We’re speaking in June at the British Business Show on PR tips for small businesses

Getting press and online coverage to boost your business’s sales and search engine rankings can be done successfully, even on a limited or zero budgets.

At the impending British Business Show at Excel, PRmyBusiness’s Tim Prizeman will be sharing tips on how you too can get high-impact press coverage for your business.

The show is Britain’s largest event for SME companies and entrepreneurs, and Tim’s talk to business owners from around the country is on Thursday 6 June at lunchtime.  For free entry and to register for one of the limited remaining places for Tim’s talk, please click here.

We do hope you will be able to join us for a great event and an invaluable talk.  But if you can’t make it, we will also be doing a webinar later in the year – watch out for details in our mailings and social media.

PRmyBusiness’s Tim Prizeman speaks on PR for small businesses at Excel

On our blog we have posted several PR tips for accountants looking to get great publicity for their firm.  Click here to read our accountants’ Public Relations tips.

On this page we tackle a few of the misconceptions that either stop many accountants from doing PR at all or, if they start, causes disappointing results.

To discuss how a PR campaign could help your firm, please contact PRmyBusiness on 020 7242 2286.

Misconception one:  PR is all about announcing what your firm has done

We wouldn’t dissuade you from announcing a new client, a new partner or an event you have organised.  But a quick look at most publications will show that there are many more opportunities from applying your business and technical knowledge to advise businesses and families on the impact of events (and what they should do as a result).  There  are lots of opportunities for getting publicity that display your expertise through providing advice and comment – whether in press interviews or advice articles.

Misconception two:  press interviews should only be done by one or two senior partners

When you are talking to the media about an important development at your accountancy firm, it is right that such interviews are normally done by the managing or senior partner.  But most opportunities are around topical comment and advice.  Other partners should not take the lead here.  To spread the workload,  why not create a “media club” or enthusiastic managers and associates who can also be involved with drafting articles, writing press releases, social media and generally getting things done.

Misconception three:  PR is all about writing press releases

Not so.  Press releases are a good way of getting standard information to a wide range of media quickly in a formal way.  But they can also be cumbersome to get written and approved, especially if you are only dealing with a few media or are in a hurry to react and comment quickly to a breaking news story.  The phone, email and (sometimes) Twitter are all great ways to communicate with journalists – and if you speak with a journalist on the phone it allows you to build up an all-important business relationship with them.

Misconception four:  the impact of PR can’t be measured

Not so.  The fact is that many accountancy firms aren’t good at assessing the impact of any of their marketing activities.  While it would be great if a piece of press coverage immediately led to a sales meeting it will also be having a big impact on prospects, clients and referrers.  There are lots of ways of measuring the impact on your different audiences.  An example is measuring and analysing the traffic to your website (when people read about you, the next step is likely to be to look at the website) and capturing the email of visitors to your website (so you can follow how such leads develop into relationships and ultimately into clients).

Accountancy practices: How PRmyBusiness can help

The PRmyBusiness team can help your accountancy firm in many ways– these include:

• A free PR consultation for your accountancy firm.  For further details about our click here: free Public Relations help for accountants.  Also join our mailing list to get details of future free PR consultations.

• We have a great monthly retained PR service for accountancy firms looking for great coverage at a reasonable price.

• Whether it is drafting press releases, a brainstorm or other PR support, we can help.   Please visit our Public Relations shop to see about our PR services and charges.

• Would you like to discuss your PR needs further?  Please call us now – we are on 020 7242 2286.

What do you think?  Add your comments and experiences in the box below:

Our team has been providing Public Relations help to accountants for the past 20+ years continuously!   Once upon a time it was normally only the biggest accountancy firms that undertook PR (after all, once upon a time accountants weren’t even allowed to advertise!).  But it is now common for accountancy firms of all sizes to be interviewed in the media and issuing press releases.

To help your firm get great results with your Public Relations activity, here are a few tips that we hope improve your impact.  If your firm is new to PR, they will still be helpful – but also click here to read about common PR misconceptions accountancy firms (and other professionals) have about PR activity.

We also offer free consultations for businesses – the next ones for accountancy and other professional firms will be made available on Monday 20 May 2013 – click here for more details about free PR help for accountants.

