101 Newsletter Answers

Using The Power Of Newsletters To Communicate

http://www.101newsletteranswers.com

April 21, 2008

Using PR In Small Business (1)

Using Imagination

PR is the most widely misunderstood side of marketing. It tends to be associated with spin-doctors whose job is to gloss over dubious corporate or government schemes. I prefer to think of it as representing the word PRomotions rather than an acronym for Public Relations. It sounds much more like the vital activity it should be. Few would argue against the case for promoting their business but look upon PR as an unnecessary luxury that just costs money—and one that only the larger 'name brands' can afford. In fact, in the case of small businesses, it means something very different.

Creative Thinking

Imaginative PR requires creative thinking, which is why some busy readers might find 101 Newsletter Answers particularly useful. No-one else can do your thinking for you, of course, but hopefully it might sometimes succeed in pointing you in the right direction. Maybe sometimes it will inspire you to come up with your own original ideas whereas at other times you might find that you can adapt something suggested there to fit your own circumstances.

Marketing Power

Why is PR so important for small businesses? PR campaigns, of course, should be part of a long-term strategy, so assuming you are in for the 'long haul', what advantages can be gained? And where do newsletters fit in the picture? Study the possibilities and the answer becomes clear. There are 3 'payoff' factors that give well-planned newsletters incredible power as marketing tools:

1. They demonstrate expertise.
2. They establish credibility.
3. They engender loyalty.

These are priceless assets that many big companies would kill for (as the expression goes). They spend millions trying to associate the first two of these properties with their company's image by means of their name, their logo, their advertising jingles, etc. They want to be seen as 'the authority' in their field and they know that these two attributes can lead to that perception. They spend millions more trying to achieve the third item in the list by 'good citizen' ploys like Ronald Macdonald, supporting good causes through sponsorships, etc. They desperately want to be seen as a 'caring corporate citizen' because that leads to the most elusive and valuable asset of all: customer loyalty. Rarely, if ever though, do they achieve complete success.

Small Is Good

Their size works against them. People don't credit a company with expertise if their dealings are always with the lowest and most inexperienced minions. They don't consider hollow-sounding canned responses by Customer Service staff—which are meant to project a caring attitude—to be credible. As for winning customer loyalty, the more attempts that large corporations make to win repeat business from customers, the more cynical people become (think of Microsoft).

Contrary to most areas where small businesses compete with their larger cousins, this is one that small businesses should find easy and win every time. The irony is that they hardly ever try. Today's 'name brand' companies were once small concerns like theirs. So what did they have, what was that something extra, that allowed them to grow into giants? Of course, it would be an exaggeration to say that an understanding of the importance of PR is all that singled them out but, make no mistake, it would almost always have been a major factor. Good PR, for a small business, can sometimes be the most effective promotional activity, at the same time as being the least expensive. In fact, in dollar terms, it often costs nothing at all.

Make Your Input Count

You need to look around your local community (or your 'marketing area', if yours is not a 'local' business) for whatever opportunities there are for your input. And input doesn't mean pulling out your wallet. In fact, I would advise making it a golden rule at the outset never to make any monetary contributions at all unless you can measure a return on your investment. Such a rule makes it easier for you to respond when faced with a plea for a financial contribution. Rather than an embarrassed "Er, how much should I put in?" or something similarly weak, how much better to be able to say "Sorry, I have an unbreakable rule about giving money away but is there some other way I can help?"

Better still, suggest how you might help. If, for example, your business is electronic audio equipment and, let's say, the event would obviously require a sound system of some sort, then suggest that they take advantage of your expertise in that area. If you considered it worthwhile you could go even further and supply the system at cost etc. You then become the official advisor or supplier or whatever and get credited accordingly.

Using Your Newsletter As A Service

If you have your own regular newsletter (and if you are a business supplying products or services within your local area, you certainly should have) then you could do the same even if your particular area of expertise is not appropriate for the event. You could offer to use your newsletter to publicize the event for them, include a 'write-up' about one or two of the major participants, run a background story in the coinciding edition etc. (Why not, as a community service, run a Coming Events column in every issue?) You might even suggest appointing yourself as Publicity Officer or Media Liaison Officer. On the big day, you could be the local radio co-announcer.

Linking To Events

The first thing to do is to make sure that your calendar includes all planned events in your community as far ahead as you can find out about them. These should include sporting fixtures, local clubs and associations events, charity benefits, schools and youth organizations, church festivals etc. When you know what is planned, you can look at them with an eye to your own involvement. You don't have to embroil yourself in every one, nor do you have to sacrifice a whole day to every one you do. Think in terms of your business, how you might link it to the event and how you might generate some publicity, preferably for both the event and your business.

[Continued... How To Use PR In A Small Business (2)]

© 1999 Mike Alexander (Revised 2003)

 

Permission to publish this article is granted at no charge provided it remains unaltered including the author's 'bio' (shown immediately above this).  To receive a plain text version, send a message from your regular email address to <archives> (without the brackets) at the domain <101newsletteranswers.com>. In the Subject field, put <arciv02> if you would like it formatted to 60 characters a line plus underlined headings etc, or <uarciv02> if you would prefer a 'ready-to-format' version with no line breaks. Whenever possible, the author would also appreciate an electronic copy of the publication in which it appeared. Please send any such messages to <articleinc> at the domain <101newsletteranswers.com> with the ezine or website title as the message Subject. To return to where you came from, close this window or use the menu bar at the bottom of the page.

Important Email Information

To lessen the chances of email addresses falling prey to address harvesting software (as used by spammers) we avoid showing them in full. Instead, we only show prefixes (what comes before '@'). Please be sure to add the @ and (usually) 101newsletteranswers.com.

Subscribe To Our Ezine