Turning Heads With PR Boxes

Product packaging is a deciding factor when it comes to customer purchases. If your packaging design fails to impress, customers will undoubtedly head for the competition.

However:

Doing it right will improve your brand visibility and facilitate business growth. 

Take PR boxes as an example. These are packages sent to product reviewers, influencers, and press members. They’re engineered to drum up excitement over what’s inside the box. And so business owners design them with customer attraction in mind.

Why is that?

It’s because recipients of PR boxes typically share their unboxing experience with their followers. Any positive reaction your packaging generates could get carried over to the product inside.

In short:

Amazing PR boxes help businesses make a good first impression.

Today, you’re going to learn everything there is to know about making head-turning PR boxes that’ll earn you more sales and brand recognition.

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Understanding the Power of PR Boxes

It’s amazing how a small change in packaging can draw more attention to a product and increase its sales. 

For instance, a food company managed to increase its sales by 47% according to one case study by modifying its packaging to stand out from its competitors. That’s impressive considering nothing else changed — there was even no additional marketing support.

PR boxes are all about first impressions.

And for you to stand out, you’ll need visual appeal. Like the food company, you need to think of something that’ll make your packaging soar above other products in your category. 

Familiarizing yourself with graphic design elements can help. Using the right colors, images, and typography will let you tell your brand’s story and message. You can even show off your brand’s personality.

The copy you use is just as important. It can make or break your PR box campaign.

PR boxes that have visual appeal will make customers gravitate toward those products. People will begin to form opinions about these brands based on how they think and feel when looking at those packages.

This is brand perception.

Here’s the thing:

It’s not enough that customers like your product. You need to come up with marketing strategies that'll make the brand itself synonymous with positive thoughts and feelings.

That’s why your PR box should invoke a sense of fun, nostalgia, or any other desirable emotion. Customers see value in a product that makes them feel the way they want to feel.

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Creating Unforgettable PR Box Designs

How can you tell if a PR box did its job? 

You can call a PR box design effective if it manages to deliver on branding, aesthetic appeal, and unboxing experience. Let’s talk about these in greater detail.

A PR box should make it clear to your audience what your branding is all about. Viewers of unboxing videos, for example, may not have heard of your product or company before. 

And most of these videos get posted on platforms like TikTok or Instagram Reels where audiences only have seconds to process what they’re watching.

If people can remember your brand based on what they saw on your packaging, that’s mission accomplished.

PR boxes need to have an aesthetic appeal. Having pleasing elements present only adds to your product’s memorability. And it’s not just about the design. The box’s shape and structure are often overlooked by business owners despite being an integral part of the presentation. 

The right box material matters too. You want to send a PR box with sustainability in mind. Recipients will appreciate it if you use eco-friendly materials. 

Finally, the unboxing experience should be divine for the recipient. If it’s posted online, the unboxing photos or videos should take viewers on a journey. 

Some business owners achieve this by being creative with how their packages get opened. Adding handwritten notes and other surprises inside can bring the experience to a whole new level.

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Approaching PR Box Campaigns Strategically

Just because you have PR boxes to send doesn’t mean you should — not until you figure out who to send them to.

The best way to figure that out is by defining who your target audience is. Once you have that settled, it should be easier for you to determine which influencers to reach out to.

If you don’t know who your target audience is just yet, you can explore your customer’s demographics and psychographics.

Demographics refer to data like your customers’:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Income
• Education
• Occupation

Psychographics, on the other hand, refer to your customers’:

• Personality
• Beliefs
• Lifestyle
• Hobbies

You can collect this data through surveys, market research, social media activity, and analytics tools just to name a few.

Practicing strategic PR box creation is highly encouraged. When you start a PR box campaign, do it with SMART objectives.

SMART stands for: 

• Specific — Why are you sending a PR box? The goal should be immediately clear.
• Measurable — How are you going to define success? You need to know what metrics you’re going to use to measure it.
• Achievable — Can you meet your target? You need to have realistic goals.
• Relevant — What does your goal have to do with your overall business strategy? Your goals should align with your plans for the company.
• Time-bound — How long will you run the PR box campaign? You should establish a reasonable timeframe. 

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Designing PR Boxes

When designing a PR box, you’ll want to incorporate brand elements into your design. Using company colors on box packaging is a widely accepted practice. 

It’s even expected in some cases, especially when a brand is closely associated with certain colors by its customers.

Having your logo present is important. But if it has a busy design, you might want to consider rendering an alternative. One that would fit the packaging without clashing with other design elements or color schemes. 

