Positioning Yourself With PR

You may have tried networking, Internet marketing or advertising only to come out in the end with fewer clients than you expected and yet, having more expenses. Or maybe you’ve tried to get publicity in the past only to find little or no response.

You want to attract loyal customers, increase your profits and enjoy more freedom in your life, but everyday it’s getting harder and harder to be seen. Well, PR can help.

Being able to put your best foot forward to show the public and your target market you’re the person they should be paying attention to, is what Public Relations is all about. Some people might be hesitant getting involved in Public Relations, but here’s the thing: whether you know it or not, as an expert in your field, small-business owner or entrepreneur, you’re already engaged in a public relations campaign.

PR is in everything you do: it’s how you answer the phone; it’s how you respond to emails; it’s your voice mail message; it’s in anything and everything you do where you engage with the public. If you want your business to be a fun and lively experience for your customers, but when they call, you answer the phone with an unenthusiastic “Hello,” how do you think that small little detail positions you?

Ask yourself “What is it I’m committed to helping people with, and how do I achieve this?” Then make a detailed list of all the places and platforms where you interact with the public. Be thorough and don’t leave anything out.

Comb through your website, your answering machine greeting; listen to how you or your staff interacts with callers; check to see what your automatic email signature looks like; inspect all of your website copy for spelling or grammatical errors; and anything that the public could see. All these things are part of the PR campaign you’re now knowingly engaged in. How have they positioned you thus far?

Take it step further by Googling yourself, your company and the topics surrounding your expertise and business. What do you find? Is your name and company coming up in conversations when you search those topics? What are people saying about you? Do you approve? Do you agree?

With the advent of the Internet you’re now afforded a perfect opportunity to position yourself in the way you want to be seen and start achieving what it is you’re committed to. A great way to begin is by writing by-lined articles and submitting them to free portals, which will link back to your website. These portals will help build your online presence and will position you in the way you want to be seen.

You can also create an online press kit, which will increase your online presence, as well as help keep you organized and give you a professional edge. Then keep the ball rolling by landing media placements. There are quite a few free resources out there that journalists are using to find sources for their stories, segments and interviews.

These sites like PitchRate.com allow authors, small business owners and entrepreneurs connect with the media in a way that makes the journalist’s job easier at the same time as it boosts the exposure of the source.

So take it one step at a time and begin by figuring out what you’re committed to helping people with and how you can achieve your goal. Once you have the answer, use Public Relations to position yourself for success. There’s nothing else out there that can compare and you have all the resources at your fingertips.

– Drew