 Tip 1:  PR for accountants – not just at Budget time

The Budget is a big occasion for most accountancy firms.  Reading the voluminous reports at the very least, but also lots of marketing activity including a newsletter and tax facts leaflet, a Budget breakfast and maybe some articles for the website and a seminar.  Many firms do lots of PR at Budget time.  This is great, and if you are getting great coverage you are doing a great job… because this is the most competitive time for accountants as everyone else is doing it.

We certainly wouldn’t dissuade your firm from doing PR at Budget time – there are still plenty of opportunities if you target niche publications with relevant insights.  But DO think of getting coverage at other times too.  You may find that the field is all yours!

Tip 2: The national media is not “off limits” to local firms

Getting coverage in the local media (newspapers, magazines, radio, websites) is great, but many firms don’t think beyond this.  Just because you don’t have offices all over the country, that does not mean you should not aim for national business and sector publications if you have something interesting to say.  If you are a rural practice and, say, have lots of farming clients then you are just the sort of accountants that farming publications want to hear from.  If you have lots of garage or manufacturing clients, then it will really impress your clients and prospects to read about you in the leading titles for these sectors.

Tip 3:  When you get coverage, do something with it

Who are the people most likely to give you work?  For accountants and other professionals it is your contacts – the clients and ex-clients of the firm, referrers, former colleagues, business contacts and prospects who you have already met.  These are the people most likely to give you more work, so make sure they see the coverage (and don’t just hope they will read the article in the publication).  This is where social media is really useful – make sure you post it on LinkedIn and Tweet it.  Give it a mention in your newsletter and list it on your website too – the more use you make of it the better (and the greater the number of people who will know about it).

Tip 4:  Think about “building a relationship” rather than a quick sale

In the consumer world, it is common for the phone to ring off-the-hook with people placing orders after reading a good press article.  Accountants get calls too after great coverage, but if you think about it – deciding to change accountant and move to one you trust is a slow process.  What people may well do after reading your article is visit your website – so make sure you capture their details so you can start building a trusted relationship.

You won’t get their email through the half-hearted “contact us” boxes most professional firms have, nor through having your phone number in the top right!  Instead make sure you have some useful content on the website visitors can download (in exchange for their email) – and make sure there are lots of “calls to action” prompting them to do it.  Once you get the email you can start building the relationship (newsletters, invites, etc) – they may not be ready to use you now, but once you have their details you can make sure they know your accountancy firm for when they are looking for help.

How the PRmyBusiness team can help your accountancy firm.

There are lots of ways the PRmyBusiness team can help your accountancy firm – these include:

• A free PR consultation for your businesses.  Click here for more details about free Public Relations help for accountants, and join our mailing list to be notified of future free PR consultations.

• We provided a great monthly retained PR services for accountancy firms looking for great coverage at a reasonable price.

• If you need help with drafting press releases, a brainstorm or other PR support, please visit our Public Relations shop.

• Want to discuss your PR requirements?  Please call us now to discuss your needs – we are on 020 7242 2286.

What do you think?  Add your comments and experiences in the box below:

PR help small businesses
- CLICK HERE TO TAKE PART

Four free PR consultations available per month until August

To help your business grow in these difficult economic environment, small business Public Relations specialists PRmyBusiness is giving away four free consultations per month from April through to August 2013.

On the third Monday of each month we will be making four free PR consultations available, and the first businesses to register will receive a valuable review and great practical advice that will help them boost their reputation and sales.  CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

The dates to watch-out-for:

The dates when you can apply for these PR consultations are (please click for further details on each):

April - technology businesses  (Monday 15 April at noon)

May - consultancy, financial and professional advisers (Monday 20 May at noon)

June – restaurants, pubs, bars and other catering & hospitality businesses (Monday 17 June at noon)

July - start-up businesses (Monday 15 July at noon)

August - all other types of businesses (Monday 19 August at noon)

How to apply for a free PR consultation for your business

Make sure you join our mailing list to be kept posted of details of these consultations and how to apply.  Click here or use the box at the right toward the top of this screen to join our mailing list, and also make sure you follow us on Twitter by clicking here.

