Small Business Marketing Tactic: Successful PR!

Successful public relations (PR) begins with your treating the local media contacts as a target market! Just as you have worked hard to identify your customers, you need to work to target your key media.

You have information you need to communicate to them. Your job is to ask them...

- WHAT THEY WANT

- HOW THEY WANT IT

- WHEN THEY WANT IT

- HOW BEST TO SUBMIT IT TO THEM

Get to know them and get them to trust you.

Where to start?

1. Create a list of your local newspaper, radio, television that your target market reads, listens to, & watches.

2. Identify the key people in the media outlets that might care about your field of business

3. Research to determine extra ways that those key contacts are communicating to your target audience (i.e. blog, reading the many articles he/she writes to figure out how you might eventually pitch them an idea in the future, etc)

4. Forward them relevant information based on the articles they write in your field (i.e. provide them with industry statistics from reliable sources, give them inside information to the industry-related announcements that may interest your community by tying in your expertise of business, etc)

5. After several communications with your media contact when you have developed a a relationship, you can pitch a story idea to them (or share some very IMPORTANT news with them that they can use to publish in an article.)

6. After some months, treat them to lunch.