Creating the right image

The one person most interested in your business is probably …. you! And as much as you’d like to believe that what you do is of interest to the population at large, the truth is, it probably isn’t!

However, and regardless of our impressions, public relations is not just for publicity-conscious corporations, fading celebrities and desperate politicians. PR is also for you! You have a case to make. You want others to appreciate your point of view. You need your voice to be heard. You want people to know that you’re there!

You need PR!

But before you start talking to the press or local radio stations, it’s worth spending a little time in planning a campaign of action.

If you open a new office and let the local newspaper know, the subsequent press coverage may well be good. But, if you’re honest, what you would really prefer is quite simple – you’d like to secure more qualified prospects and sell more business. Anything else you can get from it is icing on the cake.

That’s why you should use PR to support your sales efforts – but don’t expect it to replace them.

So, consider your real objectives, for instance is it:

To raise your profile within your working community
To let people know where you are
To generate new customers
To increase sales
To tell prospects how to find you?

If public relations is to support these objectives, common sense says it must help to get coverage in your target media – be that in your local newspaper, appropriate trade publication or local radio station. It will then allow your prospects to form an opinion about you and your new products.

The problem is that many of us are too tied-up in our own world to really look objectively at our businesses and find a newsworthy story angle that could lead to free publicity. To do so, you need to be able to separate real news about your company from promotional puffery. You need to be able to deliver a sharp and contemporary news story that will be of genuine interest to the audience. And you need to be able to deliver this story in a professional, courteous way.
For instance, you may consider having your press releases checked over by a friendly journalist first – ask him if, in his opinion, the release is likely to be of interest to a local newspaper. The style of your press release is important. If the newspaper can use the words you have used it will save them having to re-write the story. And anything that can save them time will be welcomed.

When you design your public relations campaign, think about the news angles, develop your media materials and begin contacting the press or radio, always think:

"What can I do that will make this more useful to a journalist?"

That means you need to look at developing your story angles from their perspective, not your own. You need to step away from your business and view it as a reporter looking for an interesting story. Remember, he's looking for a story that will satisfy his editor and his readers or listeners. He's not interested in promoting you, only in crafting a story that will make readers stop and say "Now there's something I didn’t know."

If you're looking to raise the profile of your organisation, why not talk to the Marketing Manager? You can contact us here