11 truths about PR you need to know
Dear Lovely Business Owner,
It’s not even the first week into 2019, and I can sense the excitement beaming from business owners and entrepreneurs, can you?
That clean sheet, that sense of potential, that sense of anything can literally happen which of course it can!
In this blog post will share with you 11 truths about PR you need to know,
1. PR is not a magic pill.
When I speak to a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs, they often view publicity as some kind of magic pill. It is not. Maybe ten years ago or more it used to be. Not now.
With the internet social media more businesses competing for the precious time and attention of the media and more people who are doing PR or their own PR.
Now one of the truths about PR is that it’s a crowded place, so magic pill no more! For example: even if you did get some major PR coverage, it does not mean you will be an overnight sensation, without other things in place, like a content plan, such as blog posts.
2. PR is not a one-off action
This is something many people find hard to understand. They not only think of publicity as a magic pill, they think that it is just something you do just once. Absolutely not. You need to be looking at doing this regularly, even if for just an hour a month!
Why? Well, for as long as you are in business, you need people to about you and publicity helps to get your name, your story and views in front of many more people than you might normally!
3. PR is not like marketing
Many people find this difficult to too, to take. Why? Because another one of the truths about PR is that publicity requires that you include content into your publicity efforts.
For example, the media like to look at your website and see that you have written blog posts, they tend to believe that you know what you are talking about! Yes really.
When you write a blog post, you can edit the post, as you go along, or later on! You can even unpublish it! Not so with publicity.
Whilst there are occasions when you are able to read through the content of a piece you might be quoted it, most of the time you are not, so you have to surrender control to the media, making it very different to marketing where you remain in control! .
4. PR is different in 2019
For me, I believe that publicity in 2019 will become even more responsive, so it will play out live on social media much more than last year!
Another one of the truths about PR is that it will also become more crowded meaning that publicity opportunities will be snapped up a lot faster this year. It will also require much more planning, than last year too for long-term publicity such as gaining coverage for Christmas.
5. PR is a great business growth strategy
Publicity can absolutely be an amazing business growth strategy. This is because you can be seen and heard by thousands, or even tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people.
For example: when my client Annabel Kaye was on BBC Breakfast at the end of May last year, she was heard by at least 1.5 Million people.
By being seen by that many people, people notice you, and tend to take you far more seriously, and often subscribe to your list, book a sales call with you, and even invest in your products or services!
6. PR works best when you know how it works
Like with anything, when you know how something works it makes it far easier to use it or learn from. It’s the same with publicity.
For example: when you understand that there is a responsive side, where a story literally breaks on Twitter.
And, there is a strategic side, when you plan for Christmas in July for example. Having an awareness of this helps you to make the most of your publicity efforts.
7. PR has rules you need to play by
When you play by the rules within the truths about PR, you are able to become successful at it.
For example: when you understand that you need to target your efforts on the media your audience consumes not what you consume, as your message is more important than the medium.
To put this into context, if your audience, your potential clients read the Daily Mail, you need to, and set the intention of being in it, at least once, yes really!
Another rule is that you cannot dictate when it happens. Let’s say that you gave a few quotes to a journalist about how to deal with artificial intelligence in sales, like my client Susan Marot might do ( https://www.succeedatselling.com/ ).
Susan is not able to push for when this piece might be published, she just has to play the waiting game! When you know these kinds of rules of publicity you are much more able to become successful at publicity!
8. PR can take time
This can be truly tricky to appreciate as we all want results; like yesterday. Me too! And the truth of the matter is that often the results can take a bit longer, or even much longer than you think!
For example, it took me over a year of persisting to get a client quotes in Forbes magazine, I eventually got Kevin Arrow into it as you can see here:
9. PR requires patience
Sometimes it can be highly frustrating to keep plugging away at following the news, reading relevant magazines and newspapers, sending out pitches, or story ideas to the media and nada. You do not even hear a word back from them!
I empathise I really do. This is because publicity can take time, longer than you had thought! For example last year I had been pitching a journalist ideas.
10. PR is unpredictable
For example, you might be booked into participating in a radio interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, about how you are a self-made woman; like two of my clients were in June last year. Then suddenly, everything is cancelled as a certain political figure visits the UK.
Another one of the truths about PR is that you might get a frenzied email from a journalist asking for three to four sentences about your strategies for dealing with post -Christmas blues within the hour! Yes really. This really happened for one of my clients!
11. PR can be a waste of time + money!
This can be a hard pill to swallow, whether you are doing your own or paying a lot for someone to manage it! Sometimes in reality the ugly truths about PR is that nothing can happen.
You might have invested hours and hours of your time, and bought lots of newspapers and magazines and nada. Zero ROI! Zero results.
If you want to learn more about how publicity can help you grow your business, book a free 30-minute consultation with me here:https://CarrieEddins.as.me/
Love Carrie x
