Are you leveraging the cover letters yet?
Whether you are a fresher seeking an internship or an experienced PR professional, a cover letter is equally important in both cases. If you have never written a cover letter or never felt the need to, this blog will address them as we lay out a comprehensive guide to writing the best cover letter.
A public relations cover letter contains all your key achievements already mentioned in your public relations resume but in addition to that, you have the freedom to express yourself more descriptively.
There are many advantages in this single page document. We will walk you through all the key aspects of an ideal public relations cover letter.
In this blog we are going to discuss the following topics:
Significance of a good Public Relations cover letter
Key sections of a Public Relations cover letter
Distinguishing factor in a good Public Relations cover letter
How to prioritize the contents of a good Public Relations cover letter
Who is a Public Relations Professional?
A public relations professional is responsible for projecting a positive public image for their client. This typically involves media relations, public speaking, organizing events, social media interactions, internal communications, corporate outreach, etc.
A public relations professional would ideally be at the helm of all communication channels. Depending upon the nature of the business, a PR professional conceives the strategy of communicating and building the brand image and executes it to perfection.
Not only is this profession exciting and creative but also comes with a lot of responsibility. So any business would want to have a PR professional who is media and tech-savvy with impeccable communication and persuasion skills.
Significance of a cover letter for a PR professional
A PR professional has to not only follow the best practices but also needs to think out of the box and has to be spontaneous. Bear in mind that the companies will be looking out for the applicants who truly stand out from the crowd.
Like the swarm of bees to honey, a coveted job vacancy will naturally invite the best talent pool from around. Post the pandemic, I have to rephrase it and clarify that ‘from around’ could mean ‘across the globe’!
With such a competition, you cannot afford to lay back and roll the dice. Writing a cover letter is always an added advantage as you are personalizing your application by doing so.
A well written public relations cover letter ensures that your hiring manager takes interest in your public relations resume and you are invited for a personal interview.
Before we look at how to write a compelling public relations cover letter, let us look at what constitutes a public relations cover letter in general.
Key Elements in a Public Relations Cover Letter
A public relations cover letter should be a single page document addressed to the hiring manager. Although there is no rule as to how a public relations cover letter needs to be drafted, here are the three main sections that must capture the content of a public relations cover letter comprehensively.
Introduce yourself
You begin the cover letter by introducing yourself. In the introduction, quantify your academic and professional accomplishments descriptively. Here is an example of the same:
Sample Introduction in a public relations resume
4+ years experienced Public Relations Manager with a bachelor’s degree in marketing with strong communication skills.
Sample Introduction in a public relations cover letter
I am a shrewd public relations manager with over 4 years of fostering cordial relationships with the media, with a bachelor’s degree in marketing.
On a public relations resume, the applicant should address the self in third-person. However, on a cover letter, one must address oneself in the first person.
Keep the letter informal but use power verbs wherever possible. Power verbs are nothing but action words that emphasize your active contribution. Also, ensure that you are using relevant keywords throughout the public relations cover letter.
In the introduction part, apart from your academic and professional prowess, you can also highlight the skills that you are proficient in.
Keep the introduction crisp and to the point. Your introduction must be relevant to the job you are applying for and not go off the tangent!
Enlist all your professional accomplishments
After the brief introduction, describe all your accomplishments so far in your career in an orderly fashion. There are three ways in which you can describe your career progression.
You can start from the time when everything began and then progress chronologically along.
You can also arrange it in a reverse chronological fashion by describing your latest accomplishments first.
This will make sense in most cases as you would stay relevant for the hiring manager in terms of your abilities from day one.
However, if you choose to start with something which you are very proud of or which you think will impress the hiring manager, then you may choose that format.
No matter how you describe your career trajectory, you need to describe it well. Remember that you have the one chance to say whatever it is that you couldn't convey in your public relations resume.
About the company
You have described all of your achievements and milestones in the previous sections. Now you should help the hiring manager to see how you can play a pivotal role in taking the organization to new frontiers.
For that to happen, you need to know the background of the company. Gather as much information as possible about the company and its stewards. Understand their vision and workflow.
Once you come to know more about the company, you can describe how your values and motto resonates with the company. Express your passion and enthusiasm for the company and your keenness to work with them.
However, do not come across as someone who is quite desperate for the job as there is a thin line between passion and desperation.
The key here is to understand the core values of the company and directly invoke that in your public relations cover letter.
Guide to draft the best Public Relations cover letter
Now that we know the components of a public relations cover letter, let us see what distinguishes a great public relations cover letter from an ordinary one.
Just as everyone would send out a resume, in all probability, most people would also be adding a cover letter along. The only way out to be the unanimous choice of the hiring manager in such a situation is by improving the quality of the public relations cover letter.
So is there a secret to writing the best public relations cover letter?
The secret recipe for success in the interview process apart from your potential is the way you project yourself.
In this case, your public relations cover letter is your projected self. So the first thing to address is the design and format of the public relations cover letter.
A well-designed cover letter is easy to read through quickly without losing any time. Choose a template that is designed by experts that ensure the best standards.
How unfortunate would it be to write an impeccable public relations cover letter and not ensuring that it is appealing to read?
The next thing to take care of is the elements of the public relations cover letter. We have already discussed the components of the public relations cover letter. Do not leave out any of the key information.
But here is the key to writing a compelling public relations cover letter - It has to capture the imagination of your hiring manager. You should compose your public relations cover in such a way so that your employer can visualize your potential.
The greatest advantage you have while drafting a public relations cover letter is that you can be descriptive about your achievements which means you can control the flow of your thoughts and emphasize how you can be an indispensable asset for the company.
Public relations internship cover letter
For an entry level public relations cover letter, you must follow the same guidelines mentioned above but with appropriate changes.
It is given that a public relations intern or an aspiring fresher in the field would not have any real-world experience. But do not fret, it is not a paradox!
If you are a fresher or an intern, you would be applying for companies who would be open to considering freshers.
Hence, you need to bring out the public relations professional within you by listing all your accomplishments in other spheres of life be it academic or extra-curricular, while drafting public relations intern cover letter.
The next most important step is to express your intent. Here is the key to properly do that, do not merely use fancy words and be done with it!
Instead, understand how the company operates and while expressing your intent, let them know subtly that you know exactly what you will be doing if you are hired.
If your employer realizes that you as an intern or a fresher can understand the work and your role with clarity, then it induces the recruiter with abundant confidence in you and your ability.
And, always back up your claims with some real world cases where you have excelled.
Go and check out Hirations' Online Cover Builder, with ready to use templates and much more.
Key Takeaways
Now that we have a comprehensive overview of writing a scintillating cover letter for public relations, let us note down the highlights:
We discussed why a Public Relations cover letter is important
We went through all the key elements of a good Public Relations cover letter
We also understood what distinguishes the best Public Relations cover letter from the rest
Finally, we are fully equipped to prioritize the contents of a Public Relations cover letter
That’s it for now. We hope this has been helpful to you. We would love to hear your thoughts on this and if required, we are willing to help you better.
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