6 reasons why a 6-figure business needs to do its own PR

Even if your business is turning over 6 figures, it is still important to keep up your company’s visibility and self-promotion at the forefront of your weekly activities.  You may be thinking, “I don’t need to do my own PR because I have a great PR company doing it for me” or you may have had your fingers burnt using an expensive PR agency that garnered little results or you may be thinking that now really is the right time to take control of your PR.

In a series of 6 blog posts, I  am going to give you 6 reasons why your business needs the PR boost that you personally can do…

Reason No 1. CPD

 Here is the top Google result for that acronym taken from Wikipedia:

“Continuing professional development (CPD) or continuing professional education (CPE) is the means by which people maintain their knowledge and skills related to their professional lives.”

So let us assume you employ a PR agency and they are doing a good job for you. Again…”Why do I need to know how to do my own PR? I outsource that!”

I am a true believer in learning the ropes oneself because knowledge is power (and can lead to more profit!).  Before I outsource, I really like to have a good crack at knowing the ins and outs of the activity so that I am not blindly farming out and that I am not missing opportunities along the way. Some essential business support elements can be extremely technical, such as Facebook ads, but to have gone behind the scenes and done some learning and doing, I feel confident about what can and can’t be done.

The same applies to promoting your business.

When running my ecommerce store, which I founded in 2008, I personally secured press coverage in many national glossies and dailies.  I then got too busy so I decided to farm out the PR. When I was no longer in direct control of the messages for the press, who they would be contacting on my behalf and when, I felt that opportunities were slipping through my fingers.

(Below, a few of the publications I personally secured coverage in)

Don’t get me wrong, they did a great job, but each time I spoke to the journalists interested in my luxury knitwear brand, I knew that I was giving much more information out than the PR agency was. In fact the PR agent said to me: “Amanda, you really should do your own PR” when I relayed a recent conversation I had had with a journalist. Little did she know the seed she had just sewn…it is now my mission to empower fellow entrepreneurs with the ‘essential business life skill’ at whatever stage of running their business they are, because self-promotion can be attractive ie it attracts new opportunities!

The reason I succeeded in getting more out of the chats with the journalists is that I knew so much about the business both inside and out, I was on point each time I spoke to them, and even found new opportunities or avenues to explore during each conversation.

So what are you missing out on?

A little CPD goes a long way – why not learn how to do your own PR? On my in-depth but great fun training course, you will learn a lot more about yourself and will able to support your agency much more! And if you aren’t using an agency, you will super enjoy getting the results of shining online and offline!

If you’d like to hear more about the courses, then get in touch at hello@amandaruiz.co.uk

Next week, I will give you Reason 2 so be sure to add your name to receive your 7 Secrets on How to Get into the Press Checklist below and you will receive the next installment!