Publicity and Your Small Business

patrysha | Jan 28, 2010 | 0 comments

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As a small business owner, you don’t have to pursue publicity, but if you like the idea of being seen as a leader and an expert in your community and you can live with the idea of having your paid advertising seen as more authoritative because they recall you from the news or editorial section – then you’d be highly advised to consider it.

You see publicity is much more than just the equivalent of ad space, it’s a perceived endorsement of your business. You know how word of mouth and personal referrals are your most important (and economical) means of generating new business, well publicity is the next best thing and just as economical.

It doesn’t matter what type of business you own, you can find at least one compelling story to share with the media through every month of the year at the very least. And that’s all it really takes to build up a seasonal publicity system that keeps building your name up within your community through repetition and consistency.

Yes, you’ll need either a good public relations consultant or be willing to put in a little learning time and elbow grease in order to pull it all together, but either option offers a higher potential return on investment than most small business marketing options.

Most independently owned small businesses can’t stretch their budget beyond Yellow Pages (which are eroding in effectiveness), a few newspaper ads and a couple of small radio campaigns each year. With publicity you can increase the odds of your customers being reminded of your business even when you can’t afford the advertising rates. In fact, publicity is one way a small business can gain enough leverage to afford those advertising rates.

Just think of the impact one piece of coverage could potentially have on your business. Let’s say you decide to co-sponsor a fundraiser for a local charity organization that is somehow related to your business or that you have a personal connection to. You’ll have an opportunity to send at least three press releases to promote, invite and follow up by hosting such an event and by tying into a non-profit cause, you’re more likely to gain attention.

In a typical small to medium sized town this sort of event should generate at least a summary in the events calendar and could lead to as much as a half page story depending on the timing and uniqueness of your event. In a larger city, you may need to cooperate with other businesses to create a bigger event to attract attention if you do not have a large enough budget to expand into a larger event on your own. In addition to print coverage, you may be able to generate radio and potentially television coverage.

The investment in hosting an event (or any of the other guerrilla style tactics that you can implement to create a newsworthy story) will only cost a fraction of what the advertising costs would be for that kind of coverage.

When a full page ad in a small town weekly newspaper can cost more than $500, and an ad campaign that mimics typical news coverage of a local story would cost another $1000, it’s easy to see how publicity can save you money and make you look good within the community. When you establish yourself as a generous expert, it can only reflect well on your business brand and image within your community.

But you don’t even have to start with big events to get started, there are a number of even less expensive strategies if your business needs time to build up to larger coverage. One of the best things about publicity is that it truly can be custom sized to fit the the budget of any business. The more resources you have, the more refined the tools that you will have at your disposal, but the basics can be adapted by anyone with the desire to learn.

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