How Media Can Help Small Businesses
It’s small business week so let’s discuss the benefits that press attention can bring to your small business.
Being featured in the news and media, whether print or broadcast, sets a small business apart and situates them as an expert in the minds of the audience! When you increase your visibility beyond Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, your business gains recognition and credibility.
Visibility
Gaining media exposure establishes your brand and your business as one that is worthy of attention and ripe with value and insight. Obtaining links to your print and broadcast appearances ensures that your audience can see your reach long after the appearance has aired or been published. Most news stories, articles, and podcasts remain online for an indefinite amount of time. The internet is a place of eternal commemoration, allowing your content to live on and thrive indefinitely. Sharing and saving links (downloading video footage, or saving print appearances as PDF’s) takes preservation a step further and continues the chain of exposure. Sharing across platforms, embedding videos, and backlinking also helps with SEO – which ensures that you will show up in google searches increasing your exposure and brand recognition.
Local news, publications, and radio bring instant awareness to your business in the local sphere of influence. Having an established brand that is well known by your immediate community, and touted by media outlets provides opportunities to grow and be involved in projects and collaborations with other companies.
Media is More Effective than Advertising
Being featured in news media or podcasts is arguably more effective than advertising. Leveraging customer testimonials and word-of-mouth recommendations holds more value for potential customers than an ad created to promote your brand or business. Media coverage is more trustworthy than paid advertisements and encourages positive community feedback for your business.
Utilizing press releases or media coverage of events such as grand openings, fundraisers, or collaborations will increase the potential for your business to gain traction, exposure, and patronage.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Media coverage increases word-of-mouth marketing. This is an organic way to get your name heard and recognized by more people. People who have positive experiences with your business help spread the word about your product or service. Featuring these positive experiences in stories or podcasts turns natural customer experiences into tangible testimonials that are the key to increasing publicity. This form of marketing allows members of the community to do the advertising for you by telling others about your business and it doesn’t cost a dime! The more effort you put into providing your customers and clients with quality goods and services, the more you will have to show for those efforts.
Establishes Authority
Being featured in media coverage establishes authority in your industry. Keep in mind that people see media groups as a trustworthy source from which to gather information. Having your business in a news story, in an article, or featured on a podcast positions you as an expert in your field and gives you the opportunity to represent your business as a professional source of industry information.
You’ll have the opportunity to establish your brand and give potential customers the chance to get to know you and what makes your business unique. Having opportunities to highlight your business allows you to set yourself apart from your competitors.
How a Publicist Can Make it Happen
Being involved in media stories and across established platforms, channels, and outlets provides your small business opportunities to gain traction in a noisy world. Finding those opportunities yourself isn’t easy.
Working with a publicist increases the likelihood that your business will get more media attention while also helping you prepare for it. Getting opportunities is important. Preparing for those opportunities, even more so. You’ll be able to leverage a publicist’s ability to get your products or services in front of the right people to increase business. Publicists are skilled at gathering content that is relevant, valuable, and useful to your potential customers to increase leads. Publicists craft carefully curated campaigns and set up opportunities to highlight you, your brand, and your business in ways that allow you to shine!
If you’re curious about how a publicist can help your small business grow, book a call!