This document provides guidance on using public relations (PR) and social media to promote a business. It discusses why PR and marketing are important for both immediate and long-term business goals, such as launching a product, growing sales, and increasing brand value over time. The document then outlines various PR, social media, and marketing tactics that can help increase a business's profile, credibility, and confidence in its services. These include blogs, articles, reports, social media posts, videos, and more. It also provides tips for marketing a business at a school fair through tactics like flyers, posters, social media promotions, and working with local media.
2. WWW.THEANSWER.LTD
• Started my business in 2003
• MA, BA, Post Grad
• Journalist, PR, marketing experience
• My Young Enterprise experience at your age
Quick bit about me!
3. Why bother with PR and marketing?
Immediate goals:
• Launch the business, launch a product, grow the business, increase
sales to new customers, encourage repeat business, encouarge
existsing customers to buy more, keep the business going…
Help you achieve your personal goals:
• Educate, help people, be your own boss, provide for your family,
flexible working hours, work from anywhere
(abroad?)
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4. Why bother with PR and marketing?
• Future: Intangible assets: ideas, brands, methods, content, innovation
• “Your IP could be as valuable as your plant, premises or stock. It could
even be your single most valuable asset which you could use to secure
finance for company growth” (www.gov.uk)
• Build up your business then sell it?
• Pass it onto your children?
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6. What can it do for you & your business?
• Increase your profile across a range of online platforms, from social
media to your own website, your or someone else’s blog, online news
and magazine outlets…
• Give you and your organisation external credibility
• Build confidence in you and your services
• Etc
WWW.THEANSWER.LTD
7. What else could marketing involve?
• Blogs
• Articles
• Reports
• Brochures
• Infographics
• Tasters
• Research
• Web copy
• Presentations
• Images & photos
• Quotes
• Ebooks
• Webinars
• Talks
• Videos
• Online course
• Social media
• Podcasts
9. Marketing your presence at a school fair
• Think about who’s coming, which of those
people you want at your stand and where/how
you can reach them
• Social media in the run up to the event –
photos, video, special offers, enticements
• Social media at the event
• Leaflets ahead of the event e.g. in local papers,
coffee shops
• Posters put up locally
• Letters sent out via school
• PR via local media
• School website
• Banners outside
school or elsewhere
• E-news to parents
• Flyers/sandwich
board at the event
• Tasters if you’re
selling food
• Discount vouchers
10. Press release to local media
• What’s the news angle?
• The five Ws:
Who/What/When/Where/Why
• Photo accompaniment
• Interview offer
• Photo opportunity
11. Posters or flyers
• Key elements
• Time
• Date
• Location
• What you’re doing/selling
• Eyecatching
• Your USPs
• Enticements
• Image/photo
12. Some top tips
1. Squeeze maximum use out of everything you create
2. Remember copyright of images and text
3. Attribution of ideas
4. Don’t copy and paste other people’s work (it’s plagiarism and Google doesn’t like it
either)
5. Having a great photo or image or two with your piece will really help to lift it and draw
the eye
6. Humour – use carefully
7. The AIDA model (Attention – Interest – Desire – Action)
8. Do a plan – for a week, then a month, then three months…
9. Review what’s working well and what isn’t (give yourself 3 months trying before you
try and measure the results)
10. If you work solo, ask someone else to proof/check your work
WWW.THEANSWER.LTD
13. WWW.THEANSWER.LTD
Protect your company reputation &
personal brand
• Check – are you mixing too much personal in with the professional?
• Do you need two Facebook accounts?
• Are you categorising your Facebook contacts into acquaintances, friends etc.?
• Check your privacy settings
• Does your personality come across in LinkedIn and Twitter without making you
seem unprofessional?
• Check your spelling & language
• Don’t badmouth clients or colleagues
Hello everyone my name is Catherine Dhanjal the company name is TheAnswer Ltd and I am really pleased to have the opportunity to talk to you today.
So I’ve been asked to talk about how to use PR and social media to help your business stand out from all the other businesses or in this instance all the other gummy bears.
So a bit about me. I’ve had my own business since 2003 and I work primarily with business to business companies in the technology space and in the professional services space, university spinoffs, that’s my specialism although I do also work more widely than that with local charities, authors etc.
Before I started my own business I worked for a big PR agency in Covent Garden piazza for eight years as an associate director and before that I worked for a full service agency which means we did pretty much everything you can think of in terms of marketing from advertising space and design to newsletters, getting media coverage, brochures, point of sale material, the lot! And prior to that I worked as a journalist . So my background is very much PR , journalism and marketing since the age of about 21.
I started out in that area because I was working for a firm and I started doing more and more writing for their internal newsletter and that helped me get first job in journalism.
Qualifications.
My Young Enterprise experience.
https://www.ignite.digital/bristol-startups-list/
Ultrahaptics was founded in 2013 and since then have gone on to raise more than £30 million from two rounds of seed funding. They may have started in Bristol, but have since extended their reach.
Public relations.
Local newspapers, TV, local radio, bloggers.
Media relations, protecting reputation. Stakeholders. Reaching new group of partners. Could be about turning a situation around if there’s been bad publicity in the past. Media relations – some elements are uncontrollable.
Customer satisfaction.
Raise awareness
Which platforms or outlets you focus depends on your audience
Credibilitiyt media, awards, etc
For your small business or stall
Great to hear your ideas now
The businesses you’re focusing on for Young Enterprise or indeed those you may have as a side line
Any other ideas/what you’ve done?
Can be fairly short
New, involves lots of money or not a lot, charity, animals, new product
The five Ws are the must haves
Quote from someone in your company or someone else who’s endorsing or using your product