Most small business owners have never been featured in the press; and getting that coveted spot in a newspaper, magazine, business journal, or expertise website will not materialize overnight. Publicity, though, can be attainable, and will reap rewards for any small business owner; provided that there is, of course, consistent effort.

It may have happened for some businesses, but for others it will normally take weeks or months before a single glimmer of hope of getting that media spot becomes visible. This also depends on some factors like how simple your story is to cover and how consistently you get in touch with the media.

I recently interviewed a business owner regarding his use of PR. He owns a clothing range which he started with just fifty dollars of capital. He was able to grow the business by selling seven thousand dollars’ worth of t-shirts a week; and within a few years, he was able to transform a small business into a multi-million dollar enterprise.

I asked him what were the secrets to his success. He mentioned that one of the secrets for his success was that he maximized the potential of free publicity.

It was unknown to him at the time, but his company had a great media catch: his business was unique. When it comes to business knowledge, he honestly said that he didn’t know much; but yet he was able establish a multi-million dollar clothing brand. Furthermore, he went against every known business model, but sales were still pouring in. His uniqueness made his business newsworthy, and that’s what made him appear as a guest at a very respected radio program.

It was right then that he discovered the biggest benefit that free publicity can give his business. Media people often look for their next story by paying attention to what’s headlining elsewhere. Hence, within a few days after the interview, he got an invite to guest on a television talk show to discuss his clothing brand in front of a very wide audience.

He then received hundreds of calls from retailers wanting to sell his products the very next day.

What he’d attained was a classic example of using public relations momentum and publicity as leverages  to build up business. The radio show took him from a very small audience, which opened the door to a television appearance that made his business known to millions of customers. The best part was that it cost him nothing.

If you want to be like him, you can build a similar PR strategy to gain you that momentum you can leverage for your business.

Persistence is Key

Like in any business endeavor, a PR campaign needs a dedicated  investment of time and effort, and not necessarily money.  This therefore means that, as a business owner, you must continuously develop new story angles to spark media interest. Regular follow-up on the media organizations you’d like to work with will also be advantageous.

Take ‘Baby Steps’

The media universe is such a broad place to start, and attempting to get in touch with all of the media elements can feel very overwhelming. You might want to start within your local market first. The reason behind this is that you’ve already establish some credibility in your local market.

Another tip is to focus on a certain niche like a business journal or a trade publication that covers your industry.

Define your Goals

Always make sure that your PR goals are written down where you can always see them. Define your goals and your expected outcome of each and take an action step each day that will lead you closer to  attaining that goal.

Always allot PR time into your Business Operations

Allot at least an hour a week to focus on public relations; even though it’s only about fifteen minutes a day. In those fifteen minutes you could’ve already sent an email of your media pitch out to five journalists, placed three follow-up phone calls, or researched on a new PR opportunity thru a new media outlet. Don’t make an excuse of not having enough time.

There are valuable opportunities for any business owner in attending, speaking at, and hosting events. Not only are they good exposure for your business, but they are also good practice for your PR skills.

Always Find time to Attend Industry Events

Attending events are great opportunities for any business owner to promote his or her business. Not only that, these events are also great opportunities to practice and further improve your public relations skills.

My own motto is that PR should encompass everything  you say, you do, and what you are; this also includes how you present yourself at these events. Always remember that the people you meet and talk to are potential business partners and probable customers; so the way you relate with them reflects on your professionalism as a person and as a business.

One thing to always take note of is that these events aren’t just card-collecting opportunities; but they are also excellent venues to build new business relationships. Pay full attention to a person you’re talking to, create a relationship, and learn about them and their business. Like any other form of public relations, it takes time and practice; but the connections you build through networking can support you in the long run.

Get a Speaking Engagement at an Event

Being able to share your opinions during events provide a great boost for you and your business’ profile and credibility.  When you’re starting out as a speaker, you may not be paid to speak at such events or conferences, but organizers can offer you other benefits like posting some articles in their newsletters and allowing you a short ‘plug-in’ time for your business at the end of your talk.

Hosting Events are Great Opportunities for Public Relations

Hosting an event, seminar, or workshop is also a great way to reach out to customers and potential business partners. For example a pet shop owner and a landscaper could run a free seminar together on “How to Utilize Garden Space for your Pets ,” and promote it to their targeted niche. It’s also a great way of getting pre-qualified people added on to your list of potential customers. Likewise, it can also be promoted in the local paper.

