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!

Why the small business needs PR

As a new business, attracting customers who will buy your product or service is paramount. There are many different ways that you can go about this but, PR will return some excellent results for your business – at very little cost.

Public relations, or PR, is literally, the relationship your business has with its public. The relationship you create with your public will have a profound effect on the future of your business, and this is where PR comes into play.

Build awareness and enthusiasm for your business with PR

PR is how you publicise and build enthusiasm for your business among your public, and in successfully doing so, creating widespread awareness and driving sales.

Here are some simple steps for you to use to create a buzz for your new business:

1. Make sure your product or service is ready

This is your immediate priority before you even start to think about PR. You need to make sure your product is ready for public consumption – get it out, make sure it works and does something that people care about.

As PR drives customer demand, if the product is not available to buy when the coverage appears, you’ll be missing out on sales, or even worse, driving customers to your competitors!

2. Know your market

Successful PR is all about reaching the right audience with a message that is appropriate and meaningful to them. If you fail to know your target audience and the publications that they read, implementing the rest of your PR actions will be virtually useless. There is no point aiming to get into the Financial Times when your customers are more likely to read The Sun.

3. Your message should be clear and concise

The centre of your PR campaign is your message. Make sure it's clear, concise and brief. If your message can't be summed up in a few sentences, it's too complicated and editors won't read it.

You also need to focus the materials you send to help the editors or producers. This means anticipating and answering their questions, labeling photographs and explaining why your story is worthy of coverage.

4. Develop a relationship with and use the local media

Your relationship with journalists is very important and is the basis of your interaction with the media. These relationships take time to develop, and this time should be viewed as a long-term investment.

If you have not yet established a relationship with the local press, read the local publications and get the names of the journalists who cover your specific topic. Check out the online version of the publication and search for articles by those journalists. Give them a call and introduce yourself. Journalists are constantly looking for news and this is a great way to start a relationship with them.

When your business gets a significant new customer, moves from your home to a real office, wins a community award or takes on a new employee, don't hesitate to call an appropriate journalist. You may not always get coverage, but you have nothing to lose by cultivating these relationships.

5. Write a feature article

Write an article for your local newspaper or trade publication on a subject that relates to you or your business. If the article is well written and is specifically targeted to the readers of that publication, it could bring you the publicity you seek.

6. Start a Blog

A blog, similar to an online diary, is a great way for you to position your business in the eyes of your customers, your industry and the press. It can demonstrate that you are a leading authority in the industry and allows you to engage with your customers and potential partners.

Furthermore, businesses who actively use blogs as part of their marketing program have discovered that blogs bring in more visitors to your website and that a high percentage of those who visit a blog, if properly influenced through that blog’s content, will actually buy from their business.

7. Public Speaking

Give talks or teach classes about your profession or business to local groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, or at industry trade shows, roundtables and conferences.

PR is a great tool for the SME and when done correctly is viewed exceptionally favourably by your target audience. It can be time consuming and that is why you may consider an agency such as Igneous Marketing and don’t forget. A PR element is included in all of our SME monthly marketing bundles!

Why should a small business use PR?

Why an SME should use PR

We often get asked why PR? What can PR do for my business that advertising or marekting can’t.  Whether you are a small business, start-up company, or simply expanding into a new country or geographical area, PR is an important tool for you. Here is what we think…

Credibility – Public relations holds a powerful position in the communications suite. One of the major impacts of PR is media relations, which assists you in achieving editorial coverage. People in your target market may see editorial as an independent and objective evaluation of your company. Due to the perceived objectivity of editorial coverage, PR is said to hold more credibility than other forms of marketing communication. Editorial coverage is trusted more than running an advertisement.

Cost Effectiveness – Public relations can be less expensive than other forms of paid communication, even if you hire an external public relations agency rather than performing this task in-house. Whilst you are paying for the services of a PR specialist, what you are achieving in the way of media coverage and changes in public perception may have otherwise cost you much more.

Exposure – Media coverage achieved through PR is likely to be more extensive than that which you would achieve through advertising, given a similar budget. Specialist PR people know which media to target for which message (and often have cultivated incredible contacts), what content the media want, when to pitch them which story and what is the best way to deliver your message.

Flexibility – Public relations has the benefits of being flexible in message content and being responsive to news. A skilled PR professional can turn around media releases in reaction to news or crisis situations within hours

Check out our PR offering here