The short answer to the thorny question ‘can you use PR for small business’ is yes. Fortunately, the long answer is also ‘yes’ and here’s why…
Many small businesses and start-up enterprises look at their marketing, look at their budgets, and decide they don’t have enough funds to stretch to PR.
They’ll spend time, and rightly so, setting up their social media profiles, posting, building followers and (hopefully) drawing up and following a strategy to maximise the effectiveness of their social media activity.
They may even spend a bit of money here and there on advertising. Perhaps a small advert in the local parish pump, in the hope it gets seen by the right audience. Or, in the case of a recent enquiry we had from a new client, a one-off advert in their local newspaper *
*One-off, standalone advertising really doesn’t work. Your advert or advertorial quickly becomes yesterday’s chip paper. Only through sustained advertising, or a specific campaign, backed up with social media and PR activity, will you get the results you want.
Marketing is like a three-legged stool, with PR, social media and paid-for representing the three legs. If one isn’t there, or is too short, you get a wobbly stool!
All too often, that vital third element of marketing – PR, or public relations – is dismissed as too expensive, too showy, and something just for the bigger businesses and corporates.
Alternatively, or as well, small businesses or start-ups don’t really understand what PR is and how it can be leveraged to great effect.
This blog’s aim is to overturn this misconception, and show you a few ways in which PR for small business is worth exploring and – much like doing your own social media – the only essential cost is your time.
So what is PR for small businesses?
PR for any business boils down to the same thing, As defined by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations: “Public Relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say, and what others say about you.”
In other words, if you have a good reputation, and it’s widely known, your clients, suppliers, staff and stakeholders will think well of you. Alternatively, if your reputation is poor, this could even lead to business failure.
Having a good reputation is essential, and it is through the work of PR that you will help to build this. This takes time and patience, but in the end it will pay off.
The key to gaining positive media coverage and building your reputation is having good stories, or valuable comment to make on the news of the day. Storytelling and expertise need not be the province of big businesses. As a small business, or a start-up enterprise, you have as much right as big corporates to be heard, as long as what you are saying fits with what journalists are looking to write about.
And if you do get some coverage this is like gold dust. You’ve not paid for the privilege (unlike an advert) nor have you posted the piece up yourself (like a blog or social media). Your story has effectively been given a thumbs up by the media outlet running the piece – third party endorsement – and that is worth far, far more in terms of building your reputation and your brand.
Three tips for PR for small businesses and start-ups
- Don’t be scattergun. Send your press releases and pitches only to those journalists or media outlets you have identified as being the type to take an interest in your story.
- Make sure your story is newsworthy, with a unique angle or expert comment. Launching a new website, for example, is dull. Inventing a cure for Covid is amazing. Think: would I like to read about this?
- Spend time on your release or pitch and include the relevant information, and an image. Make it interesting, and truthful.
If you don’t have the time, or inclination, to try PR for yourself, then we will happily help you. For a consultation or more information about PR for small businesses, please get in touch.