How to get started with PR for your small business
It’s a new year! A perfect time to be planning PR activity for your brand or business. Here are 5 ways to get started with your DIY PR.
What’s your objective?
You think you want to do your own PR. How do you think it will benefit you? E.g. Reach your ideal customer or client? Gain big win features in on target media? Reach potential investors? Improve your profile within your industry? Have a think about what you’d like your end goal to be and it’s easier to plan PR activity that talks to these goals.
What are your strengths and availability?
You’ve identified a key PR objective, how do you reach that goal without feeling overwhelmed? Work out your strengths and availability. Strengths: What are you good at and how can this benefit your PR e.g. planning events, writing, creating content, event speaking, etc. Also, consider what you wouldn’t enjoy or find strength doing and don’t make it a part of any PR activity. Availability: you might have several strengths, but what availability do you have? Make sure your PR activity fits smoothly into your working day/week etc.
Identify your ideal targets.
If your main objective is to reach your ideal customer, your focus should be on the habits of this group of people. What kind of media are they consuming? Draw up a profile of your ideal customer (there might be more than one) and plot their media habits so you can match this with your own outreach.
Build relationships with key gatekeepers
Depending on which social platform/s you use, start to follow relevant people/publications/brands that could be part of your PR outreach, and start an interaction with them. e.g if you use Instagram, start a PR Collection of pages and people that inspire you and that you can dip in and out of for ideas and pitch inspiration.
PR starts at home
We talked about SEO and PR working even more closely together in 2021 via our Trends feature, this is because drawing potential audiences, customers, and the media in with our content will be more important than ever. Whether you have a stunning Instagram feed, a showreel of visual content, a ‘how-to’ section, a blog… Make yourself more searchable, accessible, and reputable.
If you’d like to chat about how we can help you to DIY PR, drop me a message, or check out how we can work together here.