The secrets to generating PR opportunities for your business
If you’re just starting out in business or you’re a small company with
limited resources, you might not have the budget to employ an agency to
handle your public relations.
Doing-it-yourself can seem like the only affordable option but it’s often difficult to know where to start and how to generate PR opportunities that will gain positive publicity.
You’ll be glad to know that PR isn’t as complicated as you might think. There are lots of tips and tricks of the trade that all PR agencies use and ones I’m happy to share.
First of all, there are two main areas to help you generate PR opportunities - natural news and PR generated news.
Natural news is simply anything that is naturally happening in your business. It could be that you have recently employed a new member of staff or moved offices. Or you might be expanding and have exciting new client wins to shout about.
For natural news, you can draft a press release (See my other blog on ‘How to write a press release’) and then consider local media who cover your area as well as any trade publications relevant to your industry, i.e. if you’re a wedding planner, you might want to target magazines such as You & Your Wedding or Wedding Ideas.
Once you have drafted your press release, call up the newspaper or magazine and ask to speak to the news team or relevant journalist. Get straight to the point and sell your story to them. You can then email your press release to the journalist and chase them up to see if they will cover your story. Take note of who you speak to and save their contact details for future use, building up your own media distribution list.
Bear in mind that natural news alone might not get the publicity you’re after. Sometimes you need a stronger ‘news hook’ and this is where PR generated news comes in.
Doing-it-yourself can seem like the only affordable option but it’s often difficult to know where to start and how to generate PR opportunities that will gain positive publicity.
You’ll be glad to know that PR isn’t as complicated as you might think. There are lots of tips and tricks of the trade that all PR agencies use and ones I’m happy to share.
First of all, there are two main areas to help you generate PR opportunities - natural news and PR generated news.
Natural news is simply anything that is naturally happening in your business. It could be that you have recently employed a new member of staff or moved offices. Or you might be expanding and have exciting new client wins to shout about.
For natural news, you can draft a press release (See my other blog on ‘How to write a press release’) and then consider local media who cover your area as well as any trade publications relevant to your industry, i.e. if you’re a wedding planner, you might want to target magazines such as You & Your Wedding or Wedding Ideas.
Once you have drafted your press release, call up the newspaper or magazine and ask to speak to the news team or relevant journalist. Get straight to the point and sell your story to them. You can then email your press release to the journalist and chase them up to see if they will cover your story. Take note of who you speak to and save their contact details for future use, building up your own media distribution list.
Bear in mind that natural news alone might not get the publicity you’re after. Sometimes you need a stronger ‘news hook’ and this is where PR generated news comes in.
|
|
