DIY PR
Added: (Mon Nov 09 2009)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
Don’t panic! Despite some murmurings about green shoots, there is still enough gloom out there to make the most confident of us feel overwhelmed at the prospect of keeping afloat. But whilst many businesses are adopting a slash and burn approach to cutting costs, the smart ones are spending the extra free time on their hands to address their PR and marketing.
If your customers don’t know who you are or what you do, how can they be expected to spend money with your business? So rather than battening down the hatches and waiting for the downturn to swing upwards, all of us need to be working harder to persuade that contracting pool of customers, wary about cost and needing reassurance about value, to spend their money with us and not our competitors.
“Uncertainty about the future kick starts a reaction in all of us to take control. We begin to question expenditure, trying to cut out as much as we can,” says Lindsay Complin of redyellowblue (www.redyellowblue.biz) which trains businesses to do their own PR and marketing successfully.
“Traditionally, PR and marketing heads this list of non-mission critical spending and it can seem an easy option remove it from the budget altogether. But it can be a vital ally and an important support to your company helping you ride economic challenges by driving customers to your door in the short and long term ensuring you pop out the other side with a healthy business and a huge boost to your confidence in your qualities as a leader.”
If you feel you truly cannot afford any financial investment in PR or marketing, at the very least you should invest some time. PR and marketing can be very straightforward but often inexperience and uncertainty means that business owners don’t consider having a crack at doing it themselves. And whilst many businesses will have responded to on-deadline calls from the local paper with amazing cut price advertising deals – this is not doing your own PR!
“Before you tell the world about your fabulous business you need to be clear about what you are saying and who is going to be interested in hearing it,” advises Lindsay.
Start by bringing some focus and clarity to your activity by answering some basic questions you may not have had the time to address for a long time:
What do you do? – sum up your core business
Who is buying it? – drill down to those customers who are spending the most with you or coming back regularly
What are your competitors doing? – understand what they do and how you are different
You will soon see some key areas on which to concentrate making it easier to draw up a list of activities which will add real value to your business by generating more customers.
“A little time spent on planning should make it easier to decide upon your PR activity and will give you the confidence to take it on yourself. Well thought out PR will really make the difference to your business. After all, if you aren’t going to tell your customers how great you are, who is?” adds Lindsay.
Lindsay Complin runs redyellowblue, a consultancy which trains small and medium businesses to do their own PR and marketing successfully, bringing clarity and focus to make every pound count (www.redyellowblue.biz). For regular, free PR and marketing advice visit the redyellowblue blog at http://redyellowblue-prmarketing.blogspot.com/