A business toolkit needs more than tools; it needs people with skills to make the tools work.

I am a message mapping expert in the world of public relations that has become so blended with marketing. To become an expert in anything, you move from the tactical to the strategic, or you are a strategist who loves the tactical. There are both: public relations strategists and public relations tacticians.

In a business toolkit, I’m likely to fit into both: strategist and tactician.Who’s in your business toolkit? You better have a digital marketing specialist, a content marketer, a social media marketer, and a copywriter, too. It’s wonderful when you have a web designer and developer in your back pocket because every business needs one.

When there isn’t enough bandwidth to have all of the above, then hire a really good public relations strategist. Someone like me earns that moniker over time and experience. There’s no hiding it! I’ve been at this for more than 30 years earning expertise every day.

Your Business Toolkit

There are business pain points all over companies right now; do you feel them?

Mostly, it’s the empowered consumer demanding more attention for better products and services. It’s also the mobile web taking away brick and mortar jobs. How about consolidation and companies just plain old shutting down? That leaves an abundance of qualified professionals to create and build your business toolkit.

The concept of a toolkit is much like a toolkit! You need a tool for every screw, nail, bolt, and construction job. That goes the same for your marketing department. For businesses trying to DIY their public relations, then the nails will bend from a bad hammering job, the screws will be too short to affix the item to the wall, and your paint job will take hours with the wrong brush.

Why Public Relations Strategist

Put a public relations strategist into your business toolkit:

• Public relations professionals are trained to dive deeply into a company’s business goals and understand how communications strategy aligns with goals for growth and sustained profitability.
• We create thought leaders in categories by implementing the appropriate program elements to drive attention on the message and positioning of a company.
• We implement content marketing strategy oriented to business development and lead generation, and also consider issuing news releases to also attain these goals.
• What’s more, a public relations strategist (I have 30+ seasoned years in this field) brings earned expertise developed from the trenches. It’s a tough profession to be in, although we often get very short shrift due to the blending of the profession and the levels of expertise.
• A public relations strategist can morph into a business consultant, message mapping master, brand marketer, event planner, media trainer, copywriter, website designer, creative, social media expert, customer service consultant, crisis communicator, and so much more.

Your business toolkit would definitely benefit from the addition of a public relations strategist. Try one on for size!

(This post was originally written May 1, 2014 by Jayme Soulati.)