Small businesses need PR too

Public awareness of PR as an industry has never been higher but many small businesses are unsure of what it can do for them. ‘PR is all spin and lies’ or ‘It’s not relevant to my business’ are comments I’ve heard many times over. I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with the first (by the way, the latest series of ‘The thick of it’ is just amazing) but if they think the second, they’re missing a trick.

Have you got a content rich website that generates traffic, keeps visitors there long enough to read about your products and services and makes them want to get in contact? Because that’s what PR can do for you. Advice, tips, case studies, discussion, general industry news, points of view, white papers - original, non-commercial content is what you need. It makes your readers think they’re getting something for nothing. But they’re actually buying into the idea that you are an authority in the market, with the ability to satisfy their very specific requirements and solve their problems.

Of course there are many other aspects to a top website but the effectiveness of blogs costing peanuts underlines once more that content is king. And if the discipline of generating a steady stream of interesting, well-written articles doesn’t appeal to you, briefing a good writer to ‘ghost it’ needn’t take much of your time - or cost a lot. And that’s just one of the reasons why small companies need PR.