Moreover, you can also share your expertise and train other people to attend your workshop for a fee.  Just a tip though, don’t get stuck by paying non-refundable venue deposits only to not hit the targeted registration numbers in the end. What you can do instead is to ask those who pre-register to give suggestions on their preferred venues. Once you’re seeing a good showing when it comes to the numbers of registrants, then you can start booking venues in the suggested areas.

These seminars and events need not to be expensive either. They can also be facilitated online or even over the phone. This would also bring a great advantage to you and your attendees. Not only do you get to save up on costs, but you and the attendees can actually attend at the comfort of home, in pajamas.

When small businesses open, local community groups, more often than not, look to them for donations. All of these non-profit organizations have worthwhile aims; but is there a way to choose which of these local community groups to provide sponsorship to?

To answer this question, if the local community provides the lot of your customers, then definitely, you should be associated with that group.

Here’s a short checklist of things to consider and questions to ask when deciding what organizations to support. The list is  going to make deciding for you much easier; and will also bring benefits to both parties.

• Is it a local group? Supporting your local non-profit organizations is usually preferred rather than issuing donations to the umbrella group that handles them.

• Will I make a difference? Remember that a two hundred dollar donation would mean more to a local women’s refuge rather than a local hospital. The donation to a local hospital would probably disappear into a million dollar profit and loss statement. On the other hand, a two hundred dollar donation to a local women’s shelter will go a long way as this can cover for food, shelter, and clothing for a person for a few days. Small amounts of time and money can make a bigger impact to smaller organizations rather than the big ones.

• Can I include it in my business profile? Unfortunately, not everyone has the same views when it comes to what type of activities are done by the local groups in the community. Some people may have some prejudices about some group’s actions and cause. One thing to consider before putting a sponsorship of a local group as part of your business profile is to ask yourself if you would be proud for people to know that you’re sponsoring a certain cause.

• Can I also give time and effort? Some organizations will benefit not from monetary donations, but from your time, skills, or products instead.

Categorise your Sponsorships

It would also be very helpful if you can split your local community sponsorship contributions into two categories: local and hyper-local.

Take a good look at your customer demographics and if a significant number of customers come from a certain geographic are, then you can consider supporting organizations within that community. You can group contributions under this as local.

Another situation is that when you have a few local futsal teams asking for your donations, then perhaps supporting the local futsal league would be the most beneficial. Contributions that fall under this category can be classified as hyper-local.

Be Practical

Another suggestion is that you put emotions aside first and treat sponsorships as business decisions. Personally, you can make any donation to your preferred organization anytime, but if your business will be involved, always make decisions based on the best interest of your business.

Be a Proud Contributor

There is no shame in letting everyone know that you’ve done the community some service. You can put up signs or include in your marketing materials that you’re a proud supporter of a certain community group. Furthermore, you can also put a link to their website on yours. And if you’re supporting an event, then make sure to get all the publicity and exposure that you can so that you can use this as leverage for your business.

Free publicity has great and many benefits, and a media release is one of the best ways of doing it. Learn how to do it effectively.

Follow these simple steps in crafting your media release.

Look for your distinct advantage, and then sell them

You should be able to convey your distinct advantages in a brief, yet clear message. You are going to make it as interesting as possible. The message must contain something special to make it deem worthy the attention of the media.

There are various ways of doing these; you may tap the emotions of the journalists by tackling a human interest story that talks about struggles and success.  Or you could even utilise and time your media release with an upcoming event such as weddings, anniversaries and grand openings. Find a story that will really sell, and then make the most of your skills in selling it.

Objective

Your media release must have a clear objective. And that is not just to generate sales and profits but a genuine interest of helping people. Your media release must be something that is beneficial to a specific individual or the general public.

Impressive title

Come up with an attention-grabber headline to earn their attention indeed. A sloppy title might bore the journalist who received your media release and might not even have second thoughts of deleting it from his email without a single glance to its content.

Relevant content

There is nothing more important in writing than offering relevant content, because it is what the people want and deserve in the first place. Make your content interesting and compelling. Choose words and phrases that will earn their time to spend reading your media release. Fill it with relevant details and make it an interesting read. Establish a connection with the way you craft your words, make it more lively and engaging.

