Lori Kelman

You’ve defined your primary target audience, have a budget and business strategy in place, and need to keep your business top of mind for your potential customers. Paid advertising is one way, but don’t ignore the power of public relations.

If you don’t pay a PR firm to handle it for you, creative PR efforts cost virtually nothing and can yield lasting results.

Public relations garners exposure for your business, product, or service through community events and media exposure.

The events don’t need to be flashy or elaborate, but should be strategically timed to put you in front of your target audience on a regular basis to foster an instant and long-lasting

impression.

PR defines your image and tells your story. It generates media coverage and can lead to greater social media exposure which establishes — and builds — credibility. PR positions you as an industry expert. It’s what launches your business forward, and continually sets the stage for greater profits and steady revenue streams.

PR also lets you construct your own narrative — the story you want to tell the way you want to tell it — and allows room for creativity to help distinguish you from the competition and make you memorable. PR enables you to connect with your target audience one-on-one to create a personal, lasting impression.

It gets your name out into the public and helps you build critical relationships to drive your business forward. PR humanizes your business so your narrative becomes relatable.

Here are several ways to start crafting a winning PR strategy:

— Identify your key differentiator in the marketplace and create a relevant and timely news story around that.

— Align with a well-established, high-profile nonprofit organization in your community, which enables you to share the limelight and piggyback on their marketing efforts (posters, broadcast/print ads, etc.). The benefit is not only effortless exposure for your business, but it achieves a “doing good” perception in the community.

— Get a calendar of events in your community and plan your PR campaigns to coincide with — or be part of — the events that generate the biggest crowds.

— Tailoring your PR efforts to best flatter your business, product, or service is key. This is where a PR professional can help.

No two PR strategies are alike, and it’s critical that yours brings out the very best in your business and positions you well for success. A failed PR campaign is worse than not having one at all. It can create an ugly first impression and can sour your target audience against you.

It doesn’t take long to turn your audience away or create a bad image in the community if your efforts don’t work in your favor.

Good PR is about getting on the map. It’s about finding your “niche,” generating a “buzz,” and creating a “wow.” Effective public relations revolves around the development of solid key messaging and thinking through the best ways to deliver the message.

Too many entrepreneurs and top-level business leaders “dive in” long before they are ready and — as a result — don’t achieve the results they want or need.

It all hinges on methodology; it simply cannot work without that forethought and planning. There are no short cuts.

So focus on the desired end result, and work backward on paper to figure out the best route to get there. It’s like creating a roadmap for success. Just like anything else, planning is imperative.

There’s nothing that feels better than creating a successful PR campaign for your business, and reaping the monetary rewards.