Lesson 6 – Community Relations and PR

In our last lesson we discussed the necessity of tracking systems before getting into the very expensive forms of media advertising.  Typically companies utilize radio, television or news advertising in order to brand themselves and to create a favorable impression with the public.  One of the reasons that media advertising is so expensive is because it takes a lot of repetition in order to make an impact in people’s mind.  Therefore a television campaign can’t just run once, it needs to run several times.  The same thing is true for radio, billboards and newspapers.

However, smaller companies typically don’t have a budget to spend money for branding .However, companies can have just as powerful an ally in community relations and PR.  When small companies are consistent about using media relations, they can easily position themselves to be experts in their niche or field.  This will create a very positive brand with those who make decisions in the media.

First, if you are not active in your community in charitable, non-profit, volunteer work or sponsoring events, you can benefit others and yourself by supporting those things that you are passionate about.  This will help you to build your presence in the community and give people the opportunity to associate the name of your company with those things that they care about.

Second, you must be active in supplying news to reporters in the area so that they come to rely on you in the construction of everyday news.  This means that you would be using news releases to provide to reporters looking for stories that are of interest to them.  Of course, you will want to establish relationships with them first.

In our next lesson, we will move from public relations to direct marketing and talk about how you can use this leverage to win customers directly from your listbuilding efforts.  To fully implement your community marketing strategy you will need to find the sources that will help you to demonstrate your expertise.  Call us today so that we can help you to do that in a way that is consistent with your brand.