3 Ways to Convince an Audience Outside Your Sphere of Influence

By Claire O’Neil

Networking is a key element in public relations. It’s something that can help a company grow or acquire new clients.

But how can a company network with people who are not familiar with a company or may not have any interest in what it is? And what are the best ways to convince them on what you are trying to present? The tactics every public relations company uses focuses on the development of the relationship between the company and the client. But how exactly can you influence a client that may not be interested in your type of firm?

I asked two public relation professionals one question: What tactics do your company use to convince an audience outside your sphere of influence?

Here are three tactics they use daily:

1. Good Communication.

Whether you work in public relations or any type of media, you know communication is a requirement that creates new relationships and can turn them into long-term affairs.

The main-stream media is a great way to find and attract diverse clients through advertising. Finding information and statistics on where people are spending their free time can be a way to market material. The older generation tends to read the newspaper or use Facebook while younger generations use other social networking sites.

Communication through these channels can persuade a viewer by the advertisements. By doing this, they are able to target a direct audience which can result in getting different types of clients you may not have had before.

2. Build Trustworthiness.

Your client wants to be in good hands, so by slowly building a relationship, this can snowball into trust and acceptance.

Philip Stahl, a public information officer that works for a police department said: “We work daily to build the trust of our community and showcase our work by enforcing the law.”

The fair and impartial enforcement of these can build into trust because citizens believe they are living in a safe environment.

Paul Auriga, President and CEO of WordWrite Communications. said, “We strive to establish trust with those we work with.”

By creating a sense of security and finding comparisons among you and your client can develop a relationship and can persuade new clients to be with your company. You can do this by collecting as much information as possible on a given topic and develop a logical case on why they will be in good hands.

If a company is trusted, this can draw in more clients which can ultimately change the typical pattern it may have.

3. Have a Diverse Team.

This may be one of the most important yet obvious tool to have in a company.

How are you able to reach out to different types of clients when everyone has the same opinions and perspectives? Being able to acquire people from different places and different viewpoints can evolve a company.

“One measure of our success in relationship building comes from our diverse team, who bring different experiences, backgrounds and expertise to our clients.” Furiga said.

Having a diverse team can help by focusing on their own strengths to appeal to a specific audience. This comes to show that having several different opinions whether you agree with them or not, can make a difference in building a new and different type of relationship.

Claire O’Neil is a PRSSA member at West Virginia University. Connect with Claire on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.