What is PR? Public Relations is a very important aspect of marketing that a lot of new entrepreneurs overlook. They invest a fortune on good advertising while being completely oblivious to the power of PR. PR is said to be one of the most effective tools for marketing and plays a huge role in the growth of your business. Often, all that it takes for a business to flourish or perish is good and bad PR. A recent example is how Coca Cola faced a 4 billion dollar loss and all it took is a simple gesture by Cristiano Ronaldo. He replaced the Coke bottles with a bottle of water and there goes 4 billion dollars. This is an example of bad PR and you don’t want it.
Check out these tips new entrepreneurs should know about PR.
1. Public relations VS Advertisement.
Advertisements are a paid means of communicating to the world about your business while A PR campaign, on the other hand, is a free of cost ‘natural’ communication between a business and its audience to build awareness. PR is often created by an external source that we didn’t hire. When a business makes a sponsored post on instagram, it’s advertisement whereas, when a celebrity uses a product and gives a genuine positive opinion on it, that’s PR. An unpaid feature in a magazine, newspaper, or a talk show counts as PR.
2. Power of good PR
One of the most important things about a good PR campaign is that it helps people understand the true essence of your business. They wouldn’t want to trust your word about the product because you would not talk bad about your own brand. But when it comes from an external source, it feels genuine and believable. Consistency in this type of PR helps build a reputation for your brand. Without consistency, customers find it hard to trust what your brand represents.
3. Patience is Key
New entrepreneurs often compare their business with similar brands which are established and have been in the business for a while. This makes them impatient. PR is not a phenomenon. It’s a gradual process that builds up over the course of time which is why consistency is important. Results are not going to be directly visible. But after a while, when you compare your current stage and the beginning stage, you start noticing the difference. Even if you don’t see a sudden jump in sales with PR, there will be a developed sense of credibility in your customers and that’s important.
4. Prepare yourself before a campaign.
This is a common mistake made by a lot of new entrepreneurs. Start with traditional advertisements and wait a while before doing a PR campaign. Because sometimes PR campaigns can be very effective and you will see a jump in sales, but before doing that you need to be sure that you can deliver according to the demand. Otherwise it becomes counterproductive. If you are not delivering adequately after getting the expectations high, customers may lose trust.
5. PR need not be expensive
Sometimes, small businesses look up to established companies and are tempted to hire a dedicated PR team for marketing. This is not necessary while you are still at the beginning stages. You could consult a PR consultant and work with them to plan out a campaign. Start making contacts with media people and get them to feature you. In the beginning, this is pretty much all you need.
