can take years and lots of effort.

Review management

Reviews are a powerful tool for corporate reputation — and you shouldn't leave them up to chance.

1. Your first task is to assess the probability of negative reviews. You should be aware of customers' opinions and the way your customer service replies to their concerns.
2. What's more, you can encourage satisfied users to leave positive reviews. Be it with an incentive or just a kind request, an influx of honest, positive reviews is always welcome.
3. The third area of review management are the replies. If possible, don't leave reviews without reactions from your company. It's a great opportunity to show you care about your clients and to mitigate potential harm from negative reviews.

Content marketing and SEO

Content marketing and SEO add up in your corporate reputation management. With thoughtful articles, videos and other publications that are easy to find via search engines, you can increase your industry authority and strengthen your reputation.

Content you publish can make or break trust, especially if you tackle controversial topics.

Social media

Social media is known for its crisis potential. As a situation can quickly get out of control after even just one comment, you need to have a plan in place — and a quick reaction time.

Make sure to add social presence management elements to your corporate reputation strategy. When you handle it proactively, it's can be a great point of leverage to strengthen your image.

Brand monitoring

Ongoing monitoring and optimization is key to effective corporate reputation management. It helps you keep your list of threats and opportunities up to date, as well as uncovers fresh insights about your audience.

This element can be decisive in the success of your corporate reputation management strategy, as it includes constant adjustments to new challenges.

Good corporate reputation management — example

Get inspired with this unconventional reputation management strategy!

Red Bull

Red Bull's corporate reputation strategy is thoughtfully executed. With their strategic partnerships, they put their slogan into real world.

Red Bull participates in an enormous range of events: from sports and music to beating world records in slack lines. Through non-conventional tactics, they create an image that resonates with their target audience.

Bad reputation management — example

Let's look at one of the punchiest examples of bad reputation management.

Car manufacturer's emissions scandal

In 2015, it turned out that a major German automotive manufacturer, Volkswagen, used a so-called "defeat device" in diesel engines to hide the real amount of harmful emissions. In 11 million of its cars sold worldwide.

What's more, they had just launched a campaign praising their cars' low emissions.

Even though they took action, like the resignation of their CEO and the recalling of effected cars, the brand (and financial) impact of the scandal was tremendous.

Their credibility was destroyed, as well as their stock price, which fell by about a third. As much as they have invested in the world's most extensive switch-over program and regained popularity since, the issue still hasn't been forgotten and often appears in social media.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many approaches to effective reputation management. Strategies like content removal or customer engagement provide outcomes, yet you can take the best steps only after careful research.

Hopefully, with this guide in hand, you'll know where to start. With the wise use of tools, you'll be able to get your corporate reputation management plan running in no time!

The post Corporate Reputation Management: Strategies for PR Pros appeared first on Prowly.