Small Business Benefits from Public Relations
Fortune 500 companies, leading industries, organizations and personalities around the world utilize public and media relations on a daily basis – ensuring that their “brand” is positively represented in the minds of consumers, but what about the small business owner?
Each of the more than 5.5 million small businesses in the United States can also increase sales, build awareness and generate new business by incorporating a public relations component within its existing business marketing or sales plan.
Here are several suggestions for the small business owner seeking to gain publicity about their business, along with its products and services.
Planning
Understand your objectives and how you wish to go about meeting these. In addition to running your business, can you manage the communications process within your company, or should you outsource these responsibilities to a professional? Keep in-mind that as a small business owner, you don’t need the power of an entire public relations firm to assist you, and hiring a consultant on an hourly or project basis my suit your needs better.
Resources
PR professionals keep tabs on the best channels to distribute information about your company’s “happenings” by monitoring editorial calendars and maintaining strong relationships with journalists. They are also able to determine the most newsworthy aspects of your organization – targeting key media outlets where your consumers seek information about your organization, and its products or services.
Integration
The first question a good PR professional will ask is, “how will these PR efforts be integrated within your existing marketing and/or sales plan?” A PR professional will assist you in the integration of your efforts, with regards to your messages, objectives, advertising and budgets.
Reaching Customers
PR can help you maintain a strong local presence, but understand that the main storefront of many small businesses is now its Internet presence. Savvy PR professionals will utilize this, maximizing your online presence though the distribution of press materials electronically.
Measuring Success
Like sales, public relations can be measured, often based on the reach of your efforts (circulation statistics) and the value of the publicity in advertising equivalency. However, most importantly, your PR plan should be measured based on the messages it is putting into the marketplace – defining your business, and its product and services, and differentiating it from your competition.
Budget
PR professionals only succeed by helping their clients succeed. Depending on the depth of your PR efforts, from plan design to implementation, a PR professional will do his or her best to assist you, but you’ll need to have realistic expectations, based on your budget. Having someone assist you, even on a minimum level of writing and distributing press releases and “pitching” your story to journalists, should be considered as an investment toward new business and continued growth, rather than a one-time expense to immediately boost revenue