Here’s one of the most common questions we receive from companies, entrepreneurs and startups all trying to do their own small business public relations:
“I did pretty much everything I was supposed to do. I developed a really creative public relations story angle; I wrote a compelling press release with an attention-grabbing subject line; I targeted the right journalists and it even resulted in a few really nice stories. Why hasn’t my phone been ringing off the hook with new customers?”
The reason why this is such a popular question among entrepreneurs and startups doing their own small business public relations is because it’s a scenario filled with frustration. On the surface they’ve done everything the right way from story development to writing a compelling press release. Any time your PR efforts lead to a series of positive stories or even one story for that matter, it’s gratifying to know your hard work has paid off. But even though small business public relations won’t often lead directly to sales, it’s important to know that it’s helping in the process of making or creating a sale, at the very least. After all, PR is a form of marketing, which means it’s going to drive additional awareness and ultimately sales. The PR Toolkit for Small Business talks about leveraging PR opportunities for lead generation.
Here’s the glaring problem with the issue being raised in the above question. When you’re talking about using small business public relations to drive direct sales (or at least share in the leads generation department) you often have to nudge your prospects and customers. This is a tough line to walk because so much of PR is about letting others talk about how great you are rather than you talking about how great you are. But in this case it’s perfectly okay for you to tell the world when a nice article comes out.
I always recommend entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses to create an email newsletter so they can showcase the story to their prospects and customers. Good small business public relations coverage means people and other businesses read about you, heard you on the radio or saw you on television. But sometimes your target customer (the ones who will buy from you) may not have seen the coverage. To ensure these people DO see the coverage, share the story with them. Just be sure you do it in a way that is more “hey just wanted to make sure you saw this” instead of “hey look how wonderful we are.”
A client I had several years ago in the custom publishing world wanted to build business by attracting large companies in the healthcare field to write and manage their in-house magazines. I helped by securing an opportunity where the head of the publishing company authored a story on the merits of custom publishing to drive sales. The article came out and the headline actually called my client a custom publishing expert. To better the client’s chances at getting the coverage in front of prospective customers we turned the coverage into an email and sent it to prospects. The client received some wonderful feedback from several people on the email list and it actually resulted in some warm leads (and possibly even a sale or two).
What other advice would you like to share that will help PR bring more leads and sales? Please leave a comment below.
John Sternal is co-founder of Sternal Consulting, a PR and marketing consultancy helping businesses get noticed through publicity in the media. He is the author of the PR Toolkit for Small Business and currently authoring a book about DIY public relations for small business owners. For questions email John Sternal.
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This is an excellent article for DIY’ers or green PR personnel working with small businesses. Great job John!
Thanks for the kind words.