By Rich Donley
July 15, 2010
Small to midsize businesses, no matter where they’re located, we recognize that staying successful in a challenged economic environment means maintaining and advancing a competitive edge. To stay competitive includes understanding and communicating what makes your business different from the rest of the pack – over and over again.
Public Relations is About Business Conversations and Priorities
As president of the Detroit chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), I’m one of 350 PRSA-Detroit public relations professionals in southeast Michigan who help people and organizations communicate their value – over and over again – in a competitive environment. Think of the most admired and successful organization you know. Perhaps it is a nonprofit discussing its latest major donation, a manufacturer bringing jobs to the area or a university forecasting the cost of education in 2020. Chances are if your favorite organization made the news, there’s a team of public relations professionals behind it.
The fact is, even the most successful organizations can’t survive if news of their success stays within their four walls. Public relations is meant to help people and organizations define and perpetuate messages to audiences that matter – your employees, those who buy your goods and services, hold your shares of stock, receive health care from your hospital, or get your vote. It’s also meant to help those audiences communicate with you about their needs, values, concerns, struggles and triumphs.
Public relations may seem easy to some, but others overcomplicate it and oftentimes misunderstand it. Public relations is one of the most important functions in an organization.
As operating budgets get tighter and competitive pressures mount, it’s frightfully easy for business owners to place priority on what it takes to make a business run, such as equipment, supplies, signage and inventory. In fact, the need to make a business run is driven by the need for customers to buy what you have to sell, hear what you have to say or act upon your advice – repeatedly. Public relations is the engine that can increase awareness, soften the sales cycle, drive customers to the door and cultivate long-term recognition and success.
Three Easy Ways to Start Communicating
Public relations goes well beyond issuing press releases. It’s about crafting, communicating and repeating messages – to your employees, customers, prospects and other key stakeholders – that reflect who you are, your customers or audiences and their needs, and how your business can help address them.
The universe of public relations strategies to employ can be vast and difficult to navigate. Here are three easy ways for small and midsize businesses to start communicating effectively today:
1. Monitor and analyze the conversation about your business, competitors and industry. Conduct an online search – in your Internet search engine, on Facebook and on Twitter – of your business, competitors and industry.
• Who is talking about you, and what are they saying? If the news is good, congratulations – but recognize that change is inevitable, and good news may not last long. If the news is bad or nonexistent, you’ve got work to do. What is the problem? What can you do to solve it?
• What are your competitors saying that you’re not – about the issues, their customers or their offerings?
• What are the issues keeping your customers awake at night? Have you expressed or defined a point of view on those issues and shared it?
2. Develop value-driven messaging and an elevator speech. You should succinctly tell your story in one or two sentences as an overarching message, with three supporting points.
• Don’t overcomplicate it. Stick to the point, and make it easy to commit to memory.
• Include what problems your product or service solves – and how it solves them better, faster or more efficiently than your competitors. These can help define your value proposition, and also can form the basis for simple, repeatable key messages to help differentiate your business.
• Your employees should be some of your best sales people. Beyond knowing the “company line,” empower them to make the key messages their own. This comes from open and frequent internal communication.
3. Get out there! Look for opportunities to apply your knowledge of your industry, competitors and messaging to drive business value.
• Consider issuing a press release surrounding your organization’s news. Make sure it is truly newsworthy; otherwise consider alternate distribution channels (i.e., newsletter, social media, website, etc.).
• Use social media outlets (such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) to convey your presence at an industry event or to share a point of view on a pervasive issue confronting your industry and customer base.
• Use your value-driven messaging as the basis for targeted marketing to prospective customers. The positive response you receive – and business momentum you gain – may surprise you.
The economy, dare we say it, is beginning to show some signs of recovery, and the need for small and midsize businesses to stay competitive has never been stronger. Small and midsize business owners should spend time now communicating their value repeatedly. Public relations can be complex, but its premise is as simple as getting out there and differentiating yourself from the competition. It can serve as the driver of a successful future.
Rich Donley, APR, is president of the Detroit Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, the world’s largest organization for public relations professionals. The local chapter (http://www.prsadetroit.org) was established in 1947, is one of six founding PRSA chapters and one of the largest. Rich also serves as vice president and cleantech/industrial industry leader at Airfoil,, an independent firm specializing in marketing communications and public relations for technology companies, with offices in Southfield, Mich. and Mountain View, Calif.