A PR strategy can make a big difference to the success of your business when used properly alongside your marketing strategy. Even if you have no budget for your marketing, you can make PR work for you. Accomplished CEOs like Andrew Defrancesco uses their PR know-how to get free publicity and gain press coverage to help market their business.
PR is free, which gives it an advantage over other marketing methods. It’s not just about media coverage. PR can also be speaking at events, sponsorship, and putting yourself up for awards. If you want to sell, people need to know that you’re there. You could manage your PR yourself, or bring in an agency. Make sure you have a reasonable late payment fee by checking it out here.
- Be clear about your brand. You need to know who you are, what you stand for, and what value you offer. Think carefully about how you want the world to see your brand and remember your business. When you know this, you can shape your PR messages. Take a look at the top fractional cfos that your business needs to improve their finance strategies.
- Identify your target audience. Who do you need to reach? Who do you want to sell your products or services to? Identify a narrow niche, and target it, as this is better than a more scattered attempt and trying to sell to everyone. In Toronto, there are plenty of agencies that know how to captivate a target audience. You can seek out for yourself which of them can meet your business needs.
- Decide how to reach them. When you’ve identified who your target audience is, you can work out where they are. Which newspapers, magazines, and websites do they read? What TV shows do they watch? Do they listen to the radio or to podcasts? If you make QR codes, will they know how to use them? If you can answer these questions, you will know where is best to concentrate your PR to get to the right people. You can also give out promotional gifts like Customised Poker Cards for maximum brand exposure.
- Target the right journalists and bloggers. If you send a press release to a general email address, it properly won’t be read. If you know which publications or blogs to target, find out which journalist covers your sector. You can often find email addresses online. If you can’t, phone up the publication and ask, or look for contacts on Twitter in order to start building a relationship with useful people.
- Have a good story. A journalist won’t share your press releases just to be kind. They have to have a good story, whether you’re sending them a press release or pitching an idea. Offer something interesting, new, or different. Don’t try to pack too much into your releases either. Instead, aim for three key messages that have a good story, and add in some quotes.
- Get the timing and approach right. An editor needs enough time to plan in a story. For a glossy magazine, this can be up to three months. A journalist will also need time to actually write the article before their deadline, so don’t pitch late. If you reach out by phone, most journalists won’t give you much of their time. Instead, try to get an email for your contact, and send your press release with a brief pitch for the story. After a few days, politely follow up if you haven’t had a response.