With an increasing number of small businesses opening in the greater
Sydney area, focusing on product and customer service is no longer
sufficient. Small business owners need to engage with a variety of
promotional activities in order to be competitive, according to a Sydney
marketing centre.
To aid small business owners in their promotional
activities, the Sydney Small Business Centre has recently released a
short five-step guide for public relations.
According to the
Centre, public relations is a part of marketing that is all about
promoting a business or product without having to pay for it, and
includes press releases, trade shows, conferences, seminars and events.
The Centre says there are five steps small business owners need to take in order to achieve success with their public relations.
The
Centre says that the best way for a business owner to get started on
their PR strategy is by answering these three questions:
What are you trying to say?
What are you trying to achieve?
What is the result you want?
Answering
these three questions is important to give yourself a clear idea of why
PR is being undertaken, and will also guide where and how it is done.
The Centre also recommends that small business owners keep the following axiom in mind when executing their own PR strategies:
Who do you want to want you? And why should they want to?
2. Know the customer
Knowing
the target customer of a business is one of the most important parts of
a businesses marketing strategy, and it’s no different for PR. Business
owners need to know what their customers are watching, reading and
listening to, as well as the websites they go to and the things they’re
interested in. Knowing this will help business owners make the most of
their PR efforts and focus them on the appropriate forms of media.
3. Don’t just wait for things to happen
PR
isn’t going to work by sending out a media release and then sitting by
the phone waiting for ABC Radio to call. The best way to get coverage is
by understanding where news should be placed, sending it to the right
person and chasing them up. Business owners can’t rest on their laurels -
PR is all about identifying the right opportunities and actively
pursuing them.
4. Be newsworthy
When
business owners are writing something to promote their business they
need to make sure it is newsworthy in one of the following respects:
5. Always think about the big picture
PR
is all about being active and getting a business’ name out there
through as many different mediums as possible. Business owners need to
keep the big picture in mind and make sure their PR strategy involves
active engagement with a variety of media.