Some top PR tips for Small Business

For many traditional public relations has gone slightly out of fashion. With the immediacy of social media and the boom in self publishing the time and effort to get your story published in the local paper or picked up by radio and TV can seem a bit of waste.


But despite the huge number of people on Facebook and Twitter there is still a sizeable chunk of the population who don’t know their fans from their followers. These are not cave people unable to keep up with modern life. They just prefer to do things a little differently. One day they may join the online throng but until then it’s not wise to ignore them.


Traditional press coverage is a great way of getting your messages out and building the profile of your business. Here are the Igneous Marketing top 4 tips to getting free publicity


1. Make sure your story is news! Journalists aren’t interested in your latest 50% off sale or buy one get one free promotion. Be the first, the newest, the oldest, the biggest, the smallest, just don’t be average. If you story has a photo even better.

2. Don’t have any news? Then make some! Look at Richard Branson the master of self promotion. No you don’t need to try and cross the Atlantic in a hot air balloon. Do something interesting for charity, hold an event, win an award, become an expert in your field.  The possibilities are endless it just needs a bit of imagination.

3. Write a good press release. 99% of press releases end up in the rubbish so make sure you have a strong eye catching headline. Make sure all the key details of the story are covered in the main paragraphs.  Don’t witter on for pages, maximum 2 pages including all your contact details.  Include a boilerplate, this is a paragraph about you and your business that you can include on every release you produce.

4. Follow up. If you don’t hear anything back follow up with a telephone call.  Journalists get hundreds of releases and can often miss yours it doesn’t mean they won’t feature it, a polite nudge may just do the trick.


With a bit of effort you will soon be filling the papers, radio and TV.  Don’t be discouraged if your releases don’t get featured every time.  Keep going, build up the relationships with the local media and don’t forget to publish online too!


If you need some more help, please contact us (Here) and don't forget PR is part of our awesome pay monthly marketing bundles!