how to do pr for small businesses by fourth day pr
DESCRIPTION
Many small businesses have no budget for a PR agency but there are ways they can do their own PR. This is a presentation we did for a group of business owners.TRANSCRIPT
PR training workshop
WHAT IS PR?
PR is a way of managing your reputation – what you do, what you say and what others say about you.
Done well PR enables you to:
Increase awareness
Boost sales
Drive traffic to your website
Create a buzz around a new product or service
Aid recruitment
Help to engage with existing customers
Who are your audiences and how can you reach them?
What am I trying to say? Decide on your key messages and communicate them across everything you do
What will your audiences find useful? PR is a careful balance between telling people what you want them to know and giving them something they need.
PR - strategy
PR - execution
Opinion pieces, blogs, press releases, annoucements, events and social media activity all ply a vital role.
Place the right content in the relevant place
Look at all the channels, how they interact with each other and which is suited to your piece of content.
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Modern communication tools
The traditional press release
The social media release
The blog
The tweet
The infographic
The video
The social networks
Local newspapers only report news within their regional boundaries.
You could have the most amazing story but if it happened in Burnage, the Stockport Express would not print it.
Audience of local papers are your customers so think about what you want to communicate to your customer base.
LOCAL PR
Business news: created 100 new jobs for the area, appointed a new chairman/ CEO, launched revolutionary new product.
Community news: raised £5k for local children’s charity, employees volunteered in homelessness charity, business paid for new bins on high street.
Human interest: child almost choked so launched first aid training business to parents, uses just-discovered great-grandmother’s old recipes in a new café
Celebrity angle: Sir Alan Sugar attends book launch in Heaton Moor, Stephen Fry agrees to be the face of product.
Quirky/ unusual: Boss’s dog replies to complaint emails, ghost scares away employees.
WHAT MAKES A STORY?
WHAT IS NOT A STORY?
Unless there is an impact on the local community, there is not a story.
A business creating two new jobs is NOT a story. A business creating 100 new jobs is definitely a story that people want to hear about.
A story must have something unique and stand out.
How do I contact my local paper?
Send a press release
Phone them up and speak to your area reporter
Offer to comment on local issues that aren’t just about your business. By helping a journalist out, you make sure your business is always on their radar.
Be visible. Be happy to have photos taken and be quoted.
Offer to email them all the information and take your own photos to send to the journalist.
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Journalists can be mean!
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Press releases – DON’TS!
Boring long-winded headlines
Not getting to the point of your story
Flowery prose
Remember it’s a press release, not a sales pitch
Don’t assume journalists know who you are
Don’t crack jokes in press releases!
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Doing our own PR
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ANY QUESTIONS?
For more information please contact:
Nikki Scrivener
020 7403 4411
www.fourthday.co.uk