When you’re a small company, it can be hard to get noticed. Often you simply don’t have the budget to make a big splash. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. There are a lot of public relations (PR) tools out there that can really help you out. You just need to know where to look. After all, there is a huge amount of junk online.
To help you in that regard we’ve separated the treasures from the trash. Here are some of the best ways we’ve found to boost your PR without breaking the bank. Try them out and see which work for you.
Join Haro
Help a Reporter Out is a great resource, where reporters can ask for sources for their articles. You offer yourself up and in return your company gets linked to in the article. This really can be a golden opportunity, as there are plenty of big-named reporters who use this service.
In that way, you won’t just be able to get more attention for your site, you’ll also be able to build your SEO as you’ll have more high-quality links leading from serious news sites to your blog.
Be aware that Haro isn’t exactly new, and there are a lot of companies signed up to it. For that reason, when you receive the emails or check the site, respond quickly to anything that you think might be relevant. That will dramatically raise your chances of being selected.
Run Trials on Facebook
Some companies push every post they put onto their Facebook feed. That’s a waste of money. Some things just do a lot better than other things and you can’t really know which those will be beforehand. For that reason, when you’ve got a new post, only push it with a very small budget of a few dollars a day for a few days to see what the uptake is.
Then, only when you find a post that works well, push that extra hard.
You can even do some A/B testing. Try different versions of the same ad, pointing to the same article,with slightly different headlines and images. That will give you a great deal more feedback as to what works well and allows you figure out how to push your content more effectively in the future.
Also, be sure that you specify the audience correctly. After all, if the only people end up being engaged aren’t interested in your product, then it isn’t a terribly effective attempt.
Do Interviews
Find experts in your field and get them to do interviews with you. This can take time. Sometimes experts won’t reply initially and you’ll have to ask several times. Sometimes it can take weeks, if not months, to set up a date to run the interview.
Be patient, it will still be worth it. If you can run a really intriguing interview with somebody well-respected on your site, this can get your site attention far beyond your normal audience. This is particularly true if the person that you’re interviewing also shares your interview across their network (which many will do for you if you alert them to when you’ve posted the interview).
Even if they don’t, just sharing links to the interview across the internet with known experts can draw in a huge number of people, as people are always looking to hear what the experts have to say.
You can either do these as podcasts or write them up as interviews. In the latter case, make sure that they are of the highest quality. Perhaps get editing help. There are plenty of reviews of best sites for writing help online.
Conventions and Meetings
If you’re good face-to-face use that. Attend the right events (ones where there are actual clients, not just competitors) and get to know people. Press flesh and smile. Often, this can be an incredibly cost-effective way to do your PR.
Don’t stop there. Offer to speak at these events about your own experiences. Sometimes they will pay you. Sometimes they won’t. Whatever the case may be, it’s a great opportunity to get people to get to know you, and have dozens to hundreds of people listen to what you’ve got to say.
Check out your local chamber of commerce or whatever passes for that where you live. Often these will have events scheduled in your neighborhood which are worth attending. Yes, this is even true if you’re working all around the world. Sometimes it’s very useful to have a few clients in your own backyard.
Recycle Older Content
Modern social media does not show your content to a great number of people. For that reason, it’s well worth re-sharing content that you’ve already shared in the past. In fact, this can double the exposure you receive.
This can be particularly effective if you wait a while between the initial share and the re-share and if you post it at a different time of day. This could give you exposure to people who haven’t seen your content in the past and thereby re-engage your audience.
No, these are not new customers, but then retaining customers is better than getting new customers anyway, and one of the best ways to do that is to make sure that you stay on their radar so that they don’t just forget about you.
Last Words
Yes, a big marketing budget helps. If you don’t have one of those, however, that doesn’t mean you can’t succeed. Just think outside of the box and take the opportunities available to push your content well.
And remember, just because most companies now market online that doesn’t mean that’s the only place you can market. Remember the old channels. You’ll be surprised how often diversifying into those still pays off.