Use the correct format

Use the right template when you write your media release. You do not want to lose credibility over something that could have been perfectly prepared. Include all the relevant details usually required when writing a media release, and make sure not to forget one good detail. Keep your words at its minimum for an optimum impact.

Establish your database

You must have at least an extensive database to which you will be sending your media release. You already must have been able to make genuine connection with these people. Establish your expertise and along the way gain their respect. When you will be able to project to the media people that you could readily help them on areas of your expertise, in time, all your efforts will pay off handsomely.   Supply them with information; suggest a photo session or any other things to gain their goodwill.

Apply these simple and effective ways of writing your media release for a successful result.

An impeccable case study that is well created and implemented will benefit your marketing efforts with favourable and desirable results. Here is how you should craft your case study in achieving your business goals.

Great case studies are patterned after positive testimonials from previous clients. It helps you create an image of professionalism and quality work of service. It also paves for you an avenue where you could greatly explain in details about all the competitive edge of your business. The following pointers will help in crafting a usable and effective case study.

1. Create a need

The first thing you should establish when you go about your case study is the kind of need you are capable of responding. You can do it by including all your past successful collaboration with clients who came to you with a dilemma that you were able to find a solution.  Your case study must specifically point out the need and its nature for clarity. Make it as simple and as specific as possible, covering only the details that your audience will be directly interested in.

2. Walk them through the process

Throw in some problems that your audience could readily identify with and then spontaneously come up with a series of answers and solutions. This way, you are already establishing your deep knowledge early on, thus giving an impression that you will certainly do a good job with the project they have in mind.

Lets also bear in mind that your customers could be busy and need to have this process as  simple as possible. Create a form they need to fill in – ask them a set of questions – this will give them the guidance they need.

3. Provide testimonials

Your case study must be a collection of all the testimonials of your previous clients. You should be able to establish the fact that all your previous clients were deeply satisfied with your work. You may personally approach your clients to generate a number of testimonials or you could outsource the interview phase for a more reliable, credible and unbiased results.

Use their quotes and spread them over your case study. Slowly, you are gaining the trust and confidence of your prospect which will eventually increase as time goes by. They will get the impression that you are the right person they are looking for and that you will satisfy them with your works’ results.

Finish your case study by supplying your contact details in case they will need your expertise.

How did you go? If you’ve attained some great results, let us know!

Getting a media coverage could cost so much money, but that does not have to be necessarily true with you. As long as you do it with utmost diligence, these 10 simple tips could help you garner good media coverage.

You already must have concluded by now how important media coverage is. And you already must have anticipated the fact that hiring a PR firm to do the PR works for you will require a huge amount of money. By following these 10 great ways, you will gain a pretty good media coverage without having to spend so much.

1.     Acquire the necessary skills and improve it to the level of great expertise to establish your authority in a given field. Associate with like-minded people within your industry and be a part of their activities to build up your much needed credibility.

2.     Be efficient in conveying your ideas – you should be able to have relevant and noteworthy ideas to share, and the necessary ability to convey those ideas exactly the way you want it to be understood.

3.     Gather ample information about your target audience – it helps if you have enough information about the people whom you intend to deliver your message to. This will give you an idea how to craft your message to make it more understandable.

4.     Utilise the power of the media – Have as many media resources as you can gather in delivering your message. Use its own power to reach out to your audience.  It is an advantage to have your own media directory.

5.     Reach out to the media – Initiate a working cooperation with the media. Regularly send your impeccable media releases. Do anything to secure collaboration with them. You might also find it helpful to write and send out articles.

6.     Photo opportunity – have the best of your photograph along with your media releases, or if you do not have one yet, you may ask them directly for a brief photograph session.

7.     Be consistently unrelenting with your efforts. Convince them that you are serious about your craft. However, do not overstate the obvious; do not push hard as you might offend their sensitivities.

8.     Always be ready for a spontaneous interview. You do not want to get caught off guard and make silly off-handed remarks as a result.

9.      Ready personal portfolio – journalists love it when they could readily gather as much information as possible, so always have it prepared, or have it posted in your website.

10.   Establish your proficiency in the given field.  Make possible efforts to build your reputation. Write e-books, make podcasts or anything else to establish your skill.