For many small businesses PR can seem like the cherry on the cake - sweet and pretty but does little to appease a hungry tum. Sure, you'd love to see your name in print, but what does that really do for those numbers on your balance sheet?
Quite a lot, actually. For the uninitiated, PR is the pursuit of earned media coverage. You don't pay for an advertising spot or boost posts online, instead you have to convince a third party - be that a newspaper, magazine (print or online), radio or TV outlet - that you and your products and services are worth talking about.
Credibility builds businesses
Here's the thing - third party endorsement matters. It's not easy to get a journalist interested in your business so, when you do, people sit up and take notice. It positions you as a leader in your field and proffers a certain degree of authority.
Of course, while that certainly appeals to our vanity, it also appeals to customers, potential stockists, referral opportunities. You get the picture. In our social media age that exposure needn't stop at the outlet's audience either. Tweet that success loud and proud!
Suki Harrison from competition consultancy OrigamiGlobe found that providing expert commentary on a common marketing mis-step gave her great traction with her target audience:
"I offer an incredibly niche service, supporting businesses to deliver competitions that are ethical, legal and deliver real ROI. When a small business sank because of a highly public stumble, I reached out to media providing guidance on how others could avoid a similar fate. Suddenly I had businesses of all shapes and sizes contacting me to help them re-think their tactics."
More love for your online store
Media mentions offer a great opportunity to boost visits to your online store. Make sure it's in great shape though - the last thing you need is an error message or out of date information lurking.
For a small business with a finite marketing resource, PR can be an exceptional means to access a vast audience, creating awareness of your business. It's mass media exposure without the advertising spend.
The dream scenario is to secure a back-link from a news site which Ð although certainly not guaranteed - can be Google 'gold', boosting your domain authority and pushing you up the rankings organically without the outlay of Google ads. In turn all that translates into potential customers. Get them to your website and let the great products/services and persuasive copy take them across the line.
But don't I need a Kardashian budget?!
PR doesn't have to be budget-smashingly expensive, but it does need to be strategic. If you think that being published talking about how much you love your dog in Pet Adoration Weekly is helpful to your lawnmower repair business, then you're barking up the wrong tree.
You can absolutely undertake your own PR mission, but you would be advised to think carefully about what you want to gain, who you want to speak to, what you want to say, and why any journalist - or reader - would want to know about your business.
It takes time - finding the angle, crafting the pitch and building the necessary relationships - which is part of the reason why people typically outsource. Also because it is a skill, closely allied to journalism.
PR is well worth the time and effort but, as we all know, overnight successes rarely happen "overnight". It usually takes months and years of hard work for a business to "burst" into the public consciousness in a blaze of (hopefully) positive headlines.
That's why companies, like OrigamiGlobe, typically rely on the eyes, ears and well-crafted words of PR experts to find the right opportunity for their business to shine. Take the time to find your brand story and don't be shy - PR isn't vanity, its good business.
Words by:
Write Now Founder,
