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6 Reasons Your Small Business Needs a Public Relations Campaign

Guest post by: Jessica Swanson

Article Overview: Discover six important reasons your small business needs to engage in a public relations campaign.

6 Reasons Your Small Business Needs a Public Relations Campaign

Most people have heard of public relations, however, they’re not entirely sure what it entails. In fact, ask twenty different small business owners to give you the definition of public relations and you’ll receive twenty different answers.

Here is my definition of public relations: public relations is the process of building awareness, visibility and positive interactions with your prospective clients and customers through a variety of communication channels and tools.

Thus, in a nutshell, public relations involves your overall planning and execution strategy with the media in general. Not only is public relations about bringing you visibility and exposure through TV, radio and newspapers, it's also about how you present yourself and your company to the world in general.

That being said, public relations still remains elusive to most small business. Even though it’s incredibly simple and accessible to the small business owner, PR is one of the most under-utilized marketing tools.

So, why in the world does your small business need to tap into public relations? You are soon going to discover that public relations remains a marketing tool that entails very little risk, is incredible effective and 100% free.

As a small business owner, one of the most accessible marketing strategies available to you is creating a comprehensive public relations campaign.

Here are six important reasons why your small business must engage in public relations:

1. You Are a Small Business. When you engage in public relations you position your small business as a much larger entity. As your business receives coverage through radio, blogs and other print publications, your audience assumes that you are a large, established organization. There is no better tool for a little fish in a big sea than some good PR coverage.

2. No One Knows About Your Small Business. One of the most frustrating components for the small business owner is the constant problem of trying to establish visibility for yourself and your company. Public relations brings you that needed exposure quickly and efficiently. As you execute your PR plan, you create a “massive visibility campaign” for your small business.

3. Getting The “Word Out” Is the Most Important Factor. Unfortunately, in today’s world, the quality of your product or service isn’t the most important factor in attaining new customers and clients. (Although quality is an incredibly important factor in keeping existing customers and clients.) If your prospects and customers are going to do business with you, they must be able to find you. Therefore, divide your time between tweaking and perfecting your products and services and “getting the word” out to your prospects.

4. Traditional Marketing Isn’t As Effective. Direct advertising methods such as TV and radio commercials aren’t as effective as they were several years ago. Today’s prospects just don’t trust traditional forms of advertising and are much more willing to do business with companies that they know and trust. A good PR campaign can create hundreds of positive stories about you and your company.

5. You Have Competitors. Virtually every small business owner has dozens, if not hundreds of competitors. One of the best ways to outshine your competition is to seize PR opportunities such as radio, print and online coverage. Chances are that your competitors haven’t put together a comprehensive PR campaign, so you might as well use this to your advantage.

6. It’s Free. Obviously, one of the most attractive parts of public relations is that it’s a free marketing tool for the small business owner on a shoestring marketing budget. And, as a all savvy shoestring business owners know, there’s no better marketing tool than a free marketing tool.

Therefore, make sure to include a public relations campaign as part of your overall marketing strategy. Your business will thank you.

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Article Tags: audience, blogs, business need, communication channels, definition of public relations, execution, little fish, marketing strategies, marketing tool, marketing tools, newspapers, nutshell, print publications, prospective clients, public relations campaign, risk, small business owner, small business owners, tv radio, visibility



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