Five Useful Tips For Kicking Off Your PR Campaign

Public relations, or getting publicity through mainstream media, has been around for hundreds of years and has been proven effective in bringing in consumer traffic to small businesses. But, is such an ancient marketing method still effective for today's high-tech small businesses?

While it's true that typical public relations have existed long before the computer and the internet were invented, the fact is, it is still extremely effective for almost all online businesses. In fact, PR techniques have evolved along with the development of technology, and they now produce better returns than ever.

So, what exactly are the benefits of getting that much needed media coverage?

First, when you get media coverage, your business and your website will be mentioned in the newspaper or other publications. Prospects who are interested in the article or media mention will naturally search for your URL (more people turn to the web today than to the Yellow Pages). In other words, media coverage can entice consumer interest and generate high quality traffic to your website.

And what's even better, if the publication that covered your story has an online counterpart (most of them do today), the story published will also be available on the web, making it highly likely that you will get a relevant, one-way link to your web site.

Once the story is available online, a whole slew of opportunity presents itself. Now the bloggers can get into action and start discussing your story. Most likely bloggers will create a link for readers to find the original source of the story, which means added mileage on your part. Now you've got additional mentions and additional traffic.

And don't forget the online bookmarking sites, such as Digg and Delicious; online bookmarking can also help spread the word about you and your story.

Once you get featured in one publication, other journalists will be more interested in featuring you as well, since you're now a proven entity. And the cycle continues, creating that domino of positive effects for your website as any link generated from a media coverage will not only drive traffic to your website, it will also definitely give a boost to your search engine rankings. Not much downside to getting publicity, wouldn't you agree?

I'm sure you're wondering if it's really possible for you to get this huge media coverage. And, obviously, the easiest way would be to hire a public relations expert. But if that’s way beyond your budget, then you have to learn how to do online PR by yourself. Don't worry, it really is very doable.

Here are five useful tips to kick off your free publicity campaign and capture media coverage.

1. Make Sure You're Newsworthy

First, find out if you are newsworthy enough to deserve media coverage. To do that, read past publications of small business stories featured in major newspapers or the publications you want to target. Determine what prompted the jou
alist to present particular stories, and do some brainstorming to see how you can get similar notice. You don't want to be a total copycat here, but sometimes, looking at what other businesses have done to deserve media attention can spark some creative ideas of your own.

2. Target the Right journalists

Seek out journalists who cover your industry by searching for past stories related to your small business ventures. Create a list of journalists who regularly feature businesses and/or products and/or stories similar to yours. You can also scour industry trade publications or buy contact lists of journalists. In the long-run, you will get better traction by creating win-win, personal relationships with a few journalists, rather than creating a huge list of anonymous names.

3. Write Your Press Release

Next, write your own press release and circulate it to journalists who you think have the potential to cover your story. Be sure your press release contains a striking yet effective headline, a comprehensive summary, quotes or testimonials from people, contact details and a link to more information about your site.

4. Ensure Proper Timing

The best way to reap maximum returns from media coverage - and the technique that is most often overlooked by small businesses - is proper timing. As small business owners, we get so excited about our newly-written press release and we want to spread the word Right Now, so we blast out our press release as soon as it's written. But if you send out your release just as a huge story is hitting, the chances of getting coverage are slim. Likewise, if you can tweak your story to somehow tie in with the news of the day, your chances of getting coverage increase greatly. Timing your releases properly is critical to getting publicity and getting interested traffic.

5. Take Advantage of Social Media

And finally, embrace social media and take advantage of its ability to help spread your news. When you create a press release, be sure to post it to your own website (many small business owners forget this step) and link to it from your Facebook account, your Twitter account, your LinkedIn account and any other social media platforms you are active in. Encourage others to retweet or help spread the word about your story.

Press releases and free publicity offer excellent opportunities to spread the word about your business and services and to drive highly targeted traffic to your website. It's a very simple technique, if you know how to do it correctly!