Each free PR consultation will include:

The end result of the consultations with PRmyBusiness will be some great practical advice for easy steps your business can take to use publicity to help you give your business a powerful boost.

First we’ll want to find out a bit about your business and what you want to achieve:  great PR can be really powerful, but needs to be focused onto helping you achieve your most important business objectives.

For instance, some businesses need to stand out in crowded and competitive markets.  For others, especially those competing against larger brands, it is overcoming the “who!?” factor.   For most businesses the online world is really important.  If your business is recommended, the first thing people will do is look you up online.  If you are hard to find or don’t make a great impression then you have already taken a step backwards.

Besides publicity in print publications and news sites, we’ll have a look at what you are doing for the social media that is important to your customers too – whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter or something else.  For many businesses, there are straightforward things that can be done.

Click here or use the box at the right toward the top of this screen to join our mailing list, and also make sure you follow us on Twitter by clicking here.

PRmyBusiness is the specialist PR agency for small businesses, and lots of owners and entrepreneurs are available to give instant reaction.

Comments for journalists from small business

An initial list is here and, after the Budget, others will be adding their comments below.

• Journalists:  please feel free to contact these business owners for interview and DO reuse any of the comments below in articles if you wish!

• Business owners:  please DO add your reaction in the comment box below .

Comment for journalists ahead of the 2013 Budget from small businesses – small business owners available for journalists’ interviews:

Angela Brady, president, Royal Institute of British Architects 

She is also a practicing architect with Brady Mallalieu Architects based in London.  For press interviews with Angela Brady please contact RIBA on 020 7580 5533.

Nuno Dhiren, co-founder, Intern Wise

Intern wise is an online recruitment platform that connects UK businesses with talented students and graudates.  For press interviews contact Nuno Dhiren  on 07528 780 126

Philip Dews, chartered accountant and member professional training college CHE 

For press interviews with Philip Dews, please contact CHE via its website.

Victor Levy, Managing Director, Raphael Property Investment Company 

For press interviews with Victor Levy of Raphael Property Investment Company, please call 020 7935 2770.

Peter  Lane, CEO, MyGR Technology

For press interviews with  Peter Lane of MyGr Technology, please call 020 8656 0187.

Anil Stocker, Head of Policy, Next Generation Finance Consortium 

Anil Stocker is a founder of MarketInvoice.com.  For press interviews with Anil Stocker, please call  0845 548 0508.

Alan Paterson, Ampers & limited 

For press interviews contact Alan Paterson on 07890 629 349 or www.wherewordswork.com

Lars Andersen, Managing Director, My Nametags 

For press interviews, please contact Charlie Staerck on  07917 191 362

Raj Agrawal, Founder and CEO, YourArtBay

For press interviews, please contact  Raj on 0789 414 6861

Anthony Werner,  Managing Director, Shepheard-Walwyn

For press interviews, please contact Anthony Werner on 0208 241 5927 / 0770 8668 319  www.shepheard-walwyn.co.uk /www.ethicaleconomics.org.uk

Diane Shawe,  CEO, Express Training Courses 

For press interviews, please contact Diane Shawe on  0203 551 2621.

John Owrid, IndexB – a research consultancy that analyses an trends in business.

For press interviews, please contact John Orwid on 0207 738 1459

Kirsty McGregor, Founder & Chairman of The Corporate Finance Network 

For press interviews, please contact Kirsty McGregor on 07867 982561

Matthew Jaffa, Federation of Small Businesses

For press interviews please visit http://www.fsb.org.uk/

Brian Sceats, Managing Director, Holiday Marbella

For Press interviews with Brian Sceats, please call 07988 133261

Conrad Ford, Managing Director, Funding Options  

For press interviews, please contact Conrad Ford on 020 7017 3287

Tim Prizeman, owner, PRmyBusiness – 7-person specialist PR agency for small businesses

For press interviews with Tim Prizeman, please call 020 7242 2286

Please see below for comments and interviews being added after the Budget (do check back for further updates):

The 2013  Budget is this Wednesday, and journalists this week are looking to hear from small businesses to hear what they want to see in the Budget and, afterwards, what they think of it.

We believe it is really important that journalists can get comments from small and mid-sized businesses – not just the large corporates and the big accountancy firms that can afford lots of publicity and expensive lobbyists to promote their own views!

