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Don’t hide your light under the proverbial bushel – here’s how to grab some publicity for your company, without spending a penny.
Having an amazing company means nothing if the world doesn’t know your business. Literally. And although there’s a time and place for tweeting (and retweeting… and retweeting), it’s way better to go old school: newspapers, magazines and TV. Once upon a time, that would involve hiring a public relations firm to do it for you – at a price. But these days, you can go it alone, as top PR Lucy Werner, founder of The Wern communications consultancy and author of ‘Hype Yourself: A Nonsense DIY PR Toolkit for Small Businesses’ explains…
1. Storytime
Everyone loves stories, especially very human ones. Increasingly, buyers want a narrative – the story behind the product. Social media is a great and easy platform for this. As Lucy says, “Entrepreneurs often want to focus on how brilliant their product/service is, but the media is actually more interested in the human side: you! The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who show a face behind the business.”
2. Smile please
Ideally, you’ll need some professionally-shot pics of yourself and, of course, your product or service. “Having a landscape headshot of yourself is a great way of standing out,” says Lucy. “If print or online media use it, then you can dominate an article.”
3. Take the mountain to Mohammed
You need to consider where your potential shoppers are. As Lucy says: “It’s no good only wanting to be in Forbes if you’re trying to reach mums more likely to be reading parenting blogs.” Select a handful of publications or websites your potential audience will be reading, and think about where your enterprise could be placed within them. Lucy adds, “It’s not just media. Your audience might attend specialist festivals/events or listen to podcasts. To get yourself invited on these, try engaging with organisers on LinkedIn.”
4. Perfect pitch
“Never send out a press release in a tweet to journalists,” cautions Lucy. In fact, she says, at the beginning, you don’t need to send out press releases at all. Contact the journalists directly, she advises, and send them a personalised email pitch (“never phone, unless it’s breaking news”). The pitch will include the following: a one-sentence intro line; two or three bullet-points as to why your business is relevant and how it could work for the newspaper, magazine or radio station; and a sign-off with info about you and your product. Don’t forget to include your contact details!
5. Socially conscious
“Use social media strategically,” cautions Lucy. “It’s a black hole and you don’t want to get sucked into it. Schedule social posts for outside work hours instead.” However, if you need to get event-bookers’ radars, follow them on LinkedIn and start engaging with their content. As Lucy says, many journalists put out requests on Twitter too. “Make a note of journalists’ feeds, compiling them into a Twitter List that’ll show their tweets in a separate stream.”
6. Bad press
Incredibly, not everybody is going to be into your product or service. But you can still turn negative press to your advantage. “If your company has messed up via a manufacturing issue or something technical, put your hands up and apologise, maybe with humour,” says Lucy. “Think about KFC who responded to their chicken shortage by taking out ‘FCK, We’re Sorry’.
Learn from feedback too. “A negative review in print isn’t going to last long, but you can tactically redress the balance by getting your audience/fans to post positive reviews on Google and Facebook,” says Lucy.
7. Chasing Up
Don’t take it personally if you don’t hear back. Emails can be overlooked when journalists are on deadline. Chase up with another email a fortnight later. “If you don’t hear anything after three attempts or three months, it’s time to go back to the drawing-board,” says Lucy. “This is where you could invest in some professional help, such as an hour-long one-to-one coaching session with one of the many PR freelancers. There’s never been a better – or cost-effective – time to do your own public relations.”