How to Grow Your Business with PR:Patrick Goodness

The key to growing your business is creating consistent positive publicity that will create interest in your company and drive potential new customer to your door.

In short, public relations can be easily remembered with the following acronym: ACT
Accurate, Consistent and Timely communications that deliver the optimal message to the optimal audience.

How To Secure Relevant PR for Your Business?
Public Relations is perhaps the most useful and profitable way to create interest in your company and boost new business, while creating positive relationships with members of your local and regional press. Before we get into the details of securing press opportunities and positive publicity, we will need to address a few basic steps.

Create a Public Relations Plan:
Anything worth doing is worth doing well. As such, if you plan to become a PR pro, it’s good to start with a plan.

Who is Your Audience?
There’s no sense in writing press releases and creating media contacts until you know who you want to reach. While it can be argued that all positive publicity is good for your business, it is prudent to identify your primary, secondary and tertiary markets and begin your work from there. If you determine that your primary target market consists of small to mid-size business owners and entrepreneurs, it would be wise to begin your media search by looking for media vehicles that routinely and effectively reach this audience.

Once you have a handle on your target audiences, you can start to build a simple PR plan. A solid PR plan can be developed in just a few steps.

Plan Objectives: Identify your PR goals and what you want to achieve for your business.

Positioning: How do you want to be perceived? How do you want people to understand your company? Make sure that your plan to market your business emphasizes how you want potential customers to see your business.

Key Message: Try to state what you do, how you do it, and who you do it for as simply and concisely as possible. Be concise but not vague. It’s important that you have a quick, easy to recite phrase that helps people understand what you do. This key message may even be your corporate tag line or slogan.

Once you have developed these core concepts, you can create the following critical elements:

Strategy: A strategy defines how you will accomplish your objectives. For example, your goal may be to increase new customers. Your strategy outlines how you plan to earn these new customers. Do you plan to promote your expertise, your pricing or the benefits of partnering with your company? There are many strategies and strategy combinations. Choose one that you can get behind and sell, sell, sell.

Tactics: Once you have your strategy in mind, you will need to decide on the tools or means to carry out your strategy. For example, will you give speeches, write articles, become a leader in the chamber of commerce, develop an aggressive media education campaign etc.

Local Media Relationships
If you decide to develop an aggressive media education campaign, you will need to create a list of the top media vehicles that will deliver your message to your target audience. Once you have this list, begin contacting reporters, editors, radio personalities and television broadcasters. Have No Fear! Do not ever be intimidated by reporters or people in the media. They need content to publish and disseminate. Show them that you can help them find and deliver content that will make them look good! If you help them look good…chances are they’ll do the same for you. Remember, they are just trying to do their job. All you have to do is help them do their job better and with greater ease.

Respect. While it’s important not to be afraid or intimidated by reporters or media personalities, it’s also important to recognize that these are busy people, and that you would be best served by respecting their style and their time. If you know that an influential reporter prefers to be contact by email…don’t call him/her on the telephone. By all means, call to introduce yourself or try to set up an appointment to meet in person. But once you have established initial contact, follow-up as they request to preserve and maintain a collegial, amiable relationship.

Persistence: By all means, communicate regularly with your media contacts and advise them of industry trends, and any updates about your franchise. Did you earn a significant new account or win an award or commendation? Don’t hesitate to create a short press release to send to your media contacts. You won’t always get coverage, but you will create a strong top of mind recognition of your business , which will come in handy when they need someone like you to quote or provide deeper insight.

Become a Source: What does your company do better than anyone else? What is your background? Is it unique and interesting? When you answer these questions, you will have uncovered all you need to position yourself and your company as a source for quotes and articles. Make them curious about what you do and how you do it. Show the media you deserve their recognition and they will recognize you.

Be Interesting: We know that not every press release or story can be a thriller. But no one wants to read a boring story either. When presenting your franchise, demonstrate your passion and your enthusiasm for what you do. If you’re not excited about your work, no one else will be either. Try to find a human connection in every story you tell. Don’t throw out too many statistics…no matter how impressive they may be. People would much rather read the personal story of a high-powered executive who retired early to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a piano teacher, than a story of how retirees can have fulfilling post-retirement careers. Make it personal. Make it interesting.

Press Release Tips:
Know Thy Editor: The best way to get a press release published is to write your release in the same style of the newspaper or magazine you want the release to appear in. If the magazine is formal, write a formal release. If the newspaper editor is a bit more casual. Make the release more casual. Editors are busy people. If you can write a release that requires little editing…you will be rewarded with an article that reflects the spirit and nature of your release. In the PR world, it doesn’t get any better than that!

Clear & Concise: The center of your press release is your message. Make sure your message is clear, concise and short. If your message is long and complicated, no editor will read it, and it will be thrown in the trash. Try to keep all releases to less than a page, and make sure to send PHOTOS!

Timing is Everything: It’s no good sending a press release of an event that happened months ago. If you’re planning a special event, make sure you send the release out to your local and regional newspapers at least 2-3 weeks before the event. If you are sending a release about an event that has already taken place, make sure to send the release the day after the event, and send PHOTOS along with your release. Nothing draws attention like good quality photos. Close-ups are the most likely to get their attention and end up in print.

Follow-up: Editors are almost always on some deadline. Show them that you understand the nature of their work, and prepare the information they will need well in advance. If you wait to the last minute, they will remember that and may not include your information. After you send the information, follow up with a quick email or phone call asking if they have any additional needs. They’ll remember your professional approach and your willingness to be of service. Most importantly, they will remember your name. Editors are much less likely to delete an email from someone they know.

Other Ideas for PR Success:
Write an Article or Feature Column: If you think that you have the knowledge and writing skill to write a full article for your local newspaper or business publication…give it a try. If they like your article, you may even be asked to write a regular column. But don’t wait for them to ask. Suggest your interest in writing a column and send them 2-3 sample columns for their review. If they like it…you may be on your way to achieving the publicity you seek.

Public Speaking: Chances are that your local area has many groups, clubs and organizations that routinely seek regular speakers or discuss leaders for their weekly or monthly meetings. Volunteer to speak at their meetings and get comfortable with standing in front of small and large crowds alike. If you belong to the Chamber of Commerce, volunteer to lead meetings and take on new projects. Offer to lead group discussions, and take charge of any new member drives. These are all great ways to earn new customers.

Summary:
There are many ways to secure relevant publicity for your business. Be responsive, positive and persistent! With time, you will become a seasoned PR Pro…and your business will thrive because of it!