How Public Relations Can Enhance Your Marketing Efforts

By Lisa Miles



At the beginning of the year, many company owners and chief financial officers look at their bottom-line marketing budget and wonder how they are going to get the word out about their brand - and increase their sales - on the small amount of money they feel they can spend on marketing. After all, traditional advertising is expensive and is diminishing in importance.

What marketing executives should be considering is how to incorporate public relations and social media into their marketing plan. A well-crafted, ongoing communications plan for a company could achieve just as many results as one ad placed in a major daily newspaper.

For example, look at what your company is doing. Are you setting a trend or bucking a trend? Do you have a cutting-edge product that could change the way that people do business? That could be considered a news story to a reporter in your industry. Do you have employees with 15 or more years of service to your company? That's certainly going against the norm for employment trends these days.

Think about what your company does, and more importantly, what you do differently from your competitors. Then look at what the media is writing about. Make a call to a reporter who is writing about your industry and introduce yourself and your company, and then take two minutes to tell him what makes you unique. You may not get a story immediately, but you've placed yourself top-of-mind with that reporter as a resource for future stories.

Don't overlook blogs either; they often are more widely read then traditional stories. Stay in touch with the reporters on an ongoing basis, just to let them know what's happening in your company or your industry.

Do you belong to a professional organization? Then offer to be a monthly speaker or host an event or happy hour. Networking is key to increasing your bottom-line profits in this economy because business often goes to the "someone who knows someone" who does whatever job is needed.

Are there other organizations that do what you do that you would consider as a "partner," rather than a "competitor"? Then talk with them to see what you could do together to increase awareness for both groups. It could be a seminar, a happy hour or a networking event. Chances are, you'll both benefit.

Do you have a web site? Are you updating it on a regular basis with news about your company? Search engines, such as Google, look for "fresh" content when ranking its listings. The more frequently you update your site, the better your chance will be in moving up in the listings and the better the chance that the general public will click to see your page.

Then there are the social media sites. Do you have a Facebook page or a Twitter account? Set a weekly schedule to put out something of interest about your company. You'll be surprised at how often people will respond to something they see on Facebook. Your writing doesn't have to be professional or slick - something conversational is just an effective.

The Columbia Festival of the Arts (www.columbiafestival.com) posts on Facebook at least three times a week to keep the fans updated on what's happening, not only with the Festival, but in the arts community in general.

So, in other words, don't rely just on paid advertising and direct mail to market your company. Look at the "free" ways to get the word out about your company and help stretch your marketing budget and increase your bottom line. It may take some time and effort, but you'll find that the benefits are well worth the output.



Lisa Miles, president of Miles Public Relations in Columbia, can be reached at lisamiles@milespr.com.