We’re nearing the end of 2019, so its only natural to think it’s time to wind down your business PR efforts for this year. Why not end the year in style instead?
Keep pitching!
Pitch, pitch and more pitching throughout December! You’ve probably spent a couple of months building up a relationship with your target journalists and publications, so don’t go quiet on them now! Relationships will fritter out far more quickly than the time you need to build them.
If you really feel you have no real news to share, why not try some guest articles or build up some case studies with your clients. You could set up some media monitoring to give you some ideas. Other businesses similar to yours may be devising all sorts of stories you could replicate in your own way. If you are not sure what media monitoring is, I describe it as listening to what others are saying about your brand or business, your competitors and your sector. This can include any subject that is of importance to your business.
Try setting up some Google or Talkwalker alerts and check out your platforms which are linked to your social media accounts, such as Hootsuite. Twitter can give you some excellent search results too, so make sure you are au-fait with the advanced search options and give it a go.
Keep posting!
The holidays might just seem like the time when social media use would go down, but in fact, it goes up! When you’ve eaten your fill, drunk more sherry than was wise and walked the dog to exhaustion, you will very likely sit back and start scrolling!
The holidays give you the perfect excuse to have some fun with your business social media too – it is the season to be jolly after all! Pretty much everything goes. Try changing your logo with a festive update or offering exclusive promotions and competitions throughout the holiday period.
Ask for some reviews for your business too. Strange as it may sound, people often have a bit more time so are more likely to be receptive to review requests and help spread the word about your business.
Try exploring IGTV or Facebook Live? There should be plenty to share.
Why not share a review of your last year’s success and take a little time to reflect on how well your small business has done?
Hang fire!
Of course, it does make sense to hang fire with any major announcements until the early part of the year. Newspapers or magazines will still be covering Christmas and New Year news or features. Your business news could fall on deaf ears, so it is better to wait until everyone is back at work in January.
However, it is the ideal time to plan your first PR foray for early in the New Year to make sure your business is in the news quickly as people to start to return to a typical working day.
Take a little while to have a think through what you can send to journalists in the early part of the year.
It is also a great time to have a look at the options for awards for your business. There are plenty available from business to industry awards.
Evaluate and plan
You can use the end of the year to evaluate the past twelve months and prepare for the next. If you have not set up any monitoring for your PR output, set it up ready for next year.
Decide on the measurements you want to measure. They could be media coverage, social media mentions, gained backlinks or increased visits to your website following defined activities. It could be the number of downloads for each piece of content you have issued or an increase in your domain authority (DA).
Markdown your measurements for this year in readiness for next. Tweak them if you need to. The most common measurements for growing businesses are:
Lead volumes – how many leads are you capturing and from where?
Referred traffic to your website – from external media or other sites.
Social engagement – how many of your users are engaging with your different social media channels and content? Is one channel working better than another?
So, don’t put your feet up just yet. There’s plenty more you can do, and you might just hit on some unique opportunities which your competitors may miss. If you do need a little help as you plan your next year, get in touch as we are happy to advise you or work with you to boost your PR activity.
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