Public Relations: More than a Press Release
Debra Murphy, Vista Consulting
Almost all businesses seem to overlook, even ignore, public relations as one very effective form of marketing. Public relations can help small businesses get noticed at a much lower cost than advertising. In addition, for professional services businesses, advertising rarely works as expected but public relations can simultaneously help increase visibility and credibility, which can translate into new business.
Why do businesses overlook this excellent opportunity? Many small business owners hate to talk about themselves and their business because they feel as if they simply don't have anything that is newsworthy. Business owners are not the best judge of what is newsworthy because they are too close to their business. Things that seem relatively unimportant to them could be something that everyone else finds interesting.
Marketing and Public Relations
Many people don’t understand the difference between marketing and public relations. Although public relations is very much a part of your marketing strategy, the focus of these two disciplines is quite different. Most marketing activities focus directly on your target customer. If you execute a direct mail, email, or advertising campaign, you select venues that align with your target audience. Your campaign tries to reach the prospect directly, providing compelling messages that encourage these people to check out your products and services.
Public relations, on the other hand, reach your target audience through the media, analysts, organizations and other constituents that can influence the behavior of your target audience. Public relations can ensure that your products or services are visible in the publications your ideal clients read and the communities in which they participate. Public relations can influence editors, analysts, and organizations that offer you the ability to reach your target audience. Public relations can manage your company’s reputation and find opportunities to get your company in the public eye.
Types of Public Relations Activities
Public relations is about influencing different audiences. For most small businesses, the main public relations activity is getting visibility for your business, products, and the owners in the various types of media. The activities that are associated with public relations include announcements, speaking opportunities, analyst relations, media relations, investor relations, bylined articles, customer stories and case studies. The mix of activities that you use for your business will be dependent on the type of business you are in and what you are trying to accomplish through your PR activities.
The press release is the mechanism to get your newsworthy information out and should be written to convey what you did, why you did it, when you did it, and how it benefits whomever. The more informative and useful the information, the more likely it will get the attention of the media and possibly get published.
In addition to the press release, most companies benefit from having articles published or getting speaking opportunities for the principals in your company. This is additional exposure to the right markets which can shape the public’s opinion of your business.
Should You Hire a PR Firm?
Depending on the amount of publicity you are interested in achieving, you may be able to do some PR for yourself. The one benefit of doing the PR yourself is that if you do get coverage in the appropriate media, it is a very low cost way to market your firm. But if you are not good at doing the PR yourself (and most of us are not), then you should opt to hire a public relations specialist to help you get the word out. A skilled PR resource can advise you on how you should approach the media, what will work for your business, and will be relentless with their follow up to ensure the media heard what you had to say.
For most businesses, an independent PR specialist is a smart investment that augments your marketing activities. Working with your marketing consultant, they can ensure your messages consistently get to the right audiences. Working together, your marketing and public relations consultants can develop a strategy that works seamlessly together and execute their respective activities in parallel.
Part of an Overall Marketing Plan
Public relations is another piece of a well defined marketing strategy. If you are serious about marketing your business, you should consider combining strong marketing activities with a continuous public relations effort. Why only drive your message to your target directly? Get to your target market through both marketing and public relations activities. By influencing the influencers, you can get your message in the hands of your ideal customer more often and with more credibility because it appears to come from someone other than yourself.
