10 Easy Ways to Promote Your Business

Whilst many may revel in the thought of long sunny days, in the business world summer can be quite a tough time. Unless you work within the hospitality or travel industries, the ‘summer slow down’ (as it’s known) can lead to many challenges, such as customers/clients taking holidays, lower incomes, and then on top of that you may still have a household to run.

Here are my 10 easy PR tips to brighten up and promote your business or brand this summer.

1. Always make sure your plans are SMART

Specific  Measurable  Achievable  Realistic  Timely

2.   Define your primary target audience and constantly promote your brand to them

Pinpoint who your main audiences are, this will assist you to streamline your publicity.

3.   Create a PR & Publicity Plan beyond your imagination

There are various PR strategies and methods available. Remember every piece of publicity must have an end result. So ask yourself, why I am using this particular strategy or method? What do I hope to achieve?

4.   Choose different types of media outlets

Establish what mediums your target audience consume and choose a varied mix of them, this will increase your chances of successfully reaching your target audience.

5.   Draft up a social media strategy

Social media enables you to directly interact with your target audience/ clients. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, are increasingly becoming premium tools for promoting businesses and brands.  All are free and very easy to use.

6. Create a media contact list

 Contact each medium to ascertain the correct person to send press releases to and contact for advertising opportunities. You should update your media list every 6 months. This will ensure you always have up to date contact information. Your media list should include all publication circulation figures, website hits and editorial deadlines

 7. Have you got the budget to implement your PR & publicity plan?

How much will it cost your company to carry out your publicity campaign? There is no point in starting a plan that you will be unable to complete due to insufficient funds.

 8. Be more innovative to gain publicity

 Writing a book, making a short film, participating  in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) campaigns, mentoring or conducting a specific piece of research are all great ways of creating extra publicity.

 9.    Have a launch Party

A small launch event inviting ‘trade’ press within your industry or associates who can maybe interested in your business or brand is a good way to raise your profile and build your reputation in your field or sector.

 10. Public Speaking

Speaking at specific industry or networking events will give you the opportunity to inform people of your business, brand, products or services. It will also increase your presentation skills, which will be helpful for when you are pitching to clients.

Mavis’s book “44 Ways to Grow your Business or Brand” gives you more in depth tips on how to formulate a winning PR strategy. It can be purchased here: www.mavisamankwah.com