Press Release Ideas for Small Businesses: A Complete Guide

Press releases, both traditional and online are powerful tools of marketing, especially for small businesses which are often overlooked. So here are some press release ideas.

Press releases have long been an indispensable source of marketing and spreading brand awareness for businesses of all kinds, shapes, and sizes. A PR( Press Release) is a simple, easy, yet effective way to get out the word of anything new, anything major, anything newsworthy. These official announcements can stimulate interest and motivate action. Businesses, especially small businesses that are new to the industry or have not been able to generate much visibility in the market can benefit vastly from these text-based announcements. PRs are also affordable, so they would not require a huge marketing budget to begin with.

If you are looking for some effective press release ideas that can generate brand awareness, and increase brand visibility on the market, here are some valuable ones. But before moving forward, the understanding of why you should send a press release is important.

Importance of Sending a Press Release:

As mentioned earlier, publishing frequent press releases is incredibly helpful in generating brand awareness and recognition on the market. But it has various benefits beyond that. They are –

• Help businesses gain media coverage from various media outlets in the industry. Gaining positive media coverage improves and solidifies a brand’s image in the eyes of its existing and potential customers.
• Help boost the brand’s reputation in the market by giving it a positive, credible, and authoritative image.
• Increase brand exposure in the market.
• Help get noticed by a vast audience pool.
• Help the brand build backlinks from trusted and authoritative media sites.
• Help boost search engine rankings on the SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page) which improved web traffic, and brand visibility online.
• Help the business generate fresh sales and more leads.
• Help the brand manage a crisis and control the narrative, giving it a chance to repair the damage.

When Should a Small Business Publish PRs?

Social media and content marketing both give huge importance to press releases. According to reports, nearly 80% of content marketers think of PRs as an integral part of their marketing campaigns. However, this does not mean that you can and should start publishing PRs on every occasion or randomly. You need to be selective when you are sending and writing your next press release. The first step is getting the timing right by experiencing any newsworthy events, or accomplishments that you can share with the general public. Give importance to the content being newsworthy, because if the writing does not contain anything newsworthy, publications will not bother sharing it with the public.

To figure out the newsworthy events, think of the time when you are hiring new executives or any management changes. You can also send out press releases to announce the arrival of any new product or service or getting a brand opening somewhere else. This news will help you build a buzz in the market and put the brand in the public eye.

How Should You Select a Topic for Your Press Release?

The target audience for your PRs is journalists and reporters from media outlets that already go through hundreds of PR emails every day. The question is why should they select yours, what makes you different from others? Among other significant points, a major point that creates a huge difference is relevancy. Your topic should be relevant and newsworthy. But how do you select it? Let’s figure it out.

• Past Six Months – while selecting a topic for your next PR, think of the last six months and what your company has done recently. Reviewing what you have done in the last six months will help you find potential topics, as there is always a chance that you simply forgot to announce an important topic.
• Making a List – Now that you have jotted down what events you have missed in the past six months, make two separate lists. One for the past six months, and one for the upcoming six months.
• Team Talk – If you are struggling to find topics for the next PR, talk to your team members who can provide you with some outside perspective.
• Single Out the Ideas – after you are done researching and gathering topics, it is now time to single them out according to their newsworthiness and relevancy. Also, make sure you are finding the right balance when you are publishing the PR. Sharing information too early can make the journalists forget about your content, and on the other hand, sharing it at the last minute can take away its importance.

5 Press Release Ideas for Small Businesses –

1. New Product, Feature, or Service –

Is there a new product, or new service that you are launching soon? It is the perfect opportunity to share the news with the general public as well as the shareholders. Announcing this can be a great way to attract new customers, generate buzz, and increase visibility on the market. You might want to copy these announcements and mail them to the existing customers so they know what is coming.

2. Hosting an Event –

To make any event successful, you would need publicity. Press releases work best when it comes to getting the word out and getting people talking. You can share upcoming events like fundraising events or business opportunities along with results. You can even share a follow-up story on the event to get the maximum out of it.

3. Award or Recognition –

Similarly, another perfect opportunity to use PRs is when the company wins an award or recognition. This gives the company a positive image and credibility, helping the customers build trust in the brands. Press releases work amazingly in getting your award the recognition and attention it deserves.

4. Employee Update or Change –

Sharing news about your employee team, especially when there is a major change that is happening among your team gives another opportunity to share a PR. This helps the brand show that it is growing and at the same time shows that the company values its team. This on the one hand gives off the message that it gives importance to its team members, increasing respect in its employees. On the other hand, the public gains trust in the brand as well.

5. Market Research –

Market research works marvelously when it comes to building credibility and brand awareness in the industry. If your company is researching to understand market trends or build support for a new service or product, you can share this in the form of a PR that demonstrates the brand’s expertise.

Press releases can be powerful tools that are easy to write and affordable, especially for small businesses, so make sure to take advantage.