At any given moment, there are about 30 million small businesses operating throughout the country. This can make it very difficult for you and your small business to stand out in the crowd.
So, how in the world are you supposed to generate interest in your small business in the media? Well, one good way to do it is by beefing up your approach to public relations through the use of the right PR tips.
You don’t necessarily need to run out and spend a gazillion dollars on a PR agency. But you should have some general idea as to how to get good press for your small business.
Today, we’re going to walk you through a handful of PR tips that you should keep in mind when running a small business. They should allow you to make some headway in the public relations department.
Here Are Eight Important PR Tips That You Should Utilize To Your Benefit.
1 Decide Who the Target Audience Is For Your Small Business
Who do you think the target audience for your small business is? Is it:
- Teenagers?
- Parents?
- Senior citizens?
- College graduates?
- Middle-aged people?
You might like to think that everyone falls into your target audience. But for the purpose of PR, you should try to narrow down the scope to a very specific group of people. The more specific that you can get, the better!
Deciding who your target audience is will give you more opportunities to try and appeal to that audience. It’s why you should think about who your target audience is in the first place.
2 Figure Out Which Media Outlets Appeal To Your Target Audience the Most
Once you know what the target audience for your small business is, you can start to focus on which media outlets you should be trying to appeal to. You ideally want to attempt to score some media mentions in the outlets that your target audience is paying attention to the most.
If, for example, you find that your target audience is senior citizens, you’re not going to have to be too worried about trying to get your name in your local skateboarding magazine. You’ll instead want to try to work your way into local newspapers, which are what a lot of senior citizens still read
3. Develop Relationships With the Editors, Writers, Etc. At Your Preferred Media Outlets
After you’ve figured out which media outlets are going to appeal to your target audience, you should make it your mission to develop relationships with those who work at these outlets. It should be simple enough for you to find editors, writers, podcasters, and others who work at these outlets.
You can reach out to them by:
- Cold calling them on the phone
- Sending them an email
- Touching base with them on social media
In this day and age, it’s relatively easy to locate contact information for almost anyone who is a member of the press. You can, therefore, get good PR for businesses by reaching out to these people and trying to get them to set you up with media coverage.
4. Get Help If You’re Struggling To Find The Right Media Members To Connect With
In the event that you’re unable to find the media members that work at the media outlets you’re most interested in getting in, there are all kinds of PR software and other PR technology that you can use to make important connections. You should put it all to good use to get connected with the people who can provide you with positive press.
Visit JustReachOut.io to get more information on some PR software that could really come in handy. It can help take your small business’ public relations push to the next level.
5. Look For Interesting Ways To Pitch Your Small Business To The Media
All of the PR tips that we’ve discussed thus far should get your small business in front of the media members who work at your preferred media outlets. But it’s not going to be enough to just connect with these people!
If these people aren’t intrigued by what you’re doing with your small business, they’re not going to give you much coverage, if they give you any coverage at all. You’re going to have to give them a real reason to want to do a story on you.
You can do this by pitching them ideas on how they can cover your small business to make it interesting to their readers. You should take a look at the types of stories that media outlets tend to do and then find a way to pitch a story that would make sense for them.
For instance, if a media outlet seems to run a lot of feel-good stories, you might want to pitch a story on how your small business just made a big donation to a local charity. This could drum up interest in doing a story on your small business from this angle.
Whatever you do, you shouldn’t just expect media members to take an interest in your small business. You’re going to need to provide them with a reason to want to do some kind of story on your company.
6. Customize Each And Every Pitch That You Send To Media Outlets
Far too often, small business owners will put together one pitch for media outlets and then send that same pitch out to every single media outlet at once. This can prove to be problematic for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, this could put you into a tough spot if several media outlets decide to do a story on your small business. They won’t be happy to hear that other media outlets are also going to be running with a similar story.
This could also affect your ability to capture the attention of media outlets. If you’re pitching one story to a bunch of places, it’s going to be almost impossible for you to tailor it to their specific style. It’s why you shouldn’t be surprised if they respond to you by saying, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
Your goal should be to make your pitches to media outlets as different as you can get them. It’ll almost guarantee that they will at least consider doing a story on your small business.
7. Use Social Media To Make Your Small Business More Appealing To The Media
When a media member hears about your small business through a pitch that you’ve sent them, one of the first things they’ll usually do is head over to your social media accounts. They’ll do it to try and get a better feel for what your company is bringing to the table.
If you’re not very active on social media or, worse, if you don’t have a presence on social media at all, it won’t bode well for you. You’ll be missing out on a chance to show media members the “voice” for your brand.
You can really bring your small business to life and make it more appealing to media members by being active on social media. They won’t have any issues seeing what your small business is all about when you’re all over social media.
8. Leverage Any Media Coverage You Receive to Try and Get Even More Media Coverage
Here’s the thing about getting media coverage: It’s not going to be easy to do it at first. But once one media outlet covers you, it’ll greatly increase your chances of getting more positive press as you move forward.
The second that you get your initial media mentions, you should create a PDF file with them in it. You should then send this PDF file out just to show other media outlets the kind of coverage that you’re getting.
If there’s one thing that the media hates, it’s getting scooped by other media outlets. So you’ll be more likely to hear back from media members when they see that you seem to be getting a lot of love in other places.
You should be able to leverage your media coverage into even more media coverage by taking this approach. You’ll notice that the press will treat you a little bit differently when they see that you’re no longer a no-name small business without much media attention.
Use These PR Tips to Grow Your Small Business
You can start a small business without getting much media attention. But if you’re going to grow your business over time, it’ll be imperative that you make a splash in the media world.
You can do it by using each and every PR tip listed here to your advantage. You’ll be blown away by the reactions that you get from the media when you utilize these PR tips.
Would you like to get some more tips on building a small business from the ground up and turning it into a big deal? Check out the other articles posted on our blog to get some ideas on how to go about doing it.
