Franchise Talk

Rules For Quick And Easy PR

July 3rd, 2009 | Author: Jack

For startup companies with small budgets, gaining an advantage for your new business or a new product through advertising is both a challenging and risky venture. Once the initial budget is gone, there are seldom second chances.

A good public relations strategy is an alternative to advertising. Effective PR is a cost-effective way to gain editorial exposure for your product, get more leads, generate more sales and build a great brand.

What makes PR so powerful?

In a word: credibility.

People often see through advertising, but a product mentioned in the context of a news report or print feature story gives it a passive endorsement and third-party credibility advertising just cant buy.

A news report is actually far more likely to move people to action than conventional advertising, and a good public relations strategy is the way to get the media to seek you out.

How can you make the PR process work for you? Let me walk you through 10 rules you need to create an effective PR plan to give your product competitive advantages in your market:

1. Know your market. The more specific you can get about which community should use your product, the easier it will be to identify which media you need to work with. Be very narrow in your target, realizing that no product ever commands 100 percent market share, nor does it need to in order to be successful.

2. Identify the product benefits relevant to your market. Features arent as important as what your product does for your potential clientele. Remember, at this stage youre trying to sell your product or service to the media so your story will get published. Let them know the benefits and show them the numbers to prove that your product saves users time and money–or makes money.

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