Should You Learn to DIY PR?
Round Up: 8 Entrepreneurs Answer “Is it worth learning to DIY PR?”
Brand Exposure. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Influence. Public Perception. Impressions. Digital Audience. Total Gross Sales. Market Value. Market Share. Credibility.
Did you know that all of these words are affected by the greater umbrella that is public relations?
So, have you ever asked yourself if PR could help your business? Furthermore, have you ever been anxious or unsure if hiring a public relations firm would ultimately prove worth the investment?
Well, let’s reference the above keywords. Do any of these terms hold influence over the success of your brand? Do any of these topics align with your present or future company goals? If so, then the answer is yes. Public relations can help your business.
Now, can you afford it?
The answer to this question becomes a huge roadblock for more entrepreneurs than not. Because, in reality, hiring a PR firm can be expensive. Some of even the smallest agencies can start at $3,000 a month; if you start going mainstream, companies can pay upwards of $50,000 PER MONTH for a PR agency. Multiply that by a minimum 6 month retainer, and you’re looking at quite an investment.
This price tag simply isn’t realistic for every business owner when they’re in early growth mode. Fortunately, hiring an agency is not the end all be all. Other options do exist. For example, why not learn to DIY PR?
I asked a diverse panel of entrepreneurs their own thoughts on the following three questions:
1. Have you had any PR success without hiring a PR firm?
2. Do you encourage other entrepreneurs to learn how to DIY
PR? Why or why not?3. What is your number one piece of advice for how or where
entrepreneurs can learn to DIY PR.
What did they have to say? Well, read on!
Arthur Bretschneider, CEO and Founder of Seniorly.com
Q1: Have you had any PR success without hiring a PR firm?
Seniorly has had the pleasure of working with a fantastic local PR agency, but our early-stage budget constraints prevented us from continuing. We took it in-house. What we found was the approach became more personalized and customized. We scour the web every day for reporters writing about our industry, then speak to them about future collaborations. This has worked wonders for us, including earning mentions in The New York Times, Medium, Bustle, and other great online domains. For SEO purposes, there is enormous value in collaborating with writers in our space and adjacent industries to capitalize on their domain authority and social following.
Q2: Do you encourage other entrepreneurs to learn how to DIY PR? Why or why not?
I strongly encourage other entrepreneurs to try doing their own PR. It will help them fine tune their brand message and discover if there is a viable market for their business.
Q3: What is your number one piece of advice for how or where entrepreneurs can learn to DIY PR.
If you are doing DIY PR, the number one piece of advice I would give is don’t just write reporters with an ask. Get to know them. Build relationships. This longer term investment will lead to much greater rewards.”
Ben Taylor, Founder, HomeWorkingClub
Q1: Have you had any PR success without hiring a PR firm?
I’ve single-handedly managed to have myself and my company mentioned in a wide range of places: The New York Times, Lifehack, Fox News, Business Insider, and many others. I’ve done this purely by sending MANY carefully-considered and relevant pitches to journalist requests.
Q2: Do you encourage other entrepreneurs to learn how to DIY PR? Why or why not?
This depends very much on their type of business and their other time commitments. As a content producer, sending out pitches to journalists is both a logical complement to the other work I’m doing, and something that’s well within my comfort zone. On the flip-side, entrepreneurs who don’t naturally come up with soundbites and journalist-friendly content could waste a lot of time and be better off hiring an agency.
Q3: What is your number one piece of advice for how or where entrepreneurs can learn to DIY PR.
Learn as much as you can from professional PR people. I’ve been fortunate enough to be the interface for PR agencies in previous companies, and my wife also happens to be a PR exec, so I had a bit of a head-start!
Jennifer Glass, CEO, Business Growth Strategies International, LLC
Q1: Have you had any PR success without hiring a PR firm?
Yes — I have been making outreach attempts to various media outlets over the last 15+ years, creating relationships and pitching stories without directly hiring or engaging a PR firm. Using that outreach along with tools like HARO, Qwoted, etc., I have been picked up and featured in many publications including CNBC, The Lending Times, NY Enterprise Report and other outlets including CBS, NBC, ABC & Fox local channels.
Q2: Do you encourage other entrepreneurs to learn how to DIY
PR? Why or why not?
It comes down to what kind of business the entrepreneur is in and how PR may help them. If the business is a small bagel shop, for example, PR can be a benefit of bringing people in, but may cost more time to create a DIY PR strategy than it may result in business or other returns. If the business is a professional services firm, the value of being in the media is dwarfed by the investment of time to create the relationships.
