5 essential PR tips for small businesses

Building a PR strategy can help your business reach more people. Plus, it’ll help people think of your business when it’s time to buy. 

PR, short for public relations, is how your business interacts with the public and builds good brand recognition. 

PR does a lot of things, so it may seem vague. But, its primary goal is to persuade. PR aims to get external sources talking about your business and representing it positively. 

With the right PR approach, you can grow your audience, improve your public image, and earn a greater profit. But if you’re not sure where to start, we’ve got you covered. 

This guide covers our best PR tips, including:

• Know your brand 
• Focus on storytelling 
• Find the right media outlets 
• Create a detailed plan 
• Use a multi-pronged approach

To increase your brand recognition through PR, you’ll need to know your brand inside and out. How do you currently represent your business to the public through marketing and customer service? 

Your brand can frame your PR strategy. It shows you who to reach out to and how to clearly communicate what you’re about. 

Here are some things to consider about your current brand identity: 

• What is your visual brand identity? 
• What tone represents your business?
• What are your brand’s main values? 
• What is the personality of your brand? 
• What is the overall message of your brand? 

86% of consumers value authenticity in the brands they purchase from. To appear authentic, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the ‘why’ behind your brand. 

So, consider why you started this business and offer the products and services you do. What do you hope to achieve? Thinking about this will help you develop the story of your business, so you can represent yourself purposefully. 

Another major PR tip for small businesses is knowing the story you want to tell. Once you understand your brand and key values, you can develop stories that speak to the public. 

Your PR will be more effective if you have an appealing story because it’ll impact more people. 

Plus, knowing the stories you want to share with media outlets make it easier for them. You can pitch them the story and do most of the work. 

For example, say you run a dog treat business. For this, you could tell the story of your own pet experiences and how you wanted to create healthy treats for your dog. 

One of the most important PR tips for small businesses is knowing which media outlets to reach out to. 

You’ll need other people to mention and write about your business to increase your recognition. But, this won’t always happen on its own. So, research relevant media outlets, such as magazines, blogs, influencers, and newspapers. 

Pitching your business and story to the right people will increase your success rate and make it easier to reach your target audience. 

For example, say you want to promote a coffee shop. You might reach out to local newspapers, food bloggers, and magazines with food sections. But, contacting a fashion blogger won’t do you any good. 

To find the right platforms, consider where a similar business might appear in the media. Then, put together a list of 10-15 media outlets to pitch your business to. 

As you pitch your business, try to make it as easy as possible for outlets to say yes. If you develop a detailed content idea and story, they just have to write it up and click post. 

For example, you could reach out to a YouTuber asking them to review your product. To win them over, you could offer a free product and explain how their audience compliments yours. 

Still, as you create opportunities for PR, consider how you’ll spin them to represent your business positively. If you earn a review in a magazine, but the writer trashes your business, that might not lead to customers. 

So, assess your small business for weaknesses. What might people complain about? Then, consider improving things, such as your customer service. 

With an established plan and targeted approach, you can more easily control how people present your business to the public. 

Your PR strategy shouldn’t focus on just one thing. If you pursue several angles of brand building, you can multiply your success. 

As you develop a PR strategy, come up with a goal for how you want to improve your outreach. For example, you could aim for five media mentions in the first month and 100 by the end of the year. 

With this number in mind, decide on three or more areas to focus your attention on. For example, you might focus on podcast PR, magazine articles, and blog reviews. 

If you ensure your business shows up in these different areas, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience.

Closely track any external mentions your business gets. If you notice some negative PR, consider what might have happened and how you can improve it. 

Then, when unprompted sources mention your business positively, reach out and ask them to link to your website to increase visibility. 

Also, make sure you have a way to measure your progress. Use an analytical tool like Google Analytics to analyse your website traffic and promotional success. Then, monitor your sales to see how PR might impact them. 

As you introduce these PR tips for small businesses into your new strategy, you can increase your business’s visibility and overall reputation. 

But, as PR leads new eyes towards your business, you might want to update or increase your marketing so they can learn more. Why not check out our article on how to successfully market your business on social media?

Then, as you win over more business with PR, you can track your earnings with a smart financial tool, like Countingup. Countingup is the business account and accounting software in one app. 

Save yourself hours of accounting admin so you can focus on growing your business.