We know that running a small brand is no easy task. You’ve got limited time, budget, and resources to get stuff done to grow your brand.
However, you need to put yourself out there as much as possible to have steady incoming revenue. So, where do you even start?
One way of making the best use of your resources and generating new business is by doing great PR. Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their publics. In simpler terms, PR is essentially about earning people’s attention and trust and gaining free publicity as a result of that.
Some of us tend to think that PR is only for large, multinational brands that have huge marketing budgets. It would make sense, since doing PR seems like a full-time job that requires the type of resources that SMBs just don’t have.
On the contrary, PR is even more essential for small brands to grow. What’s more, there are excellent, affordable tools and resources now to help SMBs manage PR – making it more accessible to them.
It stretches your budget
For small brand owners, every pound has to go a long way. Getting journalists and influencers to write about your business won’t cost you a lot of money but more in time.
By doing PR, you’re continually working on building trust and credibility for your brand without spending too many marketing pounds.
Even better, word-of-mouth recommendations and organic buzz influences more potential customers to visit and talk about your brands. By getting others to consistently bring up your name in a positive context – be it influencers, journalists, happy customers, and even employees – will undoubtedly make your business grow in the long run.
It’s more effective than advertising
Earned publicity – be it word-of-mouth, customer testimonials or editorial media coverage – merely is more trusted than advertising.
According to a Nielsen study, PR is 90% more effective than advertising in influencing consumers. That being said getting a favourable mention of your brand, which is earned and not paid, holds much more weight than an ad.
Who are you more likely to believe, a salesman or a person just like you who bought a product?
Because of social media, we’re exposed to so much marketing and advertising content. People don’t trust brands as much anymore which is why influencer marketing and PR content provides an authentic touch to your business.
PR loves marketing
In your mix of activities, public relations is another crucial way to reach your audience, build awareness and create a positive business image. Instead of it competing with your marketing efforts, PR can supplement and support your other initiatives in a way advertising can’t. Use PR to provide and deliver real value to your audience – be it by sharing something useful, educational or inspiring – and you’ll win people’s attention. It may sound hard, but all it takes a good plan and hard work. When getting developing a PR campaign, try to know and empathise as much as possible with your audience and provide something they would consider valuable.
Good PR strategies prevent problems
For small brands that rely heavily on word-of-mouth, upset customers can spread bad publicity and put a dent in your brand credibility.
That’s not all, employee-related scandals, defective products, and potential lawsuits can be mitigated if dealt with quickly and in the right way.
A key part of PR is to stay on top of what’s being said about your business and making sure that information that’s being spread is accurate. If it isn’t, your PR plan should include a section on how to manage and rectify misinformation.
If you’re not monitoring your business and keep yourself in the dark, you’re leaving a lot at risk. Remember, one negative comment can escalate and ruin your brand while building real trust and credibility takes years – so don’t take the risk.
PR boosts brand visibility
Unlike traditional media, online media doesn’t have a shelf life. News articles remain visible on search engines indefinitely. This means any PR content you create can gain more value as it lives on. Moreover, other news outlets, bloggers and even customers may link and share the media coverage. By sharing timely and relevant stories across earned, owned and shared channels you will keep your business high up in search engine rankings, which will, in turn, bring more customers knocking on your door.
Creates long-lasting relationships
As PR is about building trust and delivering value, you’ll establish lasting relationships and generate goodwill.
Building and maintaining relations might seem like a time-consuming endeavour, but if you work with it systematically, you’ll create a daily or weekly routine that is easy to keep. Commit each week 30-60 minutes to do PR, and you’ll see the returns regarding new customers and more people talking about your business.
Also the best thing of all, you’ll get all that positive publicity for free.
It’s been a terrible year for most so we are currently offering 20% off all our services including our PR and Communication services in 2020, if you choose a 6 or 12 month contract, these prices will continue.