Q3: What is your number one piece of advice for how or where
entrepreneurs can learn to DIY PR.
Before embarking on your own campaign for DIY PR, think about what you want to get out of the PR. Is it recognition as an expert? Is it visitors to your business? Is it to raise awareness of your cause? There are many ways that publicity can help a business grow. One of the easiest and least expensive (read free) is to be an author — have your book published, have a “media sheet” with questions already written down for the media to ask you (they don’t have time to read your book along with everyone else’s they interview) and make it interesting for them to want to work with you. If you book directly ties into the “why you are doing the PR outreach,” then you can meet your objectives and know that your message is being seen/heard.
Tyler Bech, Co-Founder, Guzzle H2O:
Q1: Have you had any PR success without hiring a PR firm?
Guzzle H2O is a bootstrapped startup, so we don’t feel like spending money on a PR firm is within our budget. So we have hit up podcasts, websites, outdoor magazines, and social media to get the word out. The first podcast we got on 10x’d the traffic to our website, and helped expose us to a broad range of new customers. The impact we have seen has really been cumulative, with each PR connection and placement building on everything that came before to drive traffic and sales.
Q2: Do you encourage other entrepreneurs to learn how to DIY
PR? Why or why not?
I definitely encourage other entrepreneurs to learn to do their own PR. It’s not as hard as it sounds, and you end up making business connections that a PR agent not as familiar with your needs and brand would miss.
Q3: What is your number one piece of advice for how or where
entrepreneurs can learn to DIY PR.
Look everywhere to make PR connections, you never know what will lead to a placement. Have one person focus on pursuing these connections.
Francois Mathieu, Co-Founder, Hojicha Co.
Q1: Have you had any PR success without hiring a PR firm?
When we started Hojicha Co., we built a list of all the media outlets that would potentially be interested in covering our launch. We then crafted a press release that described in detail our company’s story, our products, and our vision in about 500 words. We pitched the press release to close to 50 reporters, while spending most of the time customizing messages to our favorite media outlets. We were able to secure a mention or an article in about 25% of the media sites, including our top 3 preferred sites. Some of them even published the press release as is since they liked the way it was structured.
Q2: Do you encourage other entrepreneurs to learn how to DIY
PR? Why or why not?
The good thing about doing PR yourself is that you’re building long term relationships with reporters and content writers. The next time you have a new product or some news to share with the world, they will be more receptive to your pitch if they’ve worked with you directly in the past. You also have more control over the message you want to convey to the public. But DIY PR is a lot of work, and you need to dedicate enough time to it.
Q3: What is your number one piece of advice for how or where
entrepreneurs can learn to DIY PR.
In my opinion, PR comes down to only a few things, but mainly relationships and storytelling. It’s important to start building a network early on, even before you need the help of reporters. Sometimes you need to help them out first before you can ask for something in return. You also need to constantly improve on your company’s story and on your personal storytelling skills. Everyone likes to hear a good story, especially reporters!
Hassan Alnassir, Founder and Owner, Premium Joy
Q1: Have you had any PR success without hiring a PR firm?
I recently replied to a Forbes query on HARO and fortunately my response was published in their article, which is one of the most successful placements I have received for my business so far. Because of having my brand and name mentioned on Forbes, I was approached directly by a huge business-related media outlet to give quotes for their upcoming article. The website that asked me for a media comment receives millions of unique visitors every single month; this opened my eyes to the high authority gain of having one’s name listed in any major news outlet.
Q2: Do you encourage other entrepreneurs to learn how to DIY
PR? Why or why not?
I absolutely encourage other entrepreneurs to learn how to perform PR themselves, which helps to save a lot of money plus allows them to build personal relationships with reporters and journalists. A single mention on a major media outlet can cost a fortune if you were to hire a PR agency to do the job.
Q3: What is your number one piece of advice for how or where
entrepreneurs can learn to DIY PR.
Business owners can learn how to execute PR themselves through simply searching on Google, since everything you need to know about public relations can be found online free of charge. As with other things in life, practice makes perfect, you have to apply the PR information you learn by pitching publications and blogs, whether directly or through publicity tools like HARO.
Romy Taormina, Founder and CEO, Psi Health Solutions, Inc., the maker of Psi Bands
Q1: Have you had any PR success without hiring a PR firm?
YES. Psi Bands have an impressive media reach including features on/in most every major newspaper, Entpreneur Magazine, Oprