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The Ins and Outs of Small Business Public Relations

Written by: Anthony Mora

Article Overview: Whereas it’s true that large companies, feature films and celebrities need to launch powerful PR campaigns, it’s the small businesses of the world that benefit the most from effective public relations.

The Ins and Outs of Small Business Public Relations

The biggest misconception about public relations is that it's primarily for large firms, huge corporations or Hollywood celebrities. Nothing could be further than the truth. From my perspective, it's small businesses that benefit most from an effective PR campaign. Why? Small businesses have to find an effective form of marketing, but they also have to be more budget focused and need to get the most bang for their buck.

Think about it. What small business could launch an advertising, or direct marketing campaign that could match that of a corporation with extremely deep pockets? And, even though online marketing and social media offers small companies a real advantage over most traditional forms of marketing, it's still often difficult to compete with companies who have the economic wherewithal to hire a firm to work exclusively on their websites, blogs, social media, analytics, Adwords campaigns etc. But, when it comes to PR, if a small business or entrepreneur gets creative, develops some good stories, and takes time to really study the media's needs, that company or expert can end up on the evening news, Time, Oprah, People, CNN, or other major media outlets.. By doing so, that company can leap-frog over the competition and literally go head-to-head with company's ten to twenty times its size.

There would be no way a small business could compete using other forms of marketing. Granted, as I mentioned before, the net and social media is a huge leveler. Small companies can compete as never before via the internet. But traditional PR still remains the true giant killer when it comes to marketing for small businesses. One or two well-placed media hits can help launch a company. If that company then takes that media coverage and amplifies it on the net, those media hits become even more powerful.

So, whereas it's true that large companies, feature films and celebrities need to launch powerful PR campaigns, it's the small businesses of the world that benefit the most from effective public relations.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2009

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Article Tags: campaigns, cnn, corporations, deep pockets, direct marketing, entrepreneur, frog, giant killer, hollywood celebrities, leveler, marketing campaign, marketing for small businesses, media coverage, media outlets, misconception, oprah, pr campaign, public relations, traditional pr, twenty times



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