Seeking More Publicity?

By: Small Business Finance Forum on 11:00 AM

Use PR to broadcast your message, increase credibility and attract more customers.

One way to generate more sales is to generate more PR - publicity or public relations opportunities. You can do this directly or hire a specialist to help you, or utilize a combination of the two. When most people think of publicity, they think of interviews by journalists in newspapers, blogs or magazines. However, think of the publicity tours that actors participate in when they are promoting a movie. You'll read interviews in magazines and see the actors on the morning and evening talk shows. You may also hear the actors on XM or Sirius radio stations. In addition, you may see conversations about the movie or actors on social media - Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram.

Well, you can do the same. Admittedly, you may not be the same draw as an actor in a newly or soon-to-be released movie, but you have something that the public wants to hear. Traditionally, a PR rep will make pitches to journalists, news outlets, or other media sources to find an angle those entities are interested in that captures something about your business. However, if you are on a limited budget or want to gain some hands-on experience before outsourcing or hiring someone to perform this task, you can handle publicity yourself.

To minimize the time outlay, you can do one or all of the following:

1. Publish press releases on a periodic basis (i.e., weekly, bi-weekly or monthly). Do not solely provide information. Instead, make the information you do provide sound interesting or engaging or link it to a currently trending topic. You can utilize paid press release submission services for the highest impact but many free services with decent impact exist.

   

   Help a Reporter Out Website Page

2. Connect directly with journalists seeking information and sound bites to use in their articles. This way, you avoid the need to make pitches! Use PR Newswire (an excellent service, but hundreds of dollars in monthly costs) or HARO (Help a Reporter Out), a free service, to do this. HARO attracts journalists and bloggers at all levels so the readership level of the article the person is writing may vary widely. http://www.helpareporter.com/ 



Interview Guest Directory Web Page

3. Connect with podcast, talk radio and blogtalk radio hosts for radio interviews. There are literally tens of thousands of talk radio formats and podcasts in the U.S. Therefore, it can be overwhelming to identify and reach out to all of them with unique pitches. Use a service such as Interview Guest Directory, which is a low cost service that provides radio interview hosts with a directory of potential guests for their programs. http://www.interviewguestsdirectory.com/

Are you interested in more PR for your business, special project or other related endeavor? Try one or more of the three options above to generate that PR.

Do you have any other suggestions to generate PR? If so, please share them below!