When most people think about marketing, they think advertising. While advertising is a part of marketing, marketing is much bigger than advertising. There are lots of different marketing methods floating around out there, and
challenge as a business owner is figuring out when it's appropriate to use each one and best way to use it.Public relations, or PR, is art of getting someone else to write or talk about you or your business. Preferably in a favorable manner. Traditionally, "someone else" was media. In this day and age however, someone else can also be a blogger, a freelance writer, an e-zine publisher or even an owner of a big Web site. For purposes of this article, I'm using word "media" to refer to all of those folks.
PR is also being able to get yourself on a big talk show to talk about yourself or your business, or writing your own article that's published in a desired outlet. (Not your own newsletter or Web site.)
PR is one of my favorite marketing methods, but it can also be one of more frustrating ones. Even when you do everything right, you still might not get publicity you want. Or for that matter, ANY publicity at all. When a PR campaign doesn't work, you can find yourself wanting to pull out all your hair in frustration.
Even with that in mind, I do believe most if not all businesses can benefit from some type of PR campaign. But before you launch into something that could end with you becoming hairless (and investing in a sizeable hat collection) ask yourself following questions.
1. Do I need to see results right away? If you do, better pull out your wallet and pay for some advertising. PR takes time. And it's not guaranteed. You might not see your article for weeks, months or ever, and there isn't a darn thing you can do about it. If it's immediate gratification you want, don't look for it in a public relations campaign.
2. Do I have time to consistently devote to a public relations campaign? We're back to time issue. PR not only takes time to see results, but you also have to take time to make it happen. Either you have to do it or you have to pay someone else to do it. If you do it yourself, you'll have potential of garnering equivalent of thousands of dollars of advertising for little or no money. But it will cost you some time. If you pay someone else, you'll save time (which is a good thing, I'm a big believer in outsourcing) but it can get expensive. Worse yet, you STILL might not get any coverage for your money.
3. Do I have enough perseverance to run a PR campaign? PR is about follow-up. It's about sending story idea after story idea to same reporter before one finally connects (and maybe it's tenth one). It's about sending a little note or letter to same editor for as long as several years before you get a bite. It's about reminding your contacts you're out there until one day they realize they need you.
