7 Best CRMs for PR Reps to Easily Manage Contacts, Campaigns, and Media Relations in 2024

Are you still using the traditional methods for PR activities? Isn't it very time-consuming?

Today, we are growing very fast in terms of technology and business, so relying only on traditional methods like newspapers or magazines to grab people's attention might not be the best plan. While old-school PR tactics can still be useful, adding a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to your PR activity can effortlessly make you more efficient.

With a CRM tool, you can easily manage your guest list, keep track of media contacts, social media influencers, and brand ambassadors, and even schedule follow-up emails and reminders. It also lets you group your audience based on their interests, understand what they like, and customize your invites.

For instance, when you send a message to a social influencer, you can be quite informal, whereas when you have communication with media contacts, you need to be a bit formal. And with a CRM tool like Zixflow, you can customize AI notes with various tones accordingly.

Nowadays, people have instant communication and high expectations. Using technology like CRM doesn't just make your PR work more efficient but also lets you create a more personal and exciting experience for the people you're trying to reach.

So, while traditional methods still have their place, embracing technology can really set your brand and events apart in today's competitive world.

For example, you are organizing the Tira Beauty [an online platform for all beauty needs in India] launch event. Let's say you're inviting one of the popular Indian fashion influencers and a model, Sakshi Sindwani to the Tira Beauty event.

With your CRM tool, you can send her a personalized email that mentions her favorite Tira Beauty products, tracks when she opens the email and even follows up automatically if she hasn't responded.

Once Sakshi Sindwani attends the event, you can collect her feedback and keep her engaged with Tira Beauty through post-event content.

Now, to get more about the best CRMs for your PR reps, let’s unfold your journey right here.

How does a CRM help your PR reps leverage media outreach benefits?

Imagine you are a PR rep, and you are working for a fashion brand called Urbanic. You have a list of media contacts, including reporters, bloggers, and influencers, with whom you need to maintain good relationships to create a great brand impression. With the help of a CRM tool, you can have all the contact details, arrange campaigns, customize your email, and many more tasks done in just one place.

Let me show in depth how CRM can be beneficial for your business especially if it's for PR while comparing it with different professionals, like salespeople.

Organizing information

Just like a salesperson needs to keep information about clients and leads organized, you also need to manage the list of reporters and media outlets. You can use a CRM tool to categorize them based on their areas of interest, publication deadlines, and past interactions. This way, you can send the right information to the right people at the right time.

Managing up-to-date data

CRM helps you to ensure that the contact information and preferences of reporters are up-to-date. If a reporter switches jobs or starts covering new topics, you can promptly update this information in her CRM tool, which will help your PR team as well. This prevents you and your teams from sending pitches to the wrong contacts, which could be embarrassing and ineffective.

Learning from the past

Just as a salesperson learns from past sales successes and failures, you can also analyze your past PR efforts. You can check which reporters responded well to your pitches, what type of content received more coverage the same as sales experts use content to enhance sales engagement, and what didn't work. With CRM data, you can refine your strategies and focus on what brings results.

Handling team collaboration

As you work with a team of PR professionals using the CRM tool, your team can collaborate efficiently, avoiding situations where multiple team members contact the same reporters with the same pitch. This ensures a cohesive and consistent message to the media outlets.

So, just as CRM helps salespeople manage their relationships with clients and leads, it also helps PR representatives like you maintain positive connections with media contacts and outlets. It streamlines their work, ensures accuracy, and leads to better results in promoting your brand.

Streamline processes

A CRM helps you simplify and streamline the often complex and multifaceted PR activities. It provides a centralized platform for managing contacts, communications, and campaign details, reducing the risk of overlooked or duplicated efforts.

Enhance productivity

A CRM system increases your productivity as a PR rep by automating repetitive tasks. For instance, with tools like WhatsApp automation, email automation, or SMS automation, you can reach out to influencers, bloggers, and media with just a single click.

This not only saves valuable time but also frees you up to focus on more strategic and creative aspects of your work, such as crafting compelling brand messages or devising innovative collaboration ideas. CRM automation empowers you to work smarter, not harder, making your efforts more impactful and efficient.

Improve public relation

A CRM system is your key to elevating your public relations game, especially when dealing with media contacts. By keeping tabs on individual preferences, past interactions, and essential details, you can ensure that your engagements are not just more personalized but also highly engaging. This personal touch can work wonders in fortifying your relationships, not only with media professionals but also with the public.

Take LEGO, for instance. Their dedication to childhood development and enjoyment is evident in their PR approach, which includes a special touch for younger audiences. A recent heartwarming initiative involved donating 600 LEGO magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner building kits to help children overcome their fears of undergoing an MRI scan.

Through play, role-playing, and interactive building, LEGO and hospitals collaborate to boost children's confidence while making the experience enjoyable in what can be a nerve-wracking environment.

*A CRM for PR, enabled Lego to build PR relationships with its target audience while making it enjoyable.*

Make an informed decision

When you, as a PR rep, use a CRM system, you get a deeper understanding of your media contacts and how your campaigns are doing. This information helps you make wise decisions about your strategies and campaigns and alter them accordingly.

You can know what's working and what's not, and that means you can quickly change and make things better. It's like having a compass to always head in the right direction, adapting and improving as things change in the PR world.

7 best CRMs for your PR reps to nail evolving media dynamics

Sharing with you the list of public relations CRMs to reduce and rectify the PR blunders by keeping important contacts handy and easily manageable.

Thank me later!

Zixflow

Meet Zixflow, one of the top-notch tools that can smoothen your PR activities like cakewalk. It's one of the best in customer relationship management (CRM), and it's packed with AI-powered features. Zixflow is your all-in-one solution for boosting your earnings.

