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Brick No19: Shoestring PR
By Matt Weston, Friday 21 November 2003 Today: The right way to get someone to tell thousands of potential customers about your business, product or service for free - how treating editors and journalists like you treat your customers can transform the effectiveness of your PR strategy. First, let's get this straight: PR is just another form of marketing. And like every other form of marketing, the end objective must be the same: to drive forward your business and to generate new revenue. Thousands of small businesses start up every year putting blind faith in a woolly PR strategy. Forget feel good notions of 'raising profile', 'building brand awareness' and 'spinning a positive image'. How will your PR efforts really translate into sales? Small Business PR just isn't the same as Big Business PR For a start, you won't have the budgets to employ a slick West-End PR Agency. That's not a bad thing though, as it's my firm belief that, as the owner of your own small business, you can do a better job of promoting your business than any agency. You just need a different approach. As a small business, you can't expect journalists and editors to come to you. This is the biggest mistake small businesses make: No, your world-beating product or service won't automatically attract media attention, and even if it does, that media attention won't automatically deliver any business. The blanket press release is dead, at least for small businesses. I've spent most of the last 10 years working alongside editors, journalists and researchers. I've tripped over piles of unread, impersonal faxed press releases hyping the next big product, service or campaign. Unless you're BT, Barclays or Manchester United, nobody's that interested. We small businesses need a new approach to get attention. Is PR worth the effort? I know I sound like a PR cynic, but I'm not. I just despair at the way most businesses go about it. Emphatically yes, PR is worth the effort, if you do it right. PR can be tremendously effective. If you have a shoestring budget, then it's one of the only ways you can get your message out there, and start selling. And the effort you put in (if you follow the right approach) directly affects the results you get out. PR might sound intimidating if you've no experience of dealing with the press, but there a thousands of industry, trade and niche publications out there - the people who work on them are just ordinary people, not at all 'Fleet Street'. If you can get relevant, regular and favourable coverage, to a tightly focused audience, and in an environment that's perceived as non-selling and credible, you're onto a winner. And, of course, PR is free - you'll probably be enjoying exposure in publications you couldn't afford to advertise in. But as I've foreshadowed, we need a fresh approach to get our message heard. We small businesses can't compete with the big corporates, and we don't need to. We need to do what we're best at: Get Close To Our Target Audience. And your initial target audience, the people you want to do something for you (favourably cover your product) are journalists and editors. I want you to think of the editors and journalists you're targeting as customers. You want these busy people to do something for you, so you must put them first, treat them in a personal way, and help them to do their job. Treat editors and journalists like you would treat your customers The five steps below all draw on lessons you already know about when it comes to getting and keeping customers - find a niche, research your customer's needs, build trust, react to changing needs, realise it's much cheaper to keep a new customer than get a new one. (1) Draw up a Hotlist of 20 journalists or editors Identify your niche and focus on it. Select from small local titles and industry specific titles at first: Where is your message most relevant? National editors often get their stories from local press. Focus your efforts on this niche: 20 contacts is plenty, after all you need to build a deep, meaningful relationship with each one (2) Answer these questions for each of your Hot 20 When are their deadlines for each different publication they work on? What areas do they cover? How do they like to do their research? Where could you fit in? What time of the day or week is best to talk? Make sure you make the effort to read your contact's column, be a fan as well as a source of news. Journalists love a free lunch, and it's a great opportunity to get to know how they work (3) You're the expert Instead of banging out weekly press releases about you, your product, your offices, your website, your new flowerpot etc, focus on establishing yourself as an expert in a particular field. Try to pitch yourself as a 'Talking Head', an expert in your field. Someone editors trust to turn to for an opinion or soundbite. If you can help flesh out a journalist's stories when they need fleshing out, you're more likely to get a receptive response to your new product launch (4) Be fast to react Every journalist or editor I know writes right up to deadlines. If you can turn around an opinion or quote quickly (and I mean within a hour), then you stand a much better chance of a) being covered and b) being asked again (5) Keep your Hot 20 Once you've got your journalist onside, cultivate the relationship (think of how you treat a loyal customer). It takes far more effort to get another journalist to cover your business, and journalists tend to work from a little black book of preferred contacts so make sure you're in it. My approach to Small Business PR is to build relationships first, to get to know the journalist or editor you want to work with. Like your top 20 sales prospects, your top 20 press contacts need to be imprinted on your mind. Remember: just one favourable article written by each of your Hot 20 could generate thousands of new customers for your business. For free. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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