PR on a Budget
For any of you fellow entrepreneurs out there, I know the struggle of knowing the right things to invest in for your business.Should I invest in that paid mastermind?Can I hire a Virtual Assistant to help me?Is it time for me to go that conference?And while I obviously have a bias to investing in PR (I am a PR strategist ya know 😉) I realize that not every entrepreneur out there is at a point in their business where it makes sense to invest in done-for-you PR services.In today's blog post I'd like to share all the ways you can do PR on a budget.Everything mentioned in this post is either 1) completely free to do or 2) very minimal cost compared to investing in a done-for-you PR strategist.I think everyone can benefit from using PR as a strategy to grow their business so you have no excuse to not implement these tips!
PR On A Budget
PUT TOGETHER YOUR OWN STRATEGY
Despite it being totally worth it to invest in a publicist for your business, you can in fact, put together your PR strategy with a little help from yours truly :)Here's how to start putting together your own strategy:
- Define your purpose for pitching: What are your business's goals for the next year? Increase sales, email subscribers, land speaking gigs, etc? Whatever your answer is here will help you narrow in on the best PR activities that will give you a return on investment.
- Clearly outline your ideal target audience: What are relevant websites, podcasts, magazines, tv, and local media that your target audience follows? You need to know your target audience to a T. If you don't, you aren't quite ready for press opportunities yet. If you do already know, you probably have an idea of the places where they spend time the most.
- List out the topics you can speak on: No matter what type of PR opportunities you go after, you're going to need to narrow in on specific topics you want to become known for. Make sure these are related to your purpose for pitching listed in number 1.
I help you grow through all of this in my free beginner's guide workbook. Click the box below to download a copy for yourself!
Related post: Beginner's Guide to PR For Small Businesses: Why It's Important and How To Start
SIGN UP FOR HARO
HARO, stands for Help a Reporter Out, is a great free resource everyone should be signed up for, especially if you're focusing on landing press opportunities.HARO is an online service that connects journalists and bloggers with sources for the articles and stories they are writing about. Anyone can sign up and pitch themselves (or pitch clients like I do). It’s awesome because these are stories that are already being written.HARO sends three emails per weekday (morning, afternoon, evening - yes, it's a lot!) filled with journalists looking for sources for upcoming stories they are writing.The categories that HARO covers are:
- Biotech & healthcare
- Business & finance
- Education
- Energy & green tech
- Entertainment & media
- General (a catch all)
- Lifestyle & fitness
- Public policy & government
- Travel
You can check out this blog post I did about how to start using it![bctt tweet="Looking to do PR on a budget? Check out this blog post from @brittneyllynn! #publicrelations #PRtips" via="no"]
FOCUS ON HIGH RETURN OPPORTUNITIES
Almost no matter what industries you're in there is one PR platform that I recommend to nearly everyone I've ever worked with.It takes the least amount of effort, it has the quickest turnaround and turns brand new people into raving fans...what is it?Podcast interviews.There is a podcast out there for just about every niche topic known to mankind.There are more than 700,000 active podcasts out there and they need excellent guests like you.You can check out this blog post for more on how to pitch yourself to podcasts.
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE LOCALLY OR ONLINE
PR is all about building authentic relationships (more on that here!) and is something that every business owner should really focus on as their building their empire.For one, building relationships with others is free, and we are talking about PR on a budget, aren't we?!You can find people on Instagram or Twitter to connect with (I'm partial to Instagram!) if you want to find people online.Or you can connect locally by going to free local Meetups in your area.And for two, relationships will always serve you. It's rare that I've met someone in my life that I've said "dang, I wish I never would have met them."You should go into building relationships with other people not trying to "get something out of it." People know when you're being sleazy and self-serving. It's not a good look and you shouldn't do it.My freelance writer friend Alli and I did a workshop all about how to cultivate authentic relationships with journalists, check it out if you're interested!
INSTALL BOOMERANG
Boomerang is a free Google Chrome extension that you can install that allows you to schedule emails in advance. This helps remove some of the “fear” of pitching as you can schedule the email to go out in the future.You can always unschedule them before they go out, but I find most of the time when I schedule an email I forget about it and promptly move on. It’s almost like having an assistant do the emailing for you, except it’s free!It also allows you to “boomerang” emails back to you so you can know if a pitch hasn’t been replied to. Pretty neat, right? And perfect for PR on a budget!