6 Do it Yourself PR Tips for Small Businesses
If you are a small business owner and looking for a low budget for your business promotion and increase the roots of it then here are some tips for you to become your own Public Relations. As we know, PR is all about crafting right pitches and getting them to the right person. Creating buzz for your brand in your industry which involves being authentic to yourself and your brand. Doing Public Relations by yourself could be a great money-saving option for the small business owners.
WHAT YOUR IS BRAND STORY
First of all, Storytelling is a great way to transform your brand’s presence and identity. Your customers play a very vital role and creating trust from consumers and others in your industry could become the base for one of the best stories for your brand. The stories should be true and you can tell the story how your brand came to be, and your customers could tell their experience with your business as well.
Think and create a human persona around your brand, the more interesting and genuine the personality is the more trust others will feel towards it. Feel free to tell others about your business’s presence, its ethics and the journey so far. A compelling story will give audiences a way to create an emotional connect with the brand which ultimately will set the complete tone about your company. PR agencies adhere to the rule of collecting the complete brand story before they begin to bring it out in media.
PROACTIVE IS THE WORD HERE
Always stay active with everything going on in your industry. Read often, stay updated and informed on everything being said and one in your industry. Set up alerts for all media portals that are related, follow all top influencers, read up on all your competitors. You need to be as informed or knowledgeable as possible. You would not want to miss out on any opportunity as you never know you when the spotlight might be on you.
For regular updates one keep a look out on different newspapers, magazines, collecting articles online using relevant keywords and can also have them delivered to your inbox as well.
You should create all your business profile on all the social networking sites. Make sure you are presence is across all social media platforms, like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter and keep them updated on all upcoming activities.
BE IN TOUCH WITH TOP INFLUENCERS
Keep up with the top industry reporters and influencers which are relevant to your industry and most importantly try to network with them. . If you regularly read on what all they write about then you will have ample knowledge when you finally reach out to them and build a relationship. Always try to keep your list updated and keep adding new bloggers/ influencers/ reporters to your list, and obviously the relevant ones.
Contacting and interacting with top influencers is a very good way to build a name for yourself and your brand within the industry.
DO YOUR RESEARCH WORK
This relates to always keeping up and researching about your industry. You should always be active about new happenings in the industry. Be active and make sure you have something to contribute to the industry; it could be in the form of an article- a piece of information, a product or service which is helpful. It’s important to do enough preparation work before making any pitches. Learn everything before going forward.
CRAFT COMPELLING AND PERFECT PITCHES
It is important to check your facts and figures before pitching. A lot of rigorous research should go before you get your name or product out in the market, make sure the product or service you are offering is ideal to avoid any negative reviews or bad sentence for your brand. PR consultants advice to get a trial of your product by a small group of people and work on the feedback.
Keep your objective intact and remember that journalists stay bombarded with pitches every day so it has to be crisp and creative, most importantly, personal.
You should always keep it short and simple and should be attention grabbing so they don’t mistake it for spam.
Hiring PR agencies could help you reach new heights but for start-ups, Do-It-Yourself PR is a reasonable deal which brands could definitely explore. Remember: PR is all about being authentic and trustworthy
Also Read: When is the Right Time to Hire a PR Agency