Top ten PR tips for small businesses

Last week I participated on a call with John Jantsch who asked me to share my top ten PR tips for small businesses with his audience. John is the author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide and he writes the very popular Duct Tape Marketing blog.

I had to take the call from my room in the Beverly Hilton because I was speaking at The Milken Institute Global Conference. OK, I'll admit that I didn't prepare for the call (sorry John) and just banged out ten tips a few minutes before we spoke.

After the call, I realized that sometimes there is value to top-of-mind ideas. Nuggets of value may be lost when you obsess over getting every detail perfect. So I thought I'd share the list with you. No, it is not comprehensive - given time I would choose different things for the list and re-order what's here:

1. The old ways to get noticed were to buy expensive advertising and beg the media to write about you and your products. The best way to get noticed today is to publish great content online.

2. Don't talk about what your products and services do. Instead talk about how you solve problems for your customers.

3. Be enthusiastic and have fun. People want to do business with people they like.

4. Don't rely on spamming the media with your press releases and PR pitches.

5. Use press releases to reach buyers directly.

6. Comment on blogs, forums and chat rooms (but don't talk about your products and services).

7. Read the popular books in your market and write a review on Amazon. Use your real name and affiliation.

8. Shoot a short video and put it up onto YouTube

9. Know what search terms people are using to find products and services like yours and create content that search engines will reward with high search engine rankings.

10. Don't be egotistical. Nobody cares about you and your products. Your buyers care about themselves and solving their problems.

Comments

[Katja of Skimbaco]

Thank you so much for these tips! What a great timing, I had something big to happen to my company just recently and I just needed some tips how let everyone know about it.

[huoyangao]

timely advice. I just started something and I will follow these
tips to see how far it will go.

[MarketingTwins-Randy]

Great stuff - Glad to have this list again to refer to. I'll add on here another idea you shared on the DTM conference call about getting on Facebook and FRIENDING authors. This adds to #6 about commenting on blogs, etc.

[John Kreiss]

Excellent Post. The tips are great and I can say I've personally seen results after reading them.

I also enjoyed reading the The New Rules of Marketing and PR. It was good to read and learn the perspective of a PR professional on the other end of all the unsolicited press releases they must get everyday.

Thanks for writing and sharing your knowledge. This information is a bargain.

John P. Kreiss
President & CEO
MorganSullivan, Inc.
http://www.morgansullivan.com/executive-search-blog/

[Tim Washer]

imho, item #2 is a challenge for us marcom types, but critical. What's the quote from marketing 101? -- "people don't want to buy a drill, they want buy a hole."

[Brandon Chesnutt]

Fantastic post.

I think what really stands out about this list is that the strategies are applicable on both the B2C and B2B fronts. There has always been this underlying concern about "what the other guys is doing won't help me because what I provide/sell is different," but this is a perfect example of tactics that are universal.

Thanks David!

[Matt Gentile]

David,

Great advice. However, I wouldn't limit the advice to small businesses. In fact, I would say given your perspective on the growing importance of social media and Web 2.0 applications for communication, it is even more important for big business to get its arms around the "direct to consumer" channels and messaging.

Thank you for your top of mind top 10, always enjoy your posts.

Regards,

From the Beach Chair,

Matt Gentile - 300 Days of Sunshine
FloridaMoves.com

[Bre]

David, these are great tips, as all your tips and thoughts always are. However, when working in the pharmaceutical/healthcare pr industry, how do you suggest overcoming the hurdles of trying to implement these tips into such a regulated field/industry?

[David Meerman Scott]

Wow. I'm really glad I did this post. I hacked together the list and I am encouraged that so many of you found it interesting. Thanks for the comments.

Bre - I think these tactics work for all organizations. While there are regulations for the Pharma industry around drug advertising, my list encourages you not to talk about your products. These things are all about communicating like human beings online, something I don't think pharmas do very well. I think you can benefit from these ideas as well.

David

[Orovo Tim]

It's amazing that it's possible to beat companies much larger with a keyboard, some creativity and hard work.

#3 is a big one. The web is social and nothing beats having your friends help you along.

T

[Valerie Conyngham]

It's always nice to have reminders like these. In fact, your post prompted me to post a review of your book on Amazon (five stars). Like the advice in your book the great value of this post is that it's actionable.

[Wayne]

Good tips!

[Newt Barrett]

David,
I was really inspired to riff off of your post.
Here's some of what I wrote:

David’s first point about the importance of content really has two components:

1. The explicit point is that intrinsically valuable content will resonate not only with the press but with all of your targeted customers. Customers now do most of their research online before they will ever contact you by phone or walk into your store. That’s why you must provide relevant and valuable content.
2. The implicit point is that now for the very first time it is possible to provide a rich set of content on your website or your blog in a way that would have been impossible even 10 years ago. Thus, a reporter doesn’t have to call you in order to research a story. That reporter can go to your website or read your blog in order to determine why their readers would care about your company, your products, and your solutions.

Content driven marketing strategies offer you a potentially powerful weapon–even against much bigger competitors. If you provide great content that makes it easy for your prospective customers to buy from you, you dramatically improve your odds of beating the competition. Conversely, if you fail to provide great content, you risk sharing the fate of buggy whip makers in the automobile age. You may become an irrelevant antique with fewer and fewer customers over time.

Thanks for the inspiration.
Newt

[Diana Ennen]

Fabulous post. I think you hit on the main thing I see so often in press releases or articles is that they go overboard on them and their services and forget to talk about the benefits they will offer. It's got to be you you you, not me me me. You said it so well!

Diana Ennen, Virtual Word Publishing

[Rina Ward]

David,
Amen on no. 8 (Shoot Videos). I finally learned how to use imovies and uploaded our first video testimonial yesterday. What we do is ask our satisfied customers to leave a voicemail of their product feedback and email photos of them in action. Then with my imovie wizardry I whip up a video customer testimonial. Have only uploaded 2 in Youtube http://www.youtube.com/hornetjuice but watch that space!

[Janine Gregor]

It is difficult for me to convince a client that a press release is not supposed to be advertorial.

You make great points here. Thank you for the post.

Article-writing/posting and e-book and/or white sheet publishing might are other PR avenues for small businesses.

Janine Gregor

Your Virtual Wizard
Virtual Assistance Service
www.YourVirtualWizard.com
yourvirtualwizard@tampabay.rr.com

[Makinglifeezy]

The last comment you made says it all, no one cares about you or your product.

People (customers) want to talk about themselves and their problems.

Focus on that and the rest just seems to fall in to place, I think.

[ms small businesses]

Excellent article!great tips for incoming small business.