Brighton Chamber: Tips for PR on a small budget

You can offer the most wonderful products or services but if your reputation is on the floor, no one will buy them.

And it’s about how you communicate and engage with all the different sets of people you need to persuade and influence to buy your products or services.

Tackle PR in a planned and sustained way. That means not doing things in a scattergun way or trying something once. Prioritise to make the most of your resources. You can’t do everything at once.

It’s better to use a skilled, experienced, knowledgeable professional and to build in a PR and marketing budget, even as a start-up, so you can concentrate on your core business. But that’s not always possible.

If you have little or no budget and want to publicise what you do, there are definitely some low-cost ways to try yourself.

Social media

Social media isn’t about overt selling, it’s about targeting decision-makers and opinion-formers to engage with, who may act as brand advocates for you.

Choose one or two channels your target customers are using: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and/or Instagram to inform people about what you do.

Be social and real. Craft and build relationships, start and join conversations, have fun.

Craft a social media content plan around what’s going on in your business and sector so you can plan your messaging to best effect.

You don’t have to be online all day. Dashboards like Hootsuite enable you to schedule messages on multiple social media channels in advance, so you can plan for the day/week/month ahead.

Networking

With so many different networking groups, it can be bewildering to know where to start. One thing’s for certain – you could spend all day, every day networking!

Target which events or groups to go to. Try to get a delegate list beforehand and pick two or three key people to meet. Make sure you’re introduced to them and remember it’s not about the hard sell. Build relationships – ask how you or your business could help them achieve their goals, and don’t forget to follow up afterwards.

Jill Woolf, is managing director of PR and marketing consultancy Chimera Communications. Chimera held the bite-sized session PR on a Small Budget with Brighton Chamber yesterday (November 22). For details on bite-sized learning sessions, visit www.businessinbrighton.org.uk