CARPE DIEM

PR Strategies to Help Your Small Business Seize the Day 

The date is set. As we wait for 19th July, cautiously expectant of some shift to pre-Covid ‘normality’, many businesses are wondering how best to make the most of this time.

Capturing and retaining the attention of your target audience is crucial in these hard, uncertain times, and building that into trust and loyalty is more challenging than ever. Customers love to align themselves with brands that deliver and exceed expectations, but also that share their values. Whether you’ve been operating all throughout the last tumultuous year, or have been opening and closing along with the undulating restrictions, if you haven’t already, now is the moment to be getting your name out there.

We’re sharing some straightforward PR strategies to give your business a boost and help you seize the ‘post-pandemic’ day.

Consolidate your messaging

We’ve all been through a tumultuous period, so take this time to reassess and review what you and your business are about. This is key before you undertake any PR activity, and will benefit your business even if you choose not to go ahead with PR. If you don’t know, and cannot clearly articulate your business messaging, neither will your customers (or target customers). Get together your leadership team and brainstorm. Once you’ve agreed, write down your aims, ethos and business/product offering in a few concise sentences that are memorable, and with the aim of being understood by all.

Share and communicate this messaging internally via your preferred method whether that’s by email, a messaging app, or in a weekly meeting. You need to be assured your staff are ‘on the same page’. Now you are ready to use this messaging in your external PR.

Press releases, articles and content

Press releases take a bit of time and effort to get right, and you need to ensure you are ready to follow up on any opportunities that arise. For small businesses they are a great way to get news, information and your core messages out to your target audience. Local press, trade publications or online media will probably be the key targets here.

What have you been up to? Any good news? Challenges you’ve faced and overcome? Positive customer case studies? Do you have a specialist comment or insight into a current issue?

Any press release should include agreed business messaging (but don’t keep repeating it word for word!) and a strong story. Without PR professionals to help it can be tricky to know and articulate a good story, but getting a couple of close contacts or trusted customers to review your idea and see if they find it engaging is one way to check. Before sending anything out look at it from all perspectives and check it won’t be misconstrued. Have an external business contact or close customer read through to check for errors and ensure your message is clear.

The compelling story is key for your press release and if you don’t have any news or material you want to share, be patient. If you don’t feel you have anything to shout about yet, but know who you want to reach, get your press list ready and keep an eye and ear out for opportunities where you may want to comment.

Speaker platforms

Research or get involved with virtual or in-person events. If you have knowledge, experience or skills you can share, local business or trade events are great places to build your platform and reputation as a thought leader. Enquire at any events you will be attending or groups you are a part of, if there are any suitable speaker opportunities or panel sessions. Make sure to prepare well and tailor your presentation to your audience.

Social media

Amplify the power of your PR by making use of social media platforms. Share your coverage so your customers and contacts can read about what you’ve been up to and post about any events you will be attending or speaking at to increase your audience.

Especially at this critical time, you need your audience to know your name, your product, your service, is the one they want or need. PR can help you to achieve this, but knowing where to start if you haven’t utilised PR before can be tricky. These straightforward PR strategies are a good place to start if you are overwhelmed and we hope will help you turn this moment into an opportunity.

KEEPING IN SYNC

The Importance of a Joined-Up PR Approach 

We all know how important it is to keep the different elements of a business ‘in sync’ – from sales to marketing, finance to operations.

Communicating priorities, business aims and responsibilities across different departments helps keep everyone on track and working towards the same goal(s) – in line with a company’s mission.

So why do companies often keep PR on the periphery? And fail to set up effective communication between PR and other departments? Many organisations forget that PR is there to provide added value, particularly in areas that are so important for sales and marketing, such as lead generation, brand awareness and credibility.

Sales and marketing should – and will for many businesses – regularly meet and ensure they have a joined-up approach, in order to support each other as best as possible, and to help achieve respective goals. PR, even as an external resource, is best included in this team. They need input, understanding and feedback in order to deliver the best service.

To get the most from your PR your team, you should ensure that they have a key contact or a line of communication with sales and marketing. Ensuring this happens from the outset will deliver a range of positives for your business, your internal team, and your PR team. Without the opportunity to build a relationship with sales and marketing, your PR manager will be working against the tide, trying to find and request the most up-to-date information, goals and resources (imagery, targets and even news!)

So, what benefits will keeping in sync have for you and your PRO?

Avoiding missed opportunities

More information often equals more opportunities. Whether those are reactive (responding to journalist requests) or proactive (pitching news and ideas), the more material PR teams have to work with, the more opportunities they can often find. This can range from events and speaker placements, to awards, article placements and spokespeople interviews. Sometimes what seems mundane or not newsworthy to your team will strike a PR chord or will be worth filing for future use. Including your PR manager in the loop as much as possible will help them to find and generate many opportunities for your business, as this is where their expertise comes in.

Perfect preparation

If communication lines are open between PR, marketing and sales, it is far easier to prepare. When PR are prepared in advance they can advise you on the best way to utilise any news or materials. They can make an early request for resources, such as imagery and details, they will need to create a press release, which will save a last-minute search for materials.

Passing on news or updates last minute, or through a third party, can make deadlines much tighter, and the life of PR professionals far harder. In order to align with your schedule and plans, the earlier PR hears about it, the better. They can then offer the necessary support and bring any updates, launches or news into the PR plan. Of course, last minute news and reactives are always to be expected and should be expertly dealt with by your PR team, but if it doesn’t have to be rushed, then it shouldn’t be.

A more targeted service

Including your PR manager in monthly or bi-monthly marketing and sales meetings can be beneficial to ensuring you get completely targeted service. If PR know about it, they can work out a strategy to support. This covers everything from trying to reach a new target audience, to boosting website traffic. For example, your PR team can search and aim to find ways to help get your content in front of new audiences through their mediums, or will know to include certain SEO words in blog or press release content they are drafting.

Better returns

Clear, two-way communication and regular input from sales and marketing saves time on the PR account. When information is being fed directly, they can work more efficiently and will not be wasting time chasing for materials or news. The more information they have about sales and marketing goals, the better they can work to contribute to helping achieve those aims.

Happier sales and marketing

External PR service providers aim to support the work of others in your business, as well as their own objectives. Being in sync with sales and marketing benefits all and keeps life simple. Marketing, particularly social media, can often utilise PR materials for their work, giving them an edge and boosting the value of any activity undertaken.