Expressing your brand voice through thoughtful copywriting, imagery, or humor is okay. It can only add to your product’s appeal.

Make unboxing videos exciting by giving reviewers a personalized experience. There are customization options that make every unboxing hit different for everyone.

Inserting handwritten notes is a nice touch but you can do more. For example, printing a special message inside the box could land you a couple of brownie points. You can make it even more special by addressing each recipient directly by printing their names.

You can also use different labels to seal your boxes. You can design labels for each recipient if you want to go the extra mile.

Note: If you’re looking for design ideas for boxes, labels, and other packaging materials, check out the PackM Inspiration Hub.

While you’re at it, make sure you have secure packaging by picking the right box for the job. There are boxes designed specifically for shipping. Wrap your PR boxes in bubble wrap before placing them inside larger ones. 

Using custom tissue paper not only provides some protection against dust, dirt, and scratches during shipping but also elevates the unboxing experience to another level.

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Mastering the Art of PR Box Contents

The product you place inside is what’s going to complete your box.

You need to give careful consideration as to what you’re going to include in the PR package. Not only do you need to include high-quality products, but you also have to make sure that they’re relevant to the influencer’s audience for them to care.

Remember:

That’s why you go through the trouble of understanding who your target audience is.

Bring a smile to your target influencers by giving them the products you know they want.

So what do you need to do?

Curating products for each influencer is a good start. You can include promotional materials like brochures to explain why you think they’ll enjoy what you sent.

Including discount codes that influencers can share with their audience could incentivize them to talk about you more. 

Mel’s Crafty Corner adds discount cards along with thank you cards and care instructions hang tags in its packaging.

Including some branded merchandise like shirts, caps, mouse pads, and stickers certainly won’t hurt.

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Maximizing Exposure Through Influencer Partnerships

You’ll come across many types of influencers as you look for people to send PR boxes to. But the best ones to work with—especially if you’re just starting—would be niche and macro influencers.

‍Niche influencers are those that mainly deal in one specific industry. They’re trusted by their followers in their space because of their credibility. That means their audience deeply cares about their opinions on products and recommendations.

The downside is that they’re more likely to have a smaller audience because of how specific their content is.

If you’re in the keyboard business, you might want to send a PR box to an influencer who only posts keyboard content on YouTube.

Macro influencers are the opposite. They have a larger following. But their audience might not share the same interests just because there are too many of them. 

You get more eyes on your product but there’s no guarantee how many viewers will care about what they’re seeing. Working with macro influencers can also get expensive if the unboxing experience is part of a paid campaign.

That’s why you have to think long and hard about the influencer partnerships you’re creating.

You’ll get more exposure if you take social media shareability into consideration when designing your PR box. That means not including anything that might get the influencer into trouble on social media platforms should they do a live unboxing.

Also, don’t write down anything potentially controversial in your notes. It seems obvious but some brands have made that mistake in their advertising.

This will make it easier for them to share your videos with their followers.

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Evaluating the Success of Your PR Box Campaign

The real work begins after influencers and product reviewers post their unboxing videos online. 

You’re gonna have to track your PR box campaign success based on the key metrics you set. After all, you want to justify your efforts by looking at your return on investment or ROI to see if you’ve made significant progress.

It’s a good idea to look at influencer engagement metrics too. Check out what sort of feedback their videos get. Read what influencers and customers have to say about your PR boxes.

Review the results of your PR box campaign. If you’re hitting your goals, then all you have to do is continue. But if the results are lackluster, you’ll want to make campaign adjustments.

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Selling Subscription Boxes: A Recurring PR Opportunity

What happens when viewers like the unboxing video they saw so much that they too would like to receive one as well?

For smart business owners, that would mean selling subscription boxes.

Subscription boxes are a great way to make recurring income for some businesses. It also means consistent engagement and customer loyalty for the brand.

Businesses that sell consumable items like cookies or sweets are fond of subscription box strategies.

As far as boxes go, it can be a challenge to come up with new designs every month. 

At this point, it could be better to hire a full-time graphic designer or work with a box printing company that offers in-house design services. This should help you keep up with the demand.

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Conclusion

These PR box strategies are exactly what businesses use to get publicity for their products. It’s something you need to do at least once to see if it will impact your business growth and customer engagement.

It’s a good way to get your name out there and introduce yourself to potential customers.

When you’re ready to print your PR box, go see what PackM has to offer. Its custom-branded boxes are all you need to impress influencers.

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Want to learn more about box packaging? Here are a couple more resources for you:

• How to Create PR Packages
• 6 Small Business Packaging Ideas
• Beginner's Guide to Custom Packaging

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