Every budding entrepreneur understands the need for a strong and consistent advertising and marketing campaign when either launching or maintaining a brand. This is evident in the huge amount of small business ads that can be found in the New Zealand media. However, many small to medium sized businesses seem to give public relations little more than a passing glance. PR is mistakenly perceived as something that should be left to the ‘big boys’ or as a luxury that only larger companies can afford.
Yet a solid public relations campaign is just as vital for small businesses as it is for the corporate giants. A well executed public relations campaign can increase name recognition and familiarity in the community, bolster your organisations credibility, educate people on what you do and how it can benefit them, generate ‘word of mouth’ advertising as well as increase employee motivation and morale. Each of these outcomes is important for the success of a small or new company. It is incredibly difficult to sell a product or a service if nobody has ever heard of you.
Public Relations is not as intangible and as confusing as many people believe and it is certainly not a communications tool reserved for the large, the rich and the successful. On the contrary, PR is just as, if not more, important, for small or start-up companies that need their brand identities laid out and their reputations established. It should be a vital part of every small company’s business plan, right from the start. The results, including increased sales, customer loyalty, brand recognition and awareness of your business and what it does, are more than worth it.
(Find out more about what PR can do for your small or start-up business by reading my article 'PR for Small Businesses: Using PR to Put Your Small or Start-up Company on the Path to Success')
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