I meet so many entrepreneurs who are slogging away day after day, creating awesome products and services and are not shouting about them. As entrepreneurs we can’t be good at everything, some of my clients are complete introverts and some are just too busy to be shouting about their awesomeness. However, getting our voices heard is a fantastic way of getting our ideal clients coming to us, rather than having to persuade someone who is reluctant to buy.

PR is just one tool in a full bag of marketing tactics so why is it a key tool for entrepreneurs?

PR, or more accurately media relations, is the art of getting your key messages, your brand, your biz and you into traditional media. It is very cost-effective way of promoting your brand compared to events, advertising and merchandise, for example.

Coming up with a bit of a PR strategy is like sprinkling some fairy dust on your biz*. Suddenly your peers take you that bit more seriously, competitors start to get worried and wonder how you got that piece in SMH and potential clients and partners start coming to you.

Here’s why:

Social proofing 

Getting trusted sources talking about you escalates you from a nobody to a somebody. We’ve seen doors that were previously shut, magically open as clients appear in the media. With niche areas you may even become a go-to source for a journalist who is keen to have a spokesperson on your specific area.

The power of recommendation 

As soon as you have a trusted source recommend your service a potential customer’s buying resistance automatically decreases. Traditional media is a trusted source of information. Unlike advertising, editorial is written by a journalist not the company themselves, automatically giving the reader/listener/viewer confidence that you are a reputable company.

Increasing your SEO ranking 

We’re all scrabbling around trying to improve our SEO ranking, to again, get customers coming to us, rather than us having to pursue. Getting high volume, respected websites talking, and more importantly, linking to your biz is going to up your Google ranking in no time.

Growing your tribe  

By selecting the media you would like to appear in, based upon your ideal client, you can leverage your reputation your target market. From increasing your email opt-ins to Facebook likes, web hits to engagement, these are great ways of increasing your profile and exhibiting your expertise to your ideal clients.

In PR we often measure impact of our campaigns by how much it would cost to buy advertising on TV or print, for example. Advertising equivalents equate to tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of coverage, a little dabble in PR here and there not only wins you new clients but confirms with current clients they’re investing in the right business.

*I have been watching far too many fairy movies recently I think!