Most small business owners do not pay sufficient attention to public and community relations. As a result they miss out on the great opportunity to improve sales and build business brand value at low cost. Instead they are focused on marketing and advertising that cost substantial amount of money. While there are number of differences between marketing and public relations, in the simplest form, marketing can be viewed as “in your face” way of putting your business in front of customers; while publicity is a more subtle approach that doesn’t cost much and can bring equally compelling results.
Why is it important to focus your efforts on publicity in addition to traditional marketing?
Publicity delivers same benefits as marketing at a lower cost. In addition, it builds a long lasting positive impression about your business in the minds of customers thereby increasing your sales and brand value. Some of the benefits provided by a successful publicity program include:
- It creates a positive buzz about your business in the community.
- It costs much less to do PR compared to traditional marketing.
- It builds a long-term brand value for your business.
- It positions you as an expert in the community.
- It improves sales – both in the short-term and long-term.
Now that I have convinced you that publicity is good for your business (and free publicity is even better); how do you go about it? Here are some of the approaches that have worked for many small business owners.
- Social Media – Free tools such as Facebook and Twitter are go-to place for many customers these days. If your business does not have presence on these sites you are missing a great opportunity to get in front of customers at low cost. In an earlier post, we showed why your business needs to have Internet presence.
- Word of Mouth – Nothing brings more customers to your business than word-of-mouth recommendation from your existing customers. Of course, you have to provide excellent customer experience to your existing customers for them to recommend your business to their friends and families You also need to help them spread the word about your business that will help you. Some of ways you can do it is by having a web site where customers can send email to their friends, have a Facebook “recommend” button, provide coupon they can pass to their friends and so on. Look at this post to get more details on how you can ask customers to do marketing of your business.
- Community Involvement – Are you participating in events in the community you operate in? Are you sponsoring any of them? If you are not participating or sponsoring at least some of the events in your community your business will not be viewed out as good citizen that gives back to the community. We showed some the ways you can increase community involvement for your business.
- Free workshops – If your business is considered an expert in a particular area (e.g. accounting, insurance) you can provide a free workshop / talk in local library or chamber of commerce. It not only brings potential customers to you; but also it positions you as an expert in their mind.
Next time you run a marketing / advertising campaign think about how you can use some these publicity techniques to boost your sales with lower cost.
Do you agree with our assessment? What else would you recommend for the publicity techniques?
