Public relations (PR) is an important part of any business, and especially important for new and emerging businesses. Briefly stated, public relations is the art of getting your company talked about, without purchasing advertising. That's not to say an advertising plan shouldn't be a part of your marketing strategy, it most definitely should. But PR takes a different approach.

The most basic form of public relations is the press release. This is a one-page document, written in journalistic style, which describes something that may be of interest to the press––such as the opening up of a new branch office, a new product line, or something about your company that is interesting and newsworthy.

Fluffy releases, with little content or newsworthiness won’t help promote your company, and are likely to annoy potential press allies. The fact that your company exists is probably not newsworthy; but the fact that your company has just located a branch in your city's enterprise zone may be worthy of a mention in the local paper. For local companies, distribution of the press release is easy; just send copies (with contact information, of course) to local news editors and writers. It helps if you make a special connection with a particular writer or editor and finesse that relationship into press opportunities. For companies with more of a national scope, it's a little more involved, and is going to cost some money. The easiest way is to contract the services of one of the online newswire distribution outlets, such as PRNewswire. And of course, the release should be professionally written. Some services, including PRWeb, will edit your press release for a small fee.

Other types of public relations include the "contributed article." This is an article written by an officer of your company (or more often, ghost-written by a professional writer and then attached to your officer's byline), and contributed gratis to a relevant journal or newspaper. The article should not attempt to blatantly promote your company in particular; rather, it should be a newsworthy and interesting article about your industry in general, recent trends that relate to it, or new and innovative developments. The fact that your officer's name is attached to the byline is the greatest value, because it positions your company as the "expert" in your field. For example; if you run a local dating service, approach your local newspaper and offer to write a dating column for free. Many companies that use this approach also use the services of a professional writer to create the contributed material.

Your public relations effort will not be complete without a "press kit." When you are called upon by the press, you will want to have plenty of information ready for them, and this comes in the form of an attractively packaged folder, which contains a "backgrounder" about your company, recent press releases, case studies about how customers have successfully used your product, and information about the products you offer.

Besides the written word, public relations also involves things such as making public appearances at important events, becoming active in industry associations and civic groups, and making public contributions to charitable organizations. The goal isn't to promote your product or company directly, but to spur people to say, "that’s a pretty good bunch over there, and they really know what they're doing."

 

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