Do-It-Yourself Public Relations
Free and Simple PR Techniques that Can Make Your Business a Success
Learn how to use straightforward and effective public relations tactics to get the word out about your products and services.
Even though public relations is one of the most cost-effective marketing tools available, far surpassing advertising and traditional marketing when it comes to value for money, bringing in a PR consultancy can still require too much of an investment for smaller or start-up companies on a tight budget. However, do not panic! There are a number of public relations techniques that you yourself can adopt, that will increase awareness and understanding of your brand, without the need to bring in a professional.
Network, Network, Network!
Take the time to network with people both inside and outside of work. Try to attend professional networking events on a regular basis. When you do attend a function, remember to take pocket loads of business cards with you and talk to as many people as possible about yourself and your business. After all, word of mouth is the best, and cheapest, way of getting the word out about your product or service.
A list of business networking events can be found at websites such as www.speednetworkingevents.co.uk, in the UK, and www.businessmatchmaking.com in the United States.
Keep in Touch with Your Audiences
Think about creative things that you could do to keep in touch with your key audiences. Emails, online and email newsletters, and website updates are all inexpensive ways of keeping in touch with your customers, stakeholders and suppliers.
Start a Blog
A blog is a great way of getting your business in front of important audiences, such as your industry peers and prospective or current customers. Journalists also tend to browse blogs relevant to the topic that they write about so getting your company and your opinions onto the web will significantly increase the chance of the media taking notice of you. A company blog will also make you appear credible and well informed.
Are Your Internal Communications up to Scratch?
Review your internal communications. Your staff are your best PR tool as they interact with your customers every day and will talk about the company and product with their family and friends when they are not at work. Make sure that your staff understand and feel good about what the company is doing.
It can be quite tempting to cruise along, using the same public relations and marketing techniques, as your company expands. However, it is important that, as your business gets larger, you alter your public relations strategy to fit in with any changes and developments. You may want to enter foreign markets, list your business on the stock market, start a franchise scheme or significantly increase production. These are the kinds of things that a cleverly thought-out public relations plan can help you make the most out of. You may have enough resources to take on a professional PR consultant by this point who will be able to assist you with the more complicated, strategic aspects of public relations.
As Your Business Grows, Make Sure Your PR Efforts Grow with You
Whether you become so successful that you make Bill Gates look like an amateur or your company stays the same comfortable size for the next two decades, having a grasp on some basic PR techniques will always stand you in good stead.
