DIY PR – Public Relations Guide for Small Business

Public relations is invaluable for small business success, allowing you to shape brand narratives, connect with customers, and drive growth. While hiring an agency has benefits, many entrepreneurial brands can spearhead PR themselves with some strategic planning. This guide explores DIY public relations tactics for small business owners seeking to boost their visibility and establish credibility.

Defining DIY Public Relations for Small Business

DIY PR means taking charge of your own media relationships and public messaging as a business. Rather than outsourcing PR, you control the narrative around your brand image and offerings. DIY PR requires effort but provides freedom in shaping your story. With the right strategy, small businesses can secure media coverage, amplify content, engage online audiences, and boost credibility through their own proactive efforts.

Why PR Matters

• Increased brand awareness – PR builds familiarity and trust through favorable media placements.
• Enhanced credibility – Earned media coverage adds authority that paid ads lack.
• Improved SEO – Media links and relevance boost website search rankings.
• Lead generation – PR creates inbound interest and sales opportunities.
• Cost-effective outreach – DIY PR provides affordable access to audiences.
• Control over messaging – You shape narratives around your brand.

Foundational PR Skills

Getting started with DIY PR first requires:

• Identifying your brand positioning and key messages you want to convey. Refine your differentiation.
• Writing press releases for product launches, location openings, partnerships, awards, etc. Distribute through PRWeb, PR Newswire.
• Building media lists targeting local news, industry trades, influencer blogs. Identify reporters by beat.
• Pitching story ideas via email to reporters. Follow up persistently. Establish yourself as a thought leader.
• Securing media placements in any coverage related to your business, expertise, or community.
• Media services like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) allow you to pitch yourself as an expert source to journalists seeking commentary or insights for their stories. You can sign up as an available source on HARO.
• Email outreach software like Buzzstream streamlines contacting reporters.
• Brand monitoring tools like Meltwater track media mentions, sentiment, rankings.

As an example, a boutique could announce the opening of a new store location via press release, pitch the story to local lifestyle reporters, and land a feature in the city’s weekly digest. Media placements build brand familiarity and trust.

Maximizing Media Exposure

Beyond press releases, DIY options to increase visibility include:

• Contributing guest articles to industry websites and publications. Display your expertise.
• Getting interviewed on relevant podcasts, radio segments and online programs. Share your story.
• Becoming a trusted source for reporters by making yourself available for quotes and commentary as a subject matter expert.
• Monitoring press mentions using Google Alerts. Repurpose content and promote media appearances through owned channels.

Online PR and Content Amplification

DIY PR extends into social media marketing, SEO optimization, and content creation. Tactics include:

• Launching a company blog to share insights, behind-the-scenes, and resources for your audience. Draw readers in with valuable material.
• Optimizing blog posts for keywords to improve search visibility. Link internally to pages to boost SEO.
• Engaging followers and industry influencers on social media by sharing company updates, curated content, and starting conversations.
• Managing online reviews by proactively responding to feedback and highlighting positive sentiments on your website and social accounts.
• Developing visual content like infographics, videos, and presentations to convey messages creatively on your website and social platforms.

Measuring Effectiveness

Track Public Relations efforts by:

• Setting goals for media placements, website traffic, leads generated, sales influenced.
• Monitoring website analytics like referring sites, organic visitors, pages per visit, time on site, and conversion rates.
• Assessing social media impressions, engagement rate, followers growth, clicks, etc.
• Using brand monitoring tools to analyze share of voice, sentiment, mentions.

Dedicated small businesses can absolutely execute DIY public relations successfully. With time and creativity, your owned channels and earned media from PR efforts will grow brand awareness, establish thought leadership, engage customers, and ultimately drive sales.