Do you know exactly what PR is and how can you use it to grow your business, and quickly? You may not realise this but public relations is an umbrella term, and there are lots of things that sit underneath it. I know some people find the concept of PR confusing, but today’s blog will explain everything, and show you how to use this powerful tool to your advantage.
As a journalist of 19 years, I know how powerful PR (aka media coverage) can be, but only if it’s used in the right way. It’s the main strategy I’ve employed to grow my business over the last five years, and I want you to have the same opportunity.
Public Relations is creating and maintaining a good public image. One that serves you well when it comes to building credibility in your business and of course, attracting more of your ideal clients. It’s a clear stream of communication that represents your brand image. It’s how you talk to the people you want to serve or collaborate with. It’s what your professional personality is like. The opinions you have. Your messaging.
PR puts you in the spotlight and allows you to use your voice to influence people in some way. This could be evoking emotion by giving a personal message… inspiring respect for announcing an ethical business policy… building anticipation by offering a new sale… or encouraging interest by discussing a challenge that you can solve.
It’s a fun and satisfying way to get your business out there. And I want you to remember this as you are on your PR journey- it’s supposed to be fun!
There is a myth that PR is only about being in the press. That’s only partly true, as PR offers much more opportunity than this. Let me show you five ways to increase your public relations.
1. Sending a press release
I’m starting with this to get it out of the way as lots of business owners talk to me about how they are thinking of using a press release to get their story out there. I don’t recommend doing this. Journalists get hundreds of releases each week and most go unopened because they are simply not interesting. Trust me, they are receiving A LOT of rather boring documents…so don’t waste their (or your) time. Instead send the journalists newsworthy or interesting stories, inspiration or advice-driven features that will resonate with their audience. When a press release hits the inbox, it generally gets left unopened or deleted straight away. So, repeating for effect, don’t send press releases.
- Your social media including Pinterest.
Yes! This is PR! You are talking to the public, including lots of your ideal clients, and everything you say can influence your audience in the ways we talked about. This doesn’t mean it has to be perfect. But it does need to offer a clear message. This could be about a business achievement, offering new training, a personal story, a how-to…. whatever it is that your audience needs to know that provides them with VALUE.
By the way, tell me in the comments, how well your social media is working for you right now. I’d love to know.
- Your YouTube channel, podcast and blogs.
Without a doubt, having regular content like this outside of other social media is a great thing to do. My clients find that getting onto other business owners’ channels or writing a blog post for them is a great way to improve PR. This way you are borrowing a relevant audience, providing them with valuable content, getting their attention, and building a great relationship with another blogger and they don’t have to plan what they need to post this week. I call that a win-win-win-win-win!
4. Email marketing
It’s so important and it’s here to stay. It is your foundation, and unlike social media, there’s no chance of being banned from using it (or disappearing for 24 hours).
Try to do marketing activities every single week that are targeted at growing your email list. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. You own your email list which is THE most important of business assets, and it pays to build and nurture. Respect your email strategy and your email strategy will thank you for it.
(To learn more about growing your email list, check out this video on how to produce a lead magnet to boost your audience count!)
- Media coverage
We’ve come to the icing on the cake. This is when you have a story or quote in a newspaper or magazine. Or you are interviewed on TV or radio. This puts you in front of hundreds of thousands of people and it can do amazing things for your credibility and bottom line.
One final PR tip
So that’s public relations in a nutshell. It is everything about your business you want your audience to know.
However, I couldn’t finish this blog without talking about advertising. I get questions all the time about advertising and if it can complement PR. All the things I’ve talked about here are free and available to you, no matter what sort of business you’re running. I wouldn’t recommend media advertising for small businesses as it’s costly and not as effective as it used to be. You could be wasting a lot of money. Unless you’re a big player and can afford to be somewhere like Cosmopolitan or Vogue, stay away.
If you have any questions about how to increase your media coverage, please drop a comment below or reach out to me on my social media channels.
