PR for small businesses generally involves getting the word out about what you do. You don’t need to spend money on PR as it is all about providing a story for people to write about. Hopefully your story will inspire them to write about you, and then before you know it you’ll be featured in all the best blogs, magazines and newspapers resulting in more sales.

What’s your story?

In order to entice the media to write about you, they will expect a great story that their readers will resonate with. Think about why these people should write about you. What is it that makes your business different?

Cultivate your media list

Once you know your story you can start to cultivate your own personal media list. Your media list will contain contact details of all the blogs, newspapers, magazines and radio stations that you wish to contact about your business.

Submit- the right way

Depending on who you are pitching to you will have to follow their submission guidelines. Most blogs now have submission information on their site and newspapers and magazines will also have the relevant information available so you need to follow their directions.

Monitor response and evaluate

Keep track of who you submit to, replies and outcome. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear back immediately. Editors are busy people and won’t always be able to reply straight away. Instead focus on cultivating that list. You should always be adding to it and thinking of new places that may be interested in featuring your story.

Pitch well in advance

Pitch well ahead of time. Most magazines work two to six months ahead of the calendar so they may be working on their holiday guides as early as June. If you are sending samples you may need to send them out months before the shoot then you may not get the product back until the month after that. So pitch well ahead of time and be sure you work this into your inventory needs ensuring it’s available at the right time. There is nothing worse than scrambling if the media needs something overnighted for a shoot.

It can take time to see results from your PR efforts and it is something that needs to be sustained over a period of time to get the best results.

Good Luck!