This smart CRM software makes managing customer or client relationships smoothly. It helps you keep track of your media contacts, streamline your PR campaigns, and even handle repetitive tasks automatically. Plus, it provides you with the insights you need to create personalized strategies that perfectly fit your brand's unique needs. With Zixflow, your PR efforts are about to get a whole lot better.

Key features

Revolutionize your PR tasks with Zixflow’s workflow automation

Take your PR game to the next level with Zixflow automation. It's all about simplifying your PR process by eliminating the repetitive tasks for you so you can focus on what really matters.

Now, you can invest your time in planning new PR events, campaigns, and media ideas to showcase your brands at just the right time. Start by creating custom workflow automation that matches your brand's specific needs.

With this platform, you can schedule your activity lists, set triggers for each particular event, and add multiple actions in automation mode on how you want to finish your PR targets. This means you can get creative and come up with exciting new ways to promote your brands in a hassle-free mode.

*Organize your PR activities in automation mode with a CRM that is exclusively designed for the PR industry named Zixflow.*

Building strong relationships with smooth contact management

Creating lasting connections with journalists, bloggers, influencers, and brand ambassadors is a breeze when you have Zixflow on your side. No more chaos and confusion—Zixflow simplifies the entire process. With Zixflow, all your client details and history are neatly organized and super easy to find.

You can utilize sort and filter views with different types of table views as your preferences. Zixflow's user-friendly platform ensures that you have all your clients' information right at your fingertips without the need to dig through piles of data or struggle to locate important information. This enables your success without messing up contacts especially when you're in a rush to apply emotional intelligence to boost sales to maximize PR profits.

*Seamlessly manage each PR contact to stay in a rush-free mode with one of the best CRM for PR, Zixflow.*

Expand your media outreach with Zixflow’s campaign builder

You can use Zixflow's campaign building feature to create and manage impactful email, SMS, and WhatsApp campaigns to connect with journalists, influencers, and clients. You can keep your audience engaged by sharing valuable content and updates on multiple channels.

Email campaigns

From personalized 1:1 emails for press conferences, follow-up emails, bulk email campaigns, or transactional emails, Zixflow's Campaigns can handle it all. Whether you’re a novice or an expert in email content writing, Zixflow’s built-in email AI writer writes, rewrites, and summarizes personalized content that has the potential to smoothen out lead conversion.

Also, you can use ready-made templates or customize email templates quickly, when your planning is to follow up and achieve PR success. Moreover, its drag-and-drop builder feature enables you to utilize your existing email templates and you can add variables to set your preferred text in default mode.

*Customize email content to engage your PR audience quickly with email campaign builder by Zixflow, a CRM for public reactions.*

WhatsApp campaigns

Whether you want to send broadcast & drip campaign messages in bulk for your PR promotion or you're very selective in offerings, the Zixflow platform allows you to seamlessly engage with social influencers or bloggers for informal communication.

You can create fast and meaningful conversations with Zixflow's WhatsApp campaign builder based on your ideas for personalized WhatsApp campaigns. Real-time syncing ensures your brand partners and audience are ready for your WhatsApp marketing in seconds.

*Zixflow, a PR CRM software drives your broadcasting benefits with its WhatsApp campaign builder.*

SMS campaigns

Whether your lookout is to maximize media outreach in your home country, or it's also for an overseas nation, Zixflow’s SMS campaign builder allows you to access SMS API to send advanced messages.

With Zixflow, you can send OTP to validate authentication, utilize multiple sender IDs, and customize SMS content in regional languages to instantly build engagement. Zixflow’s exclusive SMS campaign feature enables you to maximize PR marketing success with its various options like segmenting lists, utilizing tags, blocking spamming lists, unsubscribing features, and smoothing SMS routing.

*Zixflow, a well-known CRM for PR, enables you to set SMS campaigns for validating immediate authentication with OTP.*

*One of the top-notch PR CRMs, Zixflow provides you with insight into the SMS campaign data.*

Streamline your meeting scheduling with Zixflow

Zixflow's meeting scheduler simplifies the process of coordinating meetings. You can share your availability, automate scheduling, and eliminate the back-and-forth emails. This efficient tool saves time and ensures your meetings happen without the hassle of rescheduling or no-shows.

Setting up your meeting scheduler page is quick and easy, and you can share your scheduler link with your media partners or social influencers for product knowledge or collaboration via email, chat, or even add it as a calendar to your website.

Pricing modules

Zixflow offers three types of plans: Marketing, XCRM, and ONE.

You can start with a free Marketing plan that includes basic email and SMS. The Starter plan costs $39 per month for 3 users and includes a centralized inbox, unlimited contacts, etc. For more features, the Growth plan is $74 per month for three users, adding WhatsApp Flows, advanced automation, etc. The Enterprise plan provides unlimited access for $159 per month.
In XCRM, plans range from $59 to $249 per month to fit your several business requirements.
The ONE plan combines Marketing and XCRM features, starting at $79 per month and going up to $299 per month for extensive capabilities. All prices are billed annually.

*The pricing structure of Zixflow, one of the best CRMs for the PR industry.*

Rating & reviews

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

4.5 out of 5 (905 reviews) by G2.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.8

4.8 out of 5 (380 reviews) by Capterra.

Prowly

Prowly is a part of Semrush. It is an all-in-one workflow automation tool tailored for PR professionals. It caters to companies of all sizes, streamlining your media relations efforts and saving time on repetitive tasks.

Prowly offers a range of features, including assistance in creating compelling stories, identifying and organizing media contacts within a PR CRM, and creating visually appealing press releases. Also, it manages email pitches, maintains user-friendly newsrooms for journalists, monitors media coverage, and generates detailed coverage reports.