PR is a powerful weapon. It separates your business from the pack, demonstrates your expertise and showcases your products and services to a massive audience that you might otherwise never reach. You get the immeasurable benefit of ‘editorial endorsement’ thrown in, and unlike advertising, all that exposure is free.
If PR is this good, why do so few businesses - especially smaller companies - deploy it? PR expert Louise Findlay-Wilson, thinks ironically that PR’s own reputation is part of the problem. It’s seen by many as hard to do unless you have an agency or freelancer onboard – and that costs money.
In this article Louise challenges this ideas and shows how a small company can do its own PR
Prioritise
First off don’t waste your time. Focus on the media that matters – that means the media your customers and prospects read, look at online or listen to. National media is a tough nut to crack but there will be specialist media, local press, business magazines, trade or e-zines and websites to go for. If you don’t know what media your customers and prospects value ask them. If they’re a business look in their reception areas, or check out the media that sponsors the events/exhibitions they go to. Then get familiar with that media. Get a copy/look at it/listen to it. Know what it covers, its style, editors/writers, and its special sections – think about where you could fit in.
Prepare Your Basic Stories
The most common way of trying to get a story in the media is through the news (or press) release. Aim to put out one story every six weeks. As the name suggests, a news release talks about something new that is happening. It could be the:
* A launch of a product or service
* Company development
* Expansion
* Winning of an award
* Successful raising of funds for a charity
* Securing major order
* Case study with an interesting news hook
* Presence at an exhibition
Remember that the editor always has their reader/audience in mind. So you have got to package your story to have maximum audience appeal. Why will the reader/listener care? What’s in it for them? If you don’t know why the audience will care about your story, find another story.
Don’t Forget Amusing/Human Interest
News stories can also be found in the amusing or unusual. Obviously care has got to be taken when developing these. If your business is serious and sensible you don’t want a frivolous story that makes you look like a lightweight company. However, that said, a story about your company solving a customer’s problem in a fun and creative way could work well. It could bring out the personality and personal service aspect of what you do.
Get Contentious – Show Your Authority
Think about the things your customers (the magazine’s readers/the station’s listeners etc) care about and that you can legitimately have an opinion on – what can you ride on the back of?What’s topical?
* What’s news?
* What’s their pain/challenge?
* What’s threatening them?
What’s your opinion about this stuff?
* Jot it down and flesh out your arguments
* Add weight to your argument – why should your opinion count? Because…
We work with 100s of companies facing this problem
We’re the most popular provider of …
Our team of experts has over 50 years combined experience in this field
We have just won an award for…
We’ve just won a massive contract to deliver …
* Create your opinion-based story pitch based on these jottings – and then pitch it to the media – either as a news release – or call them up to see if they’d like a feature on it.
Create News
Struggling for new? Create it
* Host an event
* Run regular poll questions on your website
* Write a guide
* Sponsor something relevant
* Deliver a talk/lecture
* Run a competition
* Make a prediction
Tell Your Story
If you’re a business owner - send your media the story of how you have got to where you are, the highs and lows – they may just be interested!
Keep Media Onside
Once you are sending regular material to your media contacts, look after them. Send your news to everyone but particularly prioritise the handful that matter. Read/listen/watch them and speak to them. Always respond v promptly – their deadlines will be extremely tight and a always deliver to a deadline if it’s been agreed. Create exclusive media opportunities just for them (your poll questions, first bite at news stories) – but remember if something is exclusive you can’t offer it to anyone else!
Use the Web
Your media material has a huge role to play in improving your search engine optimisation and the Web will equally help you build your profile too. So don’t miss out on this trick.
* Build hyperlinks into your releases that go back to the relevant page of your website – so that online media exposure will drive web traffic and improve your page rank.
* Set up Google news alerts for your market/sphere of expertise. You will then immediately see when the media is reporting on something that you can leap on the back of.
* Wherever possible link your news/features back to things on your website where people can get more – downloads, expert guides – but remember to data capture such down loaders
* Host your news on your site – but not before you send it to the media!
About the Author
This advice is just a small selection of the hundreds of PR secrets, tips and techniques contained in the PrPro™ Toolkit. This ‘campaign in a box’ is designed for businesses that need PR but can’t afford a PR agency. It comes with a media database of contacts tailored for each business’ needs, a schedule of forthcoming features to target, and a bank of press release templates.
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