Getting publicity can do a great number of things for your small business run from your virtual office. When coupled with an advertising strategy, you can effectively put your small business on the map. Publicity can blast you past your competitors and brand your business for success. Best of all, most promotional strategies are completely free. They will cost you some time, with regards to preparing press materials and communicating with media, but it won’t cost nearly what you’d be paying in comparable advertising time.
Here are five steps that you can use to create more publicity for your small business. Within no time, you’ll have more calls and inquires coming into your sales pipeline.
Every business should have a strong unique selling proposition, and this is the foundation of creating opportunities for publicity. Understand your “wow” factor. What makes your small business unique compared to others in your field? Do you offer a new service or product that is the first of it’s kind? Does your company fix a common problem in a simple way from your virtual office? You can communicate this through your requests for publicity and make your business stand out.
After you select your unique angle and have identified that “something special” about your small business, you can reach out directly to media outlets to see if they have interest in your story. Look to local and industry news sources that may want to cover your business. Review the media outlet before you pitch to be sure that your story would be a good fit. Contact the editor or story coordinator and pitch your idea.
Help a Reporter Out is a free and helpful resource to help you garner publicity for your small business. After you register at the website, you’ll begin receiving regular emails with requests from reporters on various topics. Scan through the daily list and see if there are opportunities to speak with reporters about what you do. The listings will include various article topics and contact information for reporters and journalists. Look for themes that relate to what you do from your virtual office and get in touch with the writers.
Press releases can be used for online and offline publicity. Hiring a SEO press release writer can give you exposure for your company and help optimize your website for important keyword terms. Not only do press releases get published on news websites and other authority sites, they are also sent to news wires. If your story is interesting enough, it may be picked up by local and national media.
Blogs have become a powerful tool for modern business and you can benefit from getting exposure by guest blogging. There are popular and reputable blogs for virtually every industry. Look for opportunities to pitch guest posts that can be published on these sites. It’s important to have a clearly defined topic that relates to what the audience is familiar with, so be sure to review past posts so you know what to pitch. Readers will be able to visit your site from the blog where you are published through your author box link.
- Understand the unique angle of your business.
- Approach media outlets directly with your story.
- Look for opportunities to connect with reporters through HARO.
- Use press releases to highlight your business and it’s benefits.
- Look for opportunities to guest blog on industry blogs.
With these five simple steps, you can start seeing results from publicity and get the exposure that you want for your business.
