By Seyi Ajadi

Every week, I sit across from founders and business owners who ask almost the same questions.
“What exactly will PR do for my business?”
“How do we measure the ROI?”
“If we invest today, when should we expect results?”

They’re valid questions. In today’s economy, every naira invested must justify itself. Businesses are under pressure to grow, compete, and deliver results. Naturally, leaders want to understand what they’re paying for. After working with founders and growing businesses across different industries, I’ve come to realise that Nigerian businesses don’t necessarily have a PR problem.

They have an expectation problem. Many businesses approach public relations expecting immediate outcomes. They expect one press release to generate sales. One media interview to attract investors. One feature in a national newspaper to transform their brand overnight. That isn’t how strategic communication works. Public relations is not a switch you turn on. It is a reputation-building process. Perhaps the biggest misunderstanding about PR is that it is often measured like advertising.

Advertising buys visibility. Public relations earns credibility. The difference matters. Visibility may get people to notice your brand, but credibility is what gives them the confidence to trust it. And trust is rarely built overnight. One of the mistakes I frequently observe among founders is treating communication as an afterthought. Months are spent developing a product or service, but visibility only becomes important a few days before launch. By then, businesses are trying to build awareness and trust at the same time. It rarely works. Trust is built through consistency.
It is built when your business shows up repeatedly with valuable stories, meaningful insights, industry expertise, and authentic engagement. That is why PR should never begin with the question, “How do we get into the news?”

The better question is:
“What reputation are we trying to build?”

At Seedar Group, one principle guides every communications strategy we develop: impact over publicity. Our objective is never to secure media coverage for the sake of appearances.
It is to ensure that every story reaches the people who matter. Because being seen by everyone is not the goal. Being seen by the right audience is.We’ve seen clients receive partnership enquiries after a strategic publication. We’ve seen founders invited to speak at industry events because someone read an interview months earlier. We’ve seen businesses receive emails from potential collaborators who discovered them through credible media coverage.

Did one article create those opportunities? No. Months & years of strategic communication did. This is why measuring PR solely by immediate sales often misses its real value. Not every outcome appears on a spreadsheet within a week. Sometimes, the biggest return comes months later when an investor already knows your story before the first meeting. Sometimes, it is the journalist who remembers your company when a major industry story breaks. Sometimes, it is the customer who chooses your business because your brand feels familiar, credible and trustworthy. These are not accidents. They are the cumulative effect of strategic communication. Increasingly, people are buying into founders as much as they are buying into businesses.
Customers want to know who leads the company. Partners want confidence in the people behind the vision.

Investors want to understand not only what you’re building but also whether you’re capable of leading it. That is why founder visibility, thought leadership, executive positioning, and media engagement have become strategic business assets rather than optional branding activities. Some of Nigeria’s most respected organisations understand this well. They don’t communicate only when launching products or responding to crises. Their leaders publish ideas. They participate in industry conversations. They speak at conferences. They share milestones. They consistently shape how their organisations are perceived. That consistency is not accidental. It is strategy.

As Nigeria’s business landscape becomes more competitive, products and services alone are no longer enough. Businesses that will thrive over the next decade will be those that invest not only in innovation but also in reputation. Marketing may introduce your brand. But public relations gives people a reason to believe in it. And belief is what sustains businesses long after campaigns have ended. Perhaps the conversation Nigerian businesses should be having is no longer, “How much publicity can PR generate?”. Perhaps the better question is: “What kind of reputation are we building, and will it still be working for us five years from now ” now?”

In the end, brands are not remembered because they were the loudest. They are remembered because they earned trust. And trust remains the most valuable currency in business.

Seyi Ajadi is the CEO of Seedar Group