To help small businesses have their say in the media, PRmyBusiness has launched a free initiative “Small business Budget comments” and, on Monday, we have launched a special section on the PRmyBusiness.co.uk website dedicated to Budget ideas from small businesses that the media can quote (and who are also available for interviews).

PRmyBusiness would like to invite small business owners to appear on our Small Business Budget Comments page

We will be promoting the page to lots of journalists as a resource for them to use next week for their Budget articles. We want them to reprint comments from the page and also contact the small businesses featured for an interview.

Overall it is intended as a great way for PRmyBusiness clients and followers to get free publicity for their business, while ensuring voices of small businesses are featured in the media.

•  To find out more and add your comments please go to:  http://www.prmybusiness.co.uk/pr-help-and-resources-for-small-businesses-entrepreneurs/the-budget-comments-2013/

We will also be publishing SME business’s Budget reactions straight after the Budget:   Do place a note in your diary to let us have these on Wednesday afternoon!

But it is not just for large businesses with a physical presence.  Any business with a website can export, and 10,000s of chinese students, families and businesspeople visit the UK each year.

- To read the article in The Times please click here  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/article3705469.ece?utm_source=PR+My+Business+-+Newsletter&utm_campaign=dbfa0a8b0e-Chinese_translation_second_attempt1_20_2013&utm_medium=email (a subscription may be required).

- To ensure your website is easy for Chinese businesses and households to find, you need a page with chinese characters.  To have such pages on your website for as little as £35, please click here for full details:  http://www.prmybusiness.co.uk/shop-2/chinese-translation-for-website/?utm_source=PR+My+Business+-+Newsletter&utm_campaign=dbfa0a8b0e-Chinese_translation_second_attempt1_20_2013&utm_medium=email

On a cold Tuesday evening in the Shoreditch area of London, two employees of PRmyBusiness  attend a very useful event listening to stories from those who started their own business. This event was organised by Dreamstake, an on-line site for entrepreneurs which helps identify web-based startups with high growth potential. Dreamstake – which has regular events for entrepreneurs and other start-ups.

At the event, five entrepreneurs spoke of their journeys to success, identifying what they had learnt along the way. It was a fantastic opportunity to hear how simple parts of a business can be overlooked yet be pivotal to the success of your idea.

Here are three of the Top Tips from the evening.

1.       Having a committed CEO

This sounds like an obvious thing to say, but without the CEO being 100% committed to the project, the business will struggle to achieve success. Gerlinde Gniewosz, the CEO Founder of KO-SU talked about her business and creating Zuztertu, an educational mobile app. Gerlinde was told she would struggle to make money in the education sector. However, through persistence and finding like minded people to work with they achieved success.

This compares to Ralph Stenzel, the co-founder & CTO of Dreamstake. He humoured the crowd with a wonderful slideshow (including many pictures of donkeys!) of his history of creating businesses. His second company hit a wall when their CEO decided to get married. This set the company into disarray and left the business in a dead end. It is important to have those at the top bring life into the company and inspire those working for them.

2.       Will your market pay the price you need to charge?

Another aspect which can be easily overlooked, is identifying a target market. You can have the best product the world has ever seen, but if those who would be interested in the product are not aware it exists, then you can fall flat.

When considering your market, looking at your competitors is vital. Stu Green, the Founder of Project Bubble found what your competition charges is important. He started by researching what his customers were willing to pay for his software. However, his customers were developers and joked that they usually expect the software for free! But when Stu settled on a price, it turned out to be too low and did not allow for development of the software. Understanding what others charge and what products they offer, helps to discover where you can fit into the market.

3.       (For us the most important) – PR & Marketing

Another story told to us by Ralph Stenzel was his first start-up business. They became so engrossed in their business, especially on the technology side of the product, that when their Chief Marketing Officer had to go back to Canada because his Visa expired, the business ceased to trade . So, the moral of Ralph’s story was that without any marketing the business can fail to make way in the world of business.

