What are two of the most common things people say when contemplating doing their own PR?
- “I can’t do my own PR because I’ve only just started my business and not got many followers / much traffic / made many sales.”
- “I’ve just not got time to do my own PR.”
Firstly, let’s address the “I’ve only just started my business” excuse or idea.
This is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. With the PR comes the sales, followers and traffic so to achieve this benchmark that you’ve created for yourself you really need to just get started right away. Until you realise that PR is what’s going to build your brand you’ll just remain stuck in this cycle.
Not only this but what you probably don’t realise is that the content that goes into the press is not reliant on your following, your level of success or any of that other nonsense you tell yourself.
It’s about sharing your story and ideas and helping journalists with the information that you know and they don’t. You know more about your industry than they do because they’re a journalist, not a beautician / lawyer / social media manager. **Insert your profession here.**
Your journey is something that you might talk to the press about and the media need stories from people at all stages of their career or life – not just the middle or the end!
“I’ve just not got time to do my own PR”
Let’s just hand this one to you on a plate: You need to make time.
Once you’ve nailed the fundamentals of DIY PR you’ll understand that there are certain elements that make a great story and once you’ve got to grips with what they are you’ll find it easy to create stories for the press.
And here’s the good news: you only need to create a few good stories a year!
If you create a handful of timely, interesting and on-point stories for the press then you’ve just got to concentrate on building relationships with journalists. By spending as little as one hour each week just connecting with them and nurturing your relationships then you’ll generate consistent publicity that will ultimately grow your business.
Take Kate Hall for example.
Back in April 2020, Kate set up The Full Freezer – a business derived from a gap she saw in the market. Kate came to me and enrolled in my course, which was previously called, Powerful PR.
Her business was fresh, she was a working mum and she didn’t have a tonne of time to work with but she understood the importance of PR for her growth.
We covered the fundamental elements of PR and built her a strategy upon that knowledge, making sure that her stories and advice were going to appeal to the correct audience of the publications she was targeting. All in all – she nailed it!
She planned well, made a little bit of time, created some killer stories and made a few connections.
Within her first year, Kate had a full page in Prima Magazine, all about her and her business, she was featured on BBC radio and Channel 5 News and not only was this great exposure but it was invaluable for her brand to be able to be associated with these titles and put them on her website as places she’d been featured in.
She now has over 22k followers on Instagram (remember, the business is only just over a year old!) and she is a paid influencer on the platform.
Getting started straight away is what meant she could cover this ground in such a short space of time and because she understood the importance of creating at least an hour a week for PR she was able to nurture these relationships with journalists.
Recent Comments