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 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

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