It's no secret that the rise of entrepreneurship and freelance careers are taking over the workforce by storm. According to Inc, with the Great Resignation, millions of Americans are leaving their corporate careers, and many are kicking off freelance careers or becoming micro-entrepreneurs. Since 2018, it’s been reported that the number of freelancers at Google exceeds the number of permanent full-time employees - WILD.
Whether you're starting from scratch and taking the leap into owning your own business or stepping up to be the next generation in your family business, PR plays a huge role in opportunities for business and is key for sustainable business growth. Here are three ways for you to prepare your business for public relations for when the time arises to take the leap into the industry.
3 Things to Know About PR
PR is for any business. Whether you're a solo-run business or a rapidly growing team, public relations is for businesses of any size. The important factor is to utilize PR to actively communicate what your business stands for in the channels where you find your target audience. The goal is to garner awareness.
PR is a long game. And a sustainable business practice at that! We don't focus on quick wins, but rather long-term success for our clients. The goal is to truly define what your company stands for and learn to communicate your vision, mission and values with an audience. PR will help strengthen network, your reach and your voice to enable you to market any new service or product you may launch in the future.
PR is cost-efficient. Contrary to many beliefs, it's actually a cost-effective marketing tactic and one of the most valuable. PR focuses on building relationships, brand awareness and credibility. As you'll soon realize, word-of-mouth referrals are a powerful tool and PR helps contribute to this in an authentic way that is not so sales-forward. It helps build a meaningful relationship with your audience, something that paid ads can't do.
How To Get Started With PR
You need a message. Think about your target audience and their needs & desires, then write down a brief value proposition. What is this? An innovation, service, or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers. By identifying this message, you've completed the first step in being able to explain to people why your company exists and start a conversation. Adapt your value proposition every year based on learnings, developments and trends.
Build your presence. Remember those channels that we talked about? It's important to be active on all of the ones that reach your target audience in order to build a presence. Have Gen Z as an audience? TikTok will be a game changer for you. Does your audience love podcasts? What magazines are they reading? These channels are where you need to establish that presence.
Be newsworthy. When you communicate your key messaging and value proposition, it's super important to be up to date on the trends and news affecting your target audience. By paying attention to what's relevant, you can show up on channels in a newsworthy way to appeal to your audience. The important thing is to put yourself out there!
Any other questions about getting started in the industry? Shoot us a DM on Instagram @sodapoppr or leave a comment below.