Do I really need PR?
Having been in the industry for many years now, both Jess and I have heard every excuse in the book as to why people don’t want to invest time or money into PR and marketing for their business. I mean, we get it. It’s a daunting investment. The end goal of it is often to increase brand awareness. Sales are not always immediate. But the two go hand in hand. Increase your brand awareness, ensure a website is inviting when the new folks look you up and your social media content reflective of your work and the sales WILL come.
I digress. We thought we’d share with you some of the excuses we hear all the time as to why businesses don’t invest in marketing and provide you with some antidotes with quick fire ways to get yourself, and your business, into the right head space to kickstart your PR and marketing strategy properly!
Top reasons businesses avoid PR & Marketing
1. Time
“I know I should be doing more marketing, I know it could help my business but I just don’t have the time to do it myself OR manage someone else to do it.”
PR and marketing doesn’t have to be all consuming. The beauty of it, especially these days when you have full control of your own channels (vs traditional media outlets as third parties), is that you can do as much or as little as you have time for. Make your marketing plan work for you. If your time is really limited then just choose to focus on one thing each month to move your brand forward. Quality over quantity wins every time in the realm of marketing!
2. Budget
“PR and marketing is for big brands with big budgets. It isn’t for me.”
With the number of new impactful channels out there to help you market your business, this simply isn’t the case anymore. A full page advert in a magazine costs thousands of pounds with little to no proven ROI. These days, you have access to small spend advertising on social channels, which provides you with trackable and measurable results. A sponsored Facebook post for example will often cost you no more than £30. Cultivating your own newsletter community is also incredibly impactful and almost entirely free to do! If done well, these actions can have a big impact on your business for a very small amount of money.
3. Experience
“I’ve tried some marketing activities before and they didn’t make any difference”.
Consistency is key when it comes to PR and marketing. You need to keep trying and remember that it’s a slow burner. Good things come to those that wait. Keep things fresh. Learn from the activities you do do. Adapt as you go. There will be things that don’t work and perhaps might leave a bitter taste in your mouth. But giving up is not something a successful business will do.
4. Fear
“I keep meaning to look at my marketing strategy, it’s in my business plan somewhere, but it keeps ending up at the bottom of my to-do list because it’s not an area I’m good at.”
The fear of doing something which doesn’t come naturally to us is TOTALLY normal. We tend to put off the things that scare us the most. But fear holds back success. Sometimes you just have to dive into fear and go for it. It’s often nowhere near as scary as you imagine it to be! And heck, you might even gain from doing it!
5. Missunderstanding
“Someone calling my local paper or placing an advert isn’t for me. It’s not going to help my business.”
We couldn’t agree more! Traditional print media has long been replaced as the best way to PR a business. Whilst it still plays a role, it’s a small part of a much wider plan. Don’t get hung up on it.
We get it!
We totally understand what drives a lot of this thinking. Your business probably isn’t a marketing and PR business and it all probably feels a little alien to you. The most important way to make your business boom, and more importantly for you to really enjoy what you do, is to focus on the core of your business. Ultimately that’s what you do best and that’s why your customers come to you.
It’s ok if PR and marketing isn’t your bag. Once you can admit that you need support with it, you can move your business forward. We are all guilty of putting off doing the things we’re scared of or the things we don’t think we’re going to be any good at. Jess for example is queen of putting off anything to do with finances. Laura panics before every single meeting.
We also understand that businesses are governed by budgets and there might not be a big pool of money to hand to enable you to take on external PR and marketing support. But we also know that, when done right, PR and marketing DOES get you in front of lots of new and shiny customers and that DOES ultimately impact sales.
To help give you that kick up the backside to get started, we’ve pulled together our top five pointers on PR and Marketing:
Top five pointers to get your PR & Marketing started
1. Think like your customers
One thing we always say to clients: if you were a customer, would YOU be inspired by the marketing you’re putting out there? We do a profiling exercise with all our clients and help them create characters for their core customer. This is fleshed out in LOTS of detail: where they shop, what they buy, what they eat, how their house looks – you name it. We encourage you to get to know this character as though they’re a friend. This allows you to really track the customer journey from every angle and dictates your marketing moves!
2. Define who you are
Rather than seeing PR and marketing as something big, daunting and scary, use it as a chance to reevaluate your brand. We’re so often running around immersed in the day-to-day running of our businesses that we forget to take time out to look at everything we’ve achieved. Take some time out to assess your business, read back through your initial business plan to see how far you’ve come and if you’ve stayed true to your brand. Celebrate your successes, run through what has changed and focus on what is working. This will help to give you the clarity you need to start thinking about next steps and how best to market your brand.
3. Pick two things
It’s absolutely all about quality over quantity. If time is not on your side and you have a million and one things to do, then don’t give yourself a to-do list that’s so long and daunting that you’ll never get round to it. Pick just one or two things to focus on over the next quarter, perhaps just one marketing channel, or one product, and champion this for a few months and see how you get on. You don’t need to be doing everything at once. Even just some investment into one area of your business can make a huge difference and help pave the way for more in the future.
4. Not everything will work
Any marketing strategy is a risk and not everything will work. It’s about trying things, learning from them and adapting ready for next time. Keep things fresh, and never stop trying. If something hasn’t given you the results you’d hoped for, try not to be disheartened and just give up. Remind yourself that this is totally normal. Take ten to fifteen minutes to sit down and think through what didn’t work this time and why and learn from it for next time.
5. Community
If you’re really finding PR and marketing overwhelming and don’t know what to do first, your local community is a great place to start. There are so many more people working for themselves today and off the back of this a lot of small business groups are forming in communities all over the UK. Ask around and you should be able to find other similar sized businesses to your own. Tap into this community, ask them about their struggles and successes and share yours in return. You’ll be surprised how willing people are to share and help each other.
How we can help: The Doers Consultation Package
If this has got you excited to shake things up and you’d like to dive a little deeper than this we can run a one-to-one consultancy day just for you. The session is completely bespoke and we get to know you and your business in depth to help us help you to craft a PR & Marketing plan that’s watertight. We’ll also throw in some tips, tools and relevant introductions so you can then activate the plan in your own time and at your own pace.