I would like to share with you few tips on how to build up a successful PR strategy when you are just launching your business. Why is it so important to attract PR – the answer is because it is free and will bring you the first customers and partners your business needs.

It could be said that the most successful brands are build though PR and are maintained through advertising. Basically, if your brand is unknow the advertising efforts are not as effective and you should first concentrate on building a brand through PR. So how do you do it?

So where do you need to start when building a successful PR strategy? I believe the best point to start is to write down on the piece of paper the possible topics which are related to your business. Where does your business fall – is it real estate? Electronics? IT? Female entrepreneurship? Position yourself in the category you have chosen, it is much easier thing to do rather than talk about a company or a person.

When you have a list, identify the 3 most important one for you – where do you want to be positioned? What do you want to come to mind of people when they here your business name?

After this is done write a list of target media which write about this topics and where you see your business. Is it a women’s magazine? Business newspaper? In which section would you want to appear?

After you have done this starts the most exciting, you have to start building up relationships with journalists at the key media outlets which you have identified. And I would like to highlight the word – relationships. It will bring you the most value in the long term if you care about the journalist and genuinely aim to give the journalist an authentic and interesting story. The story has to be interesting to the readers of the media you have chosen.

At each media outlet identify journalist who write about the topics you have selected to position yourself into and contact them which one line telling them WHY they should write about YOU and how this can be interesting to their readers. If you can not find a direct email address, you can try to contact them via twitter or other social media. Just do not do all at once.

So now I come to the story, what is your story and how you present it best? You should have once story about you and why you have started your business and how this business will affect the lives of people. This is basically it, after you have your one story, try creating sideline stories which would go into more details into the subject you have chosen to position your business in.

For example, I have worked on getting into press on the topic of Sharing Economy in Austria.

After the article is published, maintain the relationships with the journalist. Inform him/her about your news, interesting materials on the topic and your unique insights. Like this he/she will be very thankful and will think of you next time he/she writes about your topic.
Keep track of all the articles which were published about you in the Press section on your website. This section should also include: your latest press release, contact details of PR responsible person, the story, and the three main topics you have chose to specialise in.

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