How to Start a Media & Public Relations Business
Corporations, non-profits and individuals can all take advantage of the work of a media and public relations business. Promoting the company's products and services are an important part of growing market share, exposing the benefits of the company and increasing personal branding in order to grow a successful business.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Decide what specialization you would like to cover in your media & public relations business. If you have a background in a particular field, such as health care, it would be a good idea to start in that field. Media and public relations business do a lot of writing, media story pitching and presentations, so it's important that you are also comfortable doing these activities. If you're feeling a little rusty, it may help to join a public relations association like the Public Relations Society of America (see the link below) to get caught up on recent trends.
-
2
Develop a list of potential clients that you could contact that may be interested in using your services. These people may be former clients (if you worked at a PR firm) or people you've met at chamber of commerce functions, business expos or other events. Organize the contacts by need (i.e., press releases, overall PR strategy, etc.) in a contact management program for ease of use.
-
-
3
Put together a list of local, state, regional and national media outlets. You can either put this list together yourself by going to the various media websites (very time consuming) or can purchase a media contact book or software like BurrellesLuce (see the link below) that has the updated contacts for all the media outlets nationwide. There's a high rate of turnover among journalists, and it's important to have the most up-to-date contact information for them. There's nothing worse than sending a release to the wrong person, following up, and then finding out she left 6 months ago!
-
4
Develop a list of vendors (graphic designers, printers, mail houses, etc.) that you can set up meetings with to help you on some of your media and public relations projects. In order to save costs, using freelancers is recommended. Make sure to ask for references and do some due diligence of their work. You can use websites like Elance or SoloGig to find the appropriate support staff you need.
-
5
Make wide use of technology, not only to find clients to help jumpstart your business, but also to support your clients when you get them. There are many social networking sites out there that are geared towards business owners. One of the most popular is LinkedIn. This site can help you "link" to many potential clients, as well as find groups and media outlets that may be interested in your client's message.
-
1