When you are able to undertake your marketing and PR, cheapest does not always means the best. This is something Lenka Gourdie told us, when she was talking about her business Bagservant. With only a small budget for PR, Lenka used the cheapest PR agency she could find. However, once they had signed a six month contract, the press coverage did not materialise.  {If only she had used PRmyBusiness – we do not lock people into long contracts… but we do get great coverage (guaranteed !).}

PRmyBusiness is a pay-as-you-go PR agency which provides fixed-fee low cost services for businesses with small budget. Many of these fixed-price PR services have been created to generate great press coverage without the long and costly “lock ins” of a normal PR agency or freelance. We are passionate about helping small businesses succeed and we can provide help where you need it.  Please click here to find out more in our PR shop.

Jon Bradley is a Reading-based photographer who covers a wide range of commercial, PR and wedding assignments.

Despite there being a very large number of photographers, the PRmyBusiness team was up to the challenge of securing prominent press coverage for Jon to help him stand out, and gain new sales, in this very competitive market.

Our team quickly devised a distinctive angle (that many businesspeople are creating a poor impression by putting self-taken photos on Linke

PRmyBusiness: Financial Times coverage for Thames Valley photographer

dIn, websites and elsewhere – professional images are needed) and identified it as suitable for the weekly “Careerist” column in the Financial Times (a section in which which we have gained coverage for numerous clients).

After we persuasively approach the freelance journalist who is responsible for this column, it was simply a matter of scheduling the interviews for Jon and one of his clients (Ronan Lavelle, chief executive of payments Thames Valley technology start-up Azurati).  The final article appeared within two weeks.

Tim Prizeman of PRmyBusiness said: “The Financial Times is arguably the world’s most influential business newspaper so appearing in it gives businesses of all sizes a huge credibility boost.  As you can imagine there are a lot of photographers in the UK, while photography is a subject the FT rarely covers – however, part of our job is knowing the media thoroughly so we can come upwith great ideas that will secure prominent coverage for even the smallest businesses”.

Jon Bradley said: “I was absolutely delighted with the coverage, and so was my client who was also interviewed for the article.  When PRmyBusiness said they would get me prominent coverage I certainly wasn’t expecting a national newspaper like the Financial Times.  Getting this coverage certainly caught the eye of my clients (I made sure I distributed it to my clients and contacts by email and social media too) and got a lot of very favourable comment.

“When you are in a competitive field like photography securing coverage that positions you as a leader in your field really helps keep you front of mind with clients and referrers”.

This is an except from article in the Financial Times featuring photographer Jon Bradley:

Jon Bradley, the corporate photographer who took Mr Lavelle’s portrait, says that large companies, especially those in image-conscious industries, have long had professional pictures taken of their executives. But the practice has moved beyond the corporate boardroom. “Self-employed people are a real growth area and I’m doing more and more small businesses,” he says.

Mr Bradley believes that the reason he is being hired by more people is that they want what a professional brings. An expert should be able to “produce something suitable for your sector as what works for creatives may not be appropriate for finance services”.

However, there is a danger of going over the top. “I’ve seen a tendency, especially with some American corporate photos to go very overdesigned and stylised, with very busy backgrounds,” says Mr Lavelle.

Of course, for many people, ego will also be an issue – especially if the individual works in an industry which places a premium on looks or age. Mr Bradley says that he does get a few requests for the kind of Photoshop work that will be more familiar to readers of fashion magazines. “It is rare,” he says, but if a client really wants it can be done and very occasionally I do.”

Generally, though, he says, people realise these pictures are for work, not modelling portfolios, “Looks are secondary. People want to get an idea of your personality and anyone can look good in a photo. You want to look like the kind of person they’d like to do business with.”

To read the full article featuring Jon Bradley (and his client Ronan Lavelle, chief executive of payments technology start-up Azurati) please click here

(a subscription to the FT may be required to read the article).

The PRmyBusiness team is off to a flying start to the year – the working year is just 2.5 days old and already two bits of great coverage for two of our technology business clients:

Digital Motive (www.digital-motive.com) – website and online specialists:  authored article on using mobile apps for your small business.

WorksIQ (www.worksiq.com) – innovative CRM to help you know who is looking at your website:  quoted prominently on FressBusinessThinking (being on such highly-rated editorial sites is particularly good for SEO )

To find out how PRmyBusiness can get similar press coverage for your small business, please click here.