Small Business PR: 3 Tips for Getting Media Publicity
Episode 40 of Landscape Digital Show reveals 3 small business PR tips for reaching a larger audience with media publicity.
How many buyers can your business help that are not aware of its existence? Probably hundreds, if not thousands. This is the opportunity of media publicity.
As you know, marketing is a process of getting buyers to know, like and trust you and your business. So, the first step is helping them get to know you.
One way to reach these potential buyers is by getting other media companies to help you tell your story. And let’s be clear about one thing. You are a media company too, and thinking and acting like one will enhance your media.
The truth is we all create media and need to think about owning the fact that the most important media we have is what we create, because if we do that right we own it too.
This is your website, your blog, email newsletter, and your hosted podcast or video series if you are doing that too.
The challenge is driving traffic to your owned media properties from platforms that have a much larger reach.
This will include print or digital newspapers, magazines and blogs that have a theme or purpose that aligns with your company and its media. For example, local newspapers are looking for local news. This is an opportunity if you are a local business.
You want to be making a list of media companies that can help you get your story out there to build your brand, and start building relationships with its editors and freelance writers.
3 Ideas for Getting Media Publicity
#1 – Your Backstory
Successful small business PR is often about the backstory. It’s not so much that you are successful in your business but why.
If you are pitching a general landscaping magazine your backstory is why you decided on a career in the landscaping industry, and maybe the challenges you overcame to succeed once you were in it.
You have layers of backstory about how you created beautiful outcomes for your customers. That’s the kind of story that you need to include in your PR message because it’s uniquely you, and that differentiates your business.
#2 – Community Service
Another great source of PR ideas are community service projects. This is especially relevant for local newspapers that exist to keep a local community informed about happenings that are under the radar of their larger regional counterparts.
#3 – Unusual Business Practices
Often this is something personal.
For example, when I owned my landscaping business I was also a certified meditation instructor who taught meditation classes on weekends. Teaching meditation was a business, but my true purpose was sharing what proved invaluable in helping me balance the many stresses of running a seasonal business.
In response to a press release, one of the local newspapers wrote a feature article about how meditation can be a job benefit. It helps your focus, keeps you balanced, and enhances creativity and productivity.
That article was free publicity for both my landscaping and meditation instruction businesses. Most important is that the unique intersection of the two disciplines was memorable for the respective buyers of each service.
Show Notes
- Today small business PR and marketing is less about the stuff you sell and more about how and why you do it. Remember that and you will be sure to get your share of media publicity.
- Never miss an episode. Subscribe to Landscape Digital Show on iTunes.
- And if you are on Facebook, please like the Landscape Digital Institute page. I’ll greatly appreciate that!
Call to Action
The call to action for this episode is to write out your back story, those unique circumstances that describe how you got here and why you do what you do. List your community service activities and any special stories associated with them.
And finally, consider what else there might be about you or a key team member that distinguishes your business in a way that is newsworthy.
If you have questions on this, hit reply to any of my emails or use the contact form at Landscape Digital Institute and I will do my best to help you out. Thanks for listening.
