As a small business owner, it’s likely you’re responsible for all your own marketing – not to mention IT, book-keeping, recruitment… the list goes on. By now you will have become a Jack (or Jackie) of all trades. But you may be new to PR – which, if you have things to shout about, can be a great way to raise awareness of what you do and, ultimately, build your business. If your business is doing great, newsworthy things, here are 5 top tips to help you secure press coverage and raise your profile locally and beyond.

1. Do your research

Spend time reading and getting to know the publications you plan to target. Think about their readership and circulation. Why might they be interested to carry a story about your business? What might interest the reader? It’s no use targeting an arts magazine with a story on web design, for example.

Establish what kind of stories they publish. Find out deadlines and ask for an editorial calendar, if available. Monthly titles often have a list of ‘forward features’ you can access.

Find out who to contact and the preferred method. It’s best not to bombard editors with phone calls when they’re close to deadline!

2. Compile a list or spreadsheet of useful media contacts

Once you’ve done your research, make sure you log all the details for future. You don’t want to waste time when you have a story to issue asap.

Don’t limit yourself to newspapers. Think about websites, blogs, magazines, newsletters, trade journals, local radio, or podcasts relevant to your industry. The wider the coverage the better.

3. Always question your news

Bear in mind that while your news is exciting to you, it might not be to the wider world. Simply being there and having a great product or service isn’t enough.

Ask yourself: is it new; is it a first; is it the biggest; is it quirky; does it affect change, or lots of people?

But it can generally be considered news if it falls into one of these categories.

Even better, can you tie it into a current event, hot debate, or time of year?

Business or financial publications love facts and figures. In fact, the more statistics you can give, the better.

Consider a survey, case study, or some small business advice, and try to tie it in with bigger news. In other words, make it topical.

4. Write a well-structured news release

Don’t worry if you’re not much of a writer because publications will often edit, change, or pen their own version of the story anyway.

Just include all the facts, a few well-structured paragraphs and a contact telephone number or email address.

The fundamentals to remember are the five Ws – who, what, why, where and when. These points should be covered in your first paragraph. Relay the most important information first and the editor will continue if interested.

Typically, news releases are crafted so they can be cut from the bottom up. For example, if your news release is 300 words but the paper only has space for 150, it should be written in such a way that the bottom paragraphs can be chopped without losing any of the relevant stuff.

If you can get creative and make your writing lively and appealing, all the better. Puns are a great way to start off a story but don’t get caught up in trying to be the next Piers Morgan. Just get the right information across at the right time.

Remember to include the main details in your headline, as well as the date and when the story is available to publish. You may want to submit your news release in advance of an event, for example. This allows the editor to plan ahead and allocate space in the publication. In this case, you would put an embargo on the release – e.g. ‘embargoed until Monday, 8 May, 2023’ or whenever you want the story to appear.

If there is no time restriction, you can simply add ‘for immediate release’.

It always looks more professional if your news release is in a Word document or pdf featuring your company details and logo. But be sure to copy and paste the content into the main body of the email too. Your story will be seen quicker and has less chance of being trashed unopened.

5. Consider images

Your story has more chance of being featured if there’s a great photo to go with it.

Most tablets and smart phones have relatively high-quality, which are ideal if there’s no budget for photography.

Just bear in mind that most print publications need high resolution images of at least 300dpi.

For more PR hints and tips, visit www.lyndahamiltonparker.link

GUEST BLOGGER AUTHOR:

LYNDA HAMILTON PARKER