Simple PR tips you can do in-house

Most large businesses work with a PR agency to define their brand, but there is a misconception that PR is expensive and not achievable for small businesses with small budgets. In fact, PR is far more cost-effective than traditional advertising as a tool for getting your business’ name out there and building its image. PR is a valuable marketing tool and can help you to create positive stories about your business that will influence customers to choose your product or service over your competitors.

If you have the budget to work with a PR agency, your money can stretch far and there is a lot you can do with little. But for those small businesses that can’t justify this expenditure there are things you can do in-house to achieve column inches.

These are our top tips:

Define your market

Who are your customers and the people that you want to reach with your news? Once you have an idea of your audience demographic then it is easier to work out how to reach them.

Find your market

What publications do your target audience read? Many sectors have b2b publications which are a good place to start and much easier to get media coverage in than the national press.

Create a media list

Once you have an idea of the types of publications your target audience reads create a list of publications and media contacts. These are the people you are going to send your news to.

Define your news

Brainstorm any news story ideas with your team. Are you launching a new product or service, have you got any new team members, are you taking part in a charity initiative, have you won a new piece of business you would like to shout about? All these topics create interesting news stories that newspapers and magazines might be keen to write about.

Write a press release

Write a simple press release outlining your news and a little bit of background information about your company. Don’t forget to include a quote from your business about the story and also a picture that can be used with the story when published.

Send your press release

Send your press release out to the media contacts within your specially created media list, making sure the title is catchy enough to capture the journalist’s attention.

Collate the media coverage

Visit the websites of all the media outlets you sent your news to find any media coverage obtained from sending out your release. Alternatively, do a Google search for your news to see if it got picked up.

The Wordsmith Partnership works with a range of small businesses on their PR strategy. If you would like more information on how we could help you with your PR strategy contact us today: paul@wordsmithpartnership.com