Many businesses are simply little fish in a big ocean, swimming and scurrying about hoping to be noticed or "chosen" by those customers that want what they have to offer.
That is no way to run a business.
Getting noticed involves a lot of positive and planned steps that lead to incremental wins or successes. Typically, the process of being noticed and spreading the word about your products is an expensive and drawn out affair.
But there are things you can do every day in your business to create "buzz." And according to author Richard Laermer, in his great little book Full Frontal PR, this one characteristic of your marketing (creating buzz) is often the difference between success and failure in your total effort.
Why is PR important to every business?
Laermer gives us seven important reasons:
1. It can get national-scale attention and "mega-brand" status attached to your small local business,
2. It brings fame and "expert" status to you, in whatever you do (not just related to the specific product you're known for),
3. PR can send the value of your business through the roof,
4. "Buzz" allows you to be heard; it gives you a platform for not only your products but other agendas you may have,
5. It allows you to tell your story as you like it -- to set the record straight in an open forum,
6. PR can give your business the "break" you might not be able to get any other way -- it creates opportunities for your business,
7. PR can "incapacitate the competition" according to Laermer.
Full Frontal PR has some excellent practical tips on building buzz pitching your business story. There seems to be a somewhat predictable and probable outcome to PR attempts when the company follows the advice of Laermer and approaches the PR environment as the author suggests.
I won't go into the details here -- you need to pick up a copy of this idea-filled book and adapt the principles to your own company.
As in most business execution activities, positive, pro-active, and consistent effort over time usually produces superior results over sporadic and "hot-cold" intensity.
One other thing: the appendix, entitled "The Cool Sources for a PR Wiz" is an excellent resource or compendium of web sites that will help you put your own PR campaigns on steroids.
This is a must-read for the serious owner-operator.
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