Public Relations, the forgotten piece of the sales and marketing program.

Small business is most always searching for additional capital to invest in its growth and development. In fact advertising programs tend to go first when cash is scarce. Unfortunate but understandable.  Its a necessary component required to support the projected sales and revenue projections but quickly dispensed with when cash gets tight.

Additionally, there is frequently inadequate dollars assigned to support advertising and marketing as the demand for cash for so many other good reasons is typically overwhelming and advertising support tends to dwindle in the face of inventory requirements or payroll.

Does public relations fit into the program? It should…

Its free, its powerful and it works very well if executed appropriately, either in support of a major marketing effort or standing on its own, but it is frequently overlooked. Here is how it works.

1. Write a press release about some interesting aspect of your business or service, and it cannot be about price nor can it sound like an advertisement. It cannot be completely self serving, there must be a human interest aspect to the story or it will not be printed.

If it is printed, it will serve to support your brand or companys’ name recognition.

A soft sell, as the story carries your name with it, and that’s the goal, that’s what counts.

This works best with local, and special interest newspapers or magazines, as they tend to have low budgets and few writers or reporters and thus they appreciate and use quality space fillers, local news stories that have local special interest attraction for the community, a human interest story.

There are also many coupon books and other high distribution advertising pieces that print news releases about local businesses especially if supplied and well written.

You can get significant coverage at no cost and its quality coverage.

2. A similar approach but possibly even more self directed can be sent to local, regional and national trade magazines which your product or services are included within.

This approach of course should carry more of a wholesale message, business to business,  while the public press release should carry more of a consumer message.

Both work very well, if properly written.

Sometimes purchasing a small add will help grease the way for a press release to be printed if it is reasonably written.

Sometimes you need to send two or  three or four releases, all being rejected but eventually your fourth or fifth one will be printed and it will be well worth the effort and wait, as the results can sometimes be stunning.

Public relations, in this case press  releases,  should be part of a larger advertising and marketing plan because it works very well and even if the cash has run out, this part of the plan can operate without cash expenditure so it is a very valuable strategy.

If you have a reasonable web site, add your press release to it so it can be read by web visitors, if you do not have a web site, get one as soon as possible, then add your press releases to it.

E-mail a news letter, with your press release in it, to your mailing list. Purchase email services that will blast your article, or press release, or newsletter to a large unknown e-mail list…trying to drive them to the web site and possibly to become inquiries for services.

Do not forget public relations, write a public interest article in support of your advertising and marketing program, (even if you do not have one)  and get it published.

As Will Rogers said,

“… it must be true, I read it in the newspaper”.

Call me for help 413-549-2966.