3 PR Hacks for Your Small Business

PR is one of the best tools a small business has in its toolkit. It's knowing how to earn it that's the key. We wanted to share three hacks in PR that have worked for us, and how marketing and PR has helped our business to sell.

PR Hack 1: Write About What's Hot

Let's face it. Small business doesn't have the newsworthiness of larger organizations. Neither can we afford a large PR budget or firm to track trends and pitch stories to reporters. So, we have to find what's hot in the media and build a bridge to what we do.

A small business example

Let's say we are looking for topics about small business about which to write. We could head to Google Trends and search Small Business as a topic.

First, we see that interest in the topic has waned from it peak in March:

Second, we would see that interest is high in our market, so local New York State media outlets might be looking for stories. While New York as a state didn't look different from the total US trend above, we did see different regional interest levels. As the size of the city decreased, so did the interest in small business.

That's an important observation, which could drive your PR strategy. If this observation held true, then you would want to target the large metro regions across the country.

PR Hack 2: Know What Your Outlet Wants

You can write the best pitch in the world, but if the outlet or journalist doesn't cover that topic, you're out of luck. So, what can you do?'

First, set-up a Google Alert for your main area of expertise. For us, it's Small Business. Not a ton of reporters and outlets cover small business, so it's easy to make a list of journalists and outlets that specialize in our segment. Read your daily alerts. See what writers cover.'

Second, if they write something about your topic, send them a comment. Share something useful. When we found a journalist, who wrote a great piece about gig-workers, we sent a comment to her. We praised her work, and we offered her a different lens from which to see it. That was the small business perspective. She liked so much that she added our comment in a blog post, and now, we are connected on LinkedIn.

PR Hack 3: Make an Editorial Calendar

We just told you to follow what's hot and comment on current events. If we are constantly trend scouting, you might ask should you bother with an editorial calendar? The answer is yes. While not as powerful as it once was, most media outlets have a planned calendar. If you have a shortlist of media outlets, you can always reach out to them to ask for their editorial calendar. This way, you at least have a heads-up on what they will be covering, so you can content ready.

Unfortunately,  you need to be prepared for both guerilla tactics and pre-planned content if you want to be heard. But hopefully these three PR Hacks will be enough for you

At ProStrategix, we know you have concerns.  We're designed to help give you the marketing support you need so you can focus on doing what you love.  If you would like to learn about how we might be able to help you, please contact us.