PR: THE BASICS

What are the benefits of PR? What are our 3 rules for unlocking PR? Here we share our thoughts.

Why bother to ‘PR’ your brand?

  • Social Proof / Credibility

    Credibility or ‘gravitas’ (as a few posh PRs call it) feeds that need for potential customers to see ‘social proof’ and to build trust.

    According to a 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report “81% [of consumers] say trust impacts their purchasing decisions” so it’s important to build trust with your potential customers.

    Getting featured in trusted, well-known publications helps you build that trust and trust means more sales.

    It can propel you as a thought leader or herald your product / service as the must-have or must-try.

    Once you have these articles, pepper your socials and website with them – shout them from the rooftops: “[insert fancy publication name here] loves us”. It will go a long way.

  • SEO

    One of the most powerful benefits of PR is a boost to your SEO. In a nutshell, SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation) is the activity of appearing first on search engines when your key words (such as your service / product type, brand name and/or location are typed in).

    The higher up you are, the more people will click onto your website.

    When you get an article online, you may get a backlink to your website. When search engines see you have backlinks from websites they like (such as online publications) that gives you a boost and you’ll appear higher up the list.

    How much a website is liked is called your ‘Domain Authority (DA) rating’ and you’re rated from 1-100 (100 being the best rating).

    You can find out yours (and others) here: https://moz.com/domain-analysis.

    To give you an idea of the Domain Authorities of publications, as of 2023:

    Daily Mail – 94

    The Sun – 94

    The Telegraph – 94

    The Metro – 93

    Huffington Post – 90

    Yahoo – 78

    The Express – 76

    Backlinks from these websites will boost your own Domain Authority.

    There are tons of other SEO activities you can do (such as working on meta tags on your website or writing blogs) but backlinks are the most powerful way to up the ante.

    Some Digital PR and SEO agencies charge £1,000s for backlinks – don’t do it.

  • Brand Awareness

    This is a classic reason for doing PR but as many small businesses tend to focus on it over the other two, we purposefully put it third to highlight the greater importance of credibility and SEO.

    The idea of brand awareness is a simple one – you want your target market to know you exist (and then you want to keep reminding them).

    Most publications have media packs (usually available on their website) which will document who their reader is. It’s then just a case of targeting those publications.

    For example, if your target market is 25-34-year-old women with a disposal income, you might want to be in Cosmopolitan Magazine.

  • Enquiries & Sales

    Let’s be honest, unless you’re a complete narcissist (no judgements) then you’re marketing your brand to earn money.

    Usually, PR doesn’t result in immediate readies unless you’re promoting a new product, service or event and you’ve ‘unlockd’ a mainstream article or two.

    But over time, all that social proof, brand awareness and SEO you’re banking will pay dividends.

    You’ll see website traffic increase, social media following & engagement go up, enquiries flood in and sales figures multiple.

OUR 3 GOLDEN RULES FOR PR

  • No One Cares

    This is a harsh one and it usually shocks people when we say it and we understand why.

    As small business owners, our businesses are our babies – they are a culmination of our passion, blood, sweat and tears. For many of us, it is / was a huge risk and it plays a major part of our lives. We are probably also dedicating 60+ hours a week to it too (and have for a while).

    You probably can’t stop thinking about your business – in the shower, on the commute, on holiday; and you probably can’t stop talking about it to anyone who will listen (my family, friends and taxi drivers just glaze over at this point).

    For us – our businesses are a huge deal.

    But the press doesn’t care about that.

    When you email a journalist, you’re one of hundreds of emails they received that day, from business owners just like you.

    Yes your product or service might be the best on the market – the cheapest, the best quality, you give the best customer service. But they don’t care.

    They have an inbox flooded with emails, they have 10 articles to write today and their editor is breathing down their neck.

    Leave your ego at the door and remember, they don’t care.

    It’s your job to get them to care – to give them what they want – and that’s where rule 2 comes in…

  • PR Is An Exchange

    This rule is the most important one and one that is ignored by most brands and PRs alike (which is the main reason so much time and money is wasted on fruitless PR stunts and campaigns).

    PR is an exchange.

    Journalists want - no, they need - content:

    Stories, expert comments, products / services / events to feature.

    Give them what they need and in exchange, you’ll get some nice promotional for your brand.

    As an agency founded by an ex-journalist, this approach is why we deliver so many articles each month.

    (Journalists like freebies too).

  • PR Is A Journey Not A Destination

    This means two things to us.

    Firstly, as we’ve already mentioned, one article isn’t going to transform your business (if it was that easy PRs wouldn’t exist – and we’d have retired by now). PR is a long-term activity where the results grow exponentially.

    Secondly, you can’t stick to one strategy for your PR.

    Sometimes you’ll try something and it’s a flop; sometimes you’ll try something and it’s great and then it stops working. It can be a lot of trial and error – don’t get complacent and don’t give up…