Is PR Right for You? 6 Questions to Ask

When most people think about marketing, they think advertising. While advertising is a part of marketing, marketing is much bigger than advertising. There are lots of different marketing methods floating around out there, and the challenge as a business owner is figuring out when it's appropriate to use each one and the best way to use it.

Public relations, or PR, is the art of getting someone else to write or talk about you or your business. Preferably in a favorable manner. Traditionally, "someone else" was the media. In this day and age however, someone else can also be a blogger, a freelance writer, an e-zine publisher or even an owner of a big Web site. For purposes of this article, I'm using the word "media" to refer to all of those folks.

PR is also being able to get yourself on a big talk show to talk about yourself or your business, or writing your own article that's published in a desired outlet. (Not your own newsletter or Web site.)

PR is one of my favorite marketing methods, but it can also be one of the more frustrating ones. Even when you do everything right, you still might not get the publicity you want. Or for that matter, ANY publicity at all. When a PR campaign doesn't work, you can find yourself wanting to pull out all your hair in frustration.

Even with that in mind, I do believe most if not all businesses can benefit from some type of PR campaign. But before you launch into something that could end with you becoming hairless (and investing in a sizeable hat collection) ask yourself the following questions.

1. Do I need to see results right away? If you do, better pull out your wallet and pay for some advertising. PR takes time. And it's not guaranteed. You might not see your article for weeks, months or ever, and there isn't a darn thing you can do about it. If it's immediate gratification you want, don't look for it in a public relations campaign.

2. Do I have the time to consistently devote to a public relations campaign? We're back to the time issue. PR not only takes time to see results, but you also have to take time to make it happen. Either you have to do it or you have to pay someone else to do it. If you do it yourself, you'll have the potential of garnering the equivalent of thousands of dollars of advertising for little or no money. But it will cost you some time. If you pay someone else, you'll save time (which is a good thing, I'm a big believer in outsourcing) but it can get expensive. Worse yet, you STILL might not get any coverage for your money.

3. Do I have enough perseverance to run a PR campaign? PR is about follow-up. It's about sending story idea after story idea to the same reporter before one finally connects (and maybe it's the tenth one). It's about sending a little note or letter to the same editor for as long as several years before you get a bite. It's about reminding your contacts you're out there until one day they realize they need you.

If you're willing to court the media, develop relationships and do whatever you can to make their lives easier, the rewards can be huge.

4. Do I have newsworthy events happening at my business? (Newsworthy is something media personnel feel would interest their readers.) Or, if I don't, can I create them?

I'm not talking about making things up here. But there are things you can be doing to make your business more newsworthy. For example, you can do a survey and publish the results. You can tie a feature of your product or service to something that's currently happening in the news. You can hold an event. You can research a newly published study that relates to your product or service. There are countless ways you can transform aspects of your business into newsworthy story items -- the creativity exercise below can help you come up with your ideas.

5. Do I want to build my credibility? Develop my status as an expert? Then get that PR campaign off the ground. Nothing builds your credibility or expert status faster than having other people say you know what you're talking about.

6. Do I want to augment my other marketing efforts? Public relations definitely plays nicely with the other marketing methods. You can be building your long-term expert campaign with PR and building short-term customers with advertising. Or you can turn your community relations strategies into PR campaigns. It's a great way to get the most bang out of your marketing time and dollar.

Creativity Exercise -- How can you use PR in your business?

Grab some sheets of paper and pen (I like the fun gel pens myself) and get ready for some brainstorming.

Start by listing everything you do or sell. Then write out all the features or descriptions of your products or services. For instance, if you have a book, what is your book about? What does it offer people?

Now see if you can turn those features into something newsworthy. Is there a time of year when people are interested in your services? (Accounting and tax season). Are there any studies you can dig up? Is there something in the news that ties into your product? Can you turn an aspect of your business into a human interest story? (Something like fitness tips for busy people or parenting tips for single parents, etc.) Write everything down that comes into your head, even if it's silly. See if you can come up with 50 story ideas.

Now look at what you wrote. Can you find a few in there that you think would interest the media? Congratulations -- you just came up with a PR campaign.

Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of "Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money." She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business.

She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com

Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek

---

3 Essential Elements For Turning Your PR Pitch Into Publicity Exposure

1) Establish Rapport, then get the editor/producer excited.There's not a... Read More

Killing Them Softly

The world has woken up to ethical issues in corporate... Read More

Publicity for Financial Planners--Eight Tips For Success

Individual financial planners can outscore bigger competitors and gain market... Read More

Managers: Can We Agree on This?

Your public relations effort really should involve more than press... Read More

The Medias Muscle: Make it Work for You

The least expensive, most effective way for you to promote... Read More

Dont Be Incredible

Public relations is all about credibility and trustworthiness. If you... Read More

Underestimating the Power of In-House PR

Do small-business owners always have to rely on large PR... Read More

How to Tie-In With News Events to Score Publicity

It's safe to say that we live in interesting times.... Read More

Inoculate Yourself Against Bad PR

What is bad PR?Well, if you're a business, non-profit or... Read More

How PR Helps Managers Win

Anything that lets managers achieve their managerial objectives is a... Read More

Ready For A Business Recovery?

Who wants to face the challenges of a business recovery... Read More

How To Get FREE Publicity Whenever You Want !

What you are about to read is a step by... Read More

Slow Day? Create News

Sometimes there seems to be no client news worthy of... Read More

Want To Join the Bandwagon? Be Sure It Has Wheels!

Here are two to-the-point questions recently posed by several association... Read More

Dealing With Reporters in Your Small Business

It behooves you to know and remember the names of... Read More

Do I Really Need a Publicist?

Are you hesitating about hiring a publicist or, if you... Read More

PR: Advice You Didnt Ask For

Although, as a business, non-profit or association manager, you may... Read More

E-Mail Media Releases

E-mail is becoming the preferred way to receive media releases.... Read More

Be Patient? Nah, Lets Kill Something

There's the old joke about the two buzzards sitting in... Read More

Keep The Publicity Machine Rolling with Reprints

More than half of America skips the Super Bowl, the... Read More

How To Use PR To Build Your Business

Everyone knows the value of free publicity. And given the... Read More

Public Relations Productivity

Should it be measured in "publicity by the pound," or... Read More

The Increasing Power Of Publicity - And How It Can Benefit Your Business

The call came into my office and the voice on... Read More

Managers: Paying for PR-Lite?

As a business, non-profit or association manager, your public relations... Read More

Your Organization: What Role PR?

As a manager, does your current business, non-profit or association... Read More

7 Tips to Get More Mileage Out of Your Online or Offline Publicity

You worked hard to get a story on your business... Read More

Media Savvy - How To Lead, Persuade, And Influence

Media management has become one of the strategic tools for... Read More

Pot Roast and Public Relations (or, How Your Web Site Can Be Your Best P.R. Tool)

Recently I had a craving for... Read More

How to Use Community Relations to Grow Your Business

Community relations is one of those marketing strategies that isn't... Read More

Lets Blow The Lid Off Public Relations

And show it for what it is - a humdinger... Read More

Tough Times, Tough Tactics

When times are tough, it's no time to ignore those... Read More

For Financial Planners, Marketing and Publicity Is About You

For financial planners, getting publicity, in the end, isn't about... Read More

The Ultimate PR Edge: Getting Reporters To Open Your E-Mails

You know that getting publicity is vital to the health... Read More