PR for Small Business
PR is not restricted to large corporations and does not have to cost you fortunes.
As a small business, you are more than capable of getting in the media for little to no cost. Start by getting clear on what you want to achieve, and sourcing opportunities that are relevant to you and your business.
Follow our tips and tricks to get your brand on the right track for PR opportunities.
Find Your Angle
What do you want to be known for and what does your product and service provide? Are you a restaurant owner that wants to be known for your your delicious chocolate cake desert? Then there it is, your perfect angle. You could write about your tips in creating the perfect desert, your journey on how you became a restaurant owner and your love for cooking, or which type of chocolate to use for which recipe. That way you are not only advertising you as a chef and your restaurant, but you are angling the story to show off your talent in desert making.
Repurpose your content.
There is often no need to go and write a completely new piece of material when you already have perfectly good blog posts or even social media post copy on hand. Using this pre-written material, is the perfect foundation for an article you can submit to journalists. From here, you may need to add some extra information or re-angle the content to make it more catchy or relevant.
Choosing the right outlets
When looking to find opportunities for media exposure, look for publications relevant to your niche. Your aim is to find the publication that is going to reach your potential customers and target audience most effectively. For example, if you are a real estate agent, then your audience is going to be in real estate publications, or and even home and lifestyle magazines.
To find these publications, simple search in Google “real estate publications Australia” to find a list of all relevant media outlets.
Choose the right medium for your business.
Considering which media form is right for you is going to help you even further in targeting your specific audience. Think about what type of service or product you are. If you require emotional connections and relationship building to increase trust with your customers, then speaking opportunities such as podcasts or events may be perfect for you in gaining this result. If you are a designer, and showing your work is needed to present your expertise than visual medias like print or TV maybe a great option for you.
Building your media list
Once you have identified which publications and mediums are best for your business, building your media list if your next point of action. These are a great asset to your business and should be updated regularly as journalist change publications and positions often.
Contacts for your list will be often located in the “contact us” section of a publication or website, and there will usually be an email for those who wish to submit stories. Collect these emails from your chosen publications and add them to your media list to have on hand when your ready to reach out and share your story. At times, contacts are not available on sites and are only available through paid database systems that can be quite costly. To avoid paying these costs, simple find as many available contacts online as you can.
Nurture relationships
Building relationships with journalists is a particularly important part of PR and is going to help you achieve and continue to achieve media exposure. Being polite and respectful is integral and being aware of journalist’s time. Start off by introducing yourself and consider mentioning work that you have enjoyed from that journalists to show you are interested in them, this will make the contact less transactional and more friendly.
Consider the help of experts.
Whilst PR can be taken on yourself to a point, getting some help from professionals can be highly effective, time efficient for your business and without major financial compromise, if you find the right provider. Getting someone to handle PR efforts for you can mean you can focus more on your business, while we take care of getting you in the media through industry knowledge and previously established relationships.
What does Hello Creative Agency have to say.....
It is so important to be true to yourself…like seriously! There is no point doing an PR if you are going to be fake you. Be real you, I promise you will be loved.
The thing about PR is, that you have to talk about yourself, who is good at that!?! It is really difficult to talk about yourself without sounding stuck up. There is a complete art to talking about yourself. Be genuine yet confident in your skills.