How a Good PR Strategy Can Make All the Difference for Small Businesses
Finding the best PR opportunities for your small businesses has never been more important. As a female entrepreneur, there’s a never-ending to-do list (both personally and professionally!) so implementing a successful PR strategy can make all the difference between your clients finding you and not. Whether you’re adopting a “DIY PR” approach, or if you want to look into investing in PR advice from a marketing agency, here are our tried-and tested tips to make sure your PR strategy is working for you and your small business.
PR Tips for Female entrepreneurs and small business owners
Approach journalists and editors to pitch your idea to
Finding editors or PR opportunities has never been simpler in some ways. Thanks to the power of social media and digital PR strategies, journalists are now connected with people from all walks of life who can provide expert insights, share their own stories or appear in articles/on the news. How can you find PR opportunities for your small business? Here are our 3 favourite ways:
Search for PR opportunities online
Use the #journorequest on X (formerly Twitter) to see who journalists are looking for. Using #journorequest is a great way to get media coverage for your business, but also insist on them including your social media handles and/or websites. The benefit of them linking to your website from their high-performing websites are that it will help to boost your SEO performance too! Read more about simple SEO hacks for small business owners here.
Pitch to your favourite magazines for PR opportunities
Whether it’s a print or digital magazine, there are publications for every single industry. If you’re reading something regularly to keep up to date, or for personal interest and think you have something useful to share - approach them and pitch your idea! You can often find contact details for editors or contributions in magazines, but even if you can’t find an email in the magazine, approach them on X or LinkedIn!
Two publications that accept submissions frequently are Breathe and Talented Ladies Club. Breathe is a wellness magazine, always on the lookout for talented contributors, and Talented Ladies Club would be perfect to pitch to if you’re in business services.
Collaborate with other businesses to boost your PR
If you’re a product-based industry, see if you can gift items for goody bags at an exclusive event that would suit your niche. If you’re a service-based industry, see if there are events that you can speak at or podcasts you can appear on. Talking at a conference or appearing on a podcast can open your business to whole new audiences if you get it right- find out how to here. Collaborations can be a super power when you’re a small business, especially if you typically work by yourself.
strategic business networking for pr opportunities
At Your AJency, we’ve spoken on multiple occasions about the power of networking. It’s something that I’ve intentionally done over the last 12-18 months to grow my business and I’ve really seen the benefits of in-person and virtual networking events. Think about the types of spaces you’re appearing in. Whether it’s on a personal or professional level, there are always opportunities to network and showcase what you do. This is also one of the reasons we say a professional looking website and social media presence are so important. You can share them as your “modern-day business card” if people you meet want to find out more.
Leverage sales from PR Opportunities and media coverage
Once you’ve secured PR coverage for your small business, make sure you make the most of it and leverage sales from it! In any coverage you get, make sure your business website, social media etc is linked and people know how to get in touch with you!
Equally, if you’ve appeared in the press or at events, have a section on your site and in your social media content where you talk about your appearances! It will boost your reputation and credibility as an expert in your field, and can be a big factor in decision-making from clients!
Make multiple pieces of content from PR coverage
Whilst you can’t always just duplicate content and expect it to perform well, repurposing content, especially if it’s helped you with a PR opportunity, can save you time and effort whilst maintaining great content for your audience. If you’re in a print magazine, take photos of you with the article to post on stories, shoot some b-roll video of you reading it to post as a reel and if you’ve contributed to a digital publication, make sure you share the link to the article! Having a good pr opportunity for your business doesn’t have to stop just there, it can go on to provide you with new content! Learn more about repurposing your content to save you time here.
Remember PR Opportunities are a chance to start a conversation.
I’ve pitched to companies multiple times and even though the pitches haven’t come through yet, I’m now on PR lists and more likely to come into thought when they’re next looking for someone. A ‘no’ isn’t always a ‘no’ forever so don’t feel like you’ve failed if your pitches don’t get picked up on the first time! Consistently showing up and looking for PR opportunities means that at some point, your expertise will be needed and you’ll get the great coverage you deserve!
Want more actionable and practical tips that you can use everyday in your small business delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up to Pep Talk - the Your AJency email that promises to deliver insights from industry experts, inspiring stories from female business owners and tips that can get you seen by the right audience. And the best part…. it’s totally FREE!
