“Public Relations is a mix of journalism, psychology, and lawyering – it’s an ever-changing and always interesting landscape.” – Ronn Torossian
Public Relations doesn’t need to be a huge endeavor especially if you are just starting out, or if you are looking to scale your business but working on a tight budget. Start with building your personal brand, getting your message out there, and being seen as an industry expert by sharing your knowledge.
Below are some easy ways to get you started building your business public relation profile and how to become known to your ideal client, customer, or market.
NETWORKING
First, on the list, we have ‘Networking’. You will have heard it by now but your network is so important. The more people you can talk to the better, people are the best form of marketing, if your friend tells you about an amazing product, you’ll try it. Networking does go beyond your clientele; conversations lead to contacts which lead to creating an even bigger network. You never know when someone may become useful to you and your business
GET INVOLVED
Give time back to your community! Donate money or time to a charitable cause, help out the local markets, join local groups, group events, the list is never-ending. Giving back to your community is so important for building a strong PR, if you are a person of the people, you are giving positive energy out, you will receive it back from your people, build relationships, get to know your potential clients, what they need? What do they want? pay it forward, and you will see more opportunities arise.
LISTEN TO YOUR FEEDBACK
What are your customers saying? Do they love the product/service? If so, great keep doing that because it’s well-received. But if on the other hand there’s quite a bit of negative feedback, don’t brush it off because there’s way more positive. Listen to what’s being said, work on the issues. If unhappy customers feel they have been heard and their grievance has been resolved they may give your business another chance and become another happy customer, which is the results you want to see
BE PRESENT ONLINE
Your presence online is so important to building strong public relations, keeping your social media up to date, using social media to interact with your customers and your network, keeping the latest social media trends in mind when creating posts. Always think ‘will my audience interact with this?’ you also need to make sure you are available online, all interactions you make could be potential clientele.
“Publicity is absolutely critical. A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front-page ad.” – Richard Branson
KEEP UP WITH THE TRENDS
What’s going on in the media? What’s trending and can you adapt to those trends. You need to stay relevant if you want to survive in business, your take on trending topics is a gateway to staying relevant, make sure you, your brand, and products/services keep up with what’s trending to maximize relevancy.
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS
This one isn’t necessarily a PR tip but will feed into good PR. You want to make some meaningful connections, friends within your network, regular customers etc. These positive connections are going to boost your mood, making you a happier, social butterfly. Being known as someone who is positive and social will instantly make you more approachable and will encourage new customers to try out what you have to offer.
KEEP YOUR COOL
Not every day can be a roaring success, marketing failures can make an appearance, unhappy customer, for as many successes possible within PR there are the downfalls too, all you can do is stay calm, collected, and keep your cool. If you are calm, you will be able to rectify the situation more effectively
TEAMWORK IS DREAMWORK
Behind a great leader is a great team, and the same goes for deciding upon your PR team, these people are in control of how your business gets presented to the world, you want to make sure you’ve got a great team that will support you in forming your PR bonds.
TARGET YOUR MARKET
Knowing your market is crucial. You need to know who you’re selling your product/service to, what age is your business targeted at? What is your product/service? Is it useful for a specific hobby or career? What kind of person does your business benefit? These are all factors for identifying your market. Once you’ve identified your market you can introduce effective marketing targeted to who you are selling to. You also need to know what points of common interest there are within your market to build a successful network-based upon those interests.
MAINTAIN YOUR IMAGE
In PR image is everything! How you present yourself and your business defines the type of response you’ll receive. If you present as sloppy and unkempt then that’s the reputation your business will have. You don’t have to be polished to perfection either unless that’s the image you want. Think about the brand you imagine in your head; is there any values you hold close? How could your image show that? What are you selling/providing? What image is commonly associated with that? How can you personalize that image so your own personality shines through? Keep your image clean, personal and relevant.
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffet
Every month the Women’s Business Club meets and invites a guest speaker along to share their knowledge and expertise to help you grow your business. Find your next meet-up and connect with our supportive community of women in business.