By Andy Brown , MD Reality PR
When I meet with new clients or businesses at networking events there are certain questions that come up regularly about how to PR a business. So, regularly in fact that I thought I’d list the top 5 FAQs here.
- So how do you start a PR campaign?
OK, pretty straightforward question. Always set and agree your objectives first. Think, What are you looking to achieve? Are you looking to sell more products? sell more services? Attract investors or potential partners? Then set yourself targets that will form part of your plan.
Now that you’ve got your objectives think about your campaign strategy and how it fits with everything else you’re doing to market your business – email marketing , SEO, advertising, social media campaign.
- How do I know who to target?
You’ve set your objectives, so the next thing you need is a plan. Who are you going to reach out to, how and when are you going to do it and what is your message? Build your plan.
I have a great PR planning template that will help you pull this together, drop me a line at andy@realitypr.co.uk and I’ll ping one over.
Back to the question. You need to do your research. Find out which publications (on and offline), bloggers and influencers are writing about or have an interest in your type of business. Find out where your competitors are seen and who writes about them.
- How do I build my list of contacts and connect with them?
Again, do your research. You can buy in journalist contacts but it’s lazy and can be counter productive. You need to put in the hours. You’ve got your list of publications, so now its time to drill down and find out who the journalist is for your story. Let’s say you sell SEO services or mobile apps, it’s pretty easy to find who writes about SEO or mobile apps in the publication. Same applies to bloggers and influencers. Bryan Eisenberg for example is a massive CRO expert, he’s written books on the subject and he has 60K followers on twitter who listen to what he has to say. Get Bryan to give your CRO tool the thumbs up and that could seriously help your marketing efforts.
So, connect with these people, follow them on twitter, facebook, connect via linkedIn. Read what they have to say, what they are currently working on and offer any help you may be able to give. Don’t forget also that emails still work and the telephone is still a powerful tool. If you’ve sent your story to a journalist don’t be afraid to follow up with a call.
- How do I know what to say about my company or my products and services?
You know more about your company and what you do or sell than anybody else. You’re the expert. Think about what makes you different, what’s interesting about your product or service. What problem does it solve and who uses it. Journalists are interested in stories that go a bit deeper than “we’ve just launched a new product called xyz” Of course you will get some that are happy to publish that kind of news but you’ll get a much better story but giving them something better. For example you spotted a need for this product and so you borrowed some money and started developing it and then you tried it out on a few people and it worked for them and so you made some more . That kind of thing would work very well.
- What else can I do to PR my business?
- Establish yourself as an expert or an opinion former. Content is great PR material and there are many, many publications looking for good content. If you’ve got an opinion then write about it and share it. Before you do however, decide who its for and do your research. Has someone else covered this topic? How did they do it? You don’t want to be saying the same thing so make yours stand out. Check the publications rules. Do they ask for original material that hasn’t been seen anywhere else? How many words do they require? and so on. Make sure you’ve got some great pics to go with it. Also, make sure it’s optimized to link back to your website.
Once it’s published share it on your site and across social media.
- Follow journalists and blogger and find out what they are working on. Journalists will often post requests on social media for expert comment to help with a story or article they are writing. This is your opportunity to get involved with the piece.
- Interview people and post it on your site. Connect with people in your industry who are influencers and invite them to be interviewed by you. Its great material for your site and social media channels and it puts you in the heart of the business.