If you are an entrepreneur trying to grow your business venture, you’ve probably felt that the bigger companies you come up against often seem to have the edge. You see their ads on TV, find quotes from their executives in magazines and news articles and watch their ads scroll by on the search engines too. It’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed as you contemplate how you can make the most of your marketing dollars and extend your presence and reach.
When you spend some time doing an in-depth dive into how the bigger players do it, you find that they leverage assets that smaller businesses seldom take advantage of. One of the marketing tools they are likely to use is a public relations (PR) firm. PR agencies help clients get the message out and specialize in creating unique and powerful marketing campaigns.
Create Powerful Social Media Campaign Concepts
In today’s world, one of the best ways to reach potential customers is through social media. As a first step, you should meet with your public relations expert so they can get to know your business goals and objectives, and can come to truly understand the magic and key factors that make your firm stand out from the rest.
From there, your PR specialist can come up with a creative social media campaign that will get your message out to potential customers. Best of all, with each social media launch, you have the chance that your message, graphics and content could go viral. If that happens, you’ll have hit gold and your growth in brand recognition and prospects could be exponential.
Leverage Media Contacts and Pitch Story Ideas
Another key benefit that a public relations firm can bring to the table is their Rolodex of media contacts and their insider connections with people in TV, radio and print media. Seeing a PR agency work this process is quite amazing, actually. They’ll come up with a compelling story line and then contact the perfect media outlet or newspaper writer or editor to pitch the story idea.
If the publication or media group agrees to do the follow-on story, exposure could number in the tens or hundreds of thousands of people. I once heard a cardiologist tell a fellow doctor that he had been working to get information out about heart health to his patients for years. He estimated he might have reached two thousand people thus far. To get the message out even more, he got placed on an afternoon health show and did a long segment that had 600,000 viewers. That is the power of PR.
Internet Placement That Broadens Your Reach
In addition to social media campaigns, your public relations firm can also work to get you placement that broadens your reach on the Internet. Being interviewed as an expert or writing the perfect blog post for a well-known website can boost your presence and increase the traffic back to your site.
When you are featured on a site, you gain credibility with the search engines and with potential prospects and existing customers too. A great PR agency can come up with strategies that put you front and center with the audience you are targeting. When potential customers see you on well-regarded sites, it builds their confidence and trust in you and your company.