Where To Start With PR If You’re A Small Business

"What’s the first thing you should do, if you’re a small business and want to get started with some PR?"

Someone asked me this this week.

It sounds like an easy question to answer. But starting to earn press coverage, or gain traction with an influencer community if you’re a small business, requires a lot of thought if you want to avoid wasting precious time and money. You need to ensure you’re ready with the right story, at the right time, and that it lands with the right audience.

So before I could answer the question, I needed to ask a lot of other questions to that small business first, such as:

1. Why did you start your business?

2. What does your business do or offer, that is unique or different to others in your industry? Why do your customers come to you?

3. What do you want to be known for?

4. Do you know who your customers are? What do they have in common? What are they influenced by? What do they read or scroll through? Where do they spend their time?

5. What do you stand for? What are your values? How do you do what you're doing?

6. What are your business goals and objectives?

It might sound like a lot of questions, but getting clear on the fundamentals is critical to consistent communications. Often, small businesses know the answers to some of those questions, but rarely all of them, and it’s common not to have formalised it before.

What answering these questions really does, is build some of the foundation for your brand’s positioning. Answering these questions clearly and succinctly ensures you to thoroughly know who you are. It's the DNA of your business. It really is the most important exercise you can do.

Only when you have your positioning clear, can you, or an external consultant or new team member, move to the next stage — building your marketing and communications strategy, PR plans and tactics — in a way that both easily flows, and that will add genuine value to your business. It will ensure you're more efficient, and more effective.

A clear brand positioning helps decision making too. It allows you to clearly see what you should say yes to, and perhaps even more importantly, what you should say no to.

So, what’s the first thing you should do if you’re a small business and want to get started in PR? Build your brand positioning deck. Know yourself and your customer first. Build from there.

To find out how I could help you create a brand positioning and communications strategy that grows your business, book in a free call with me here by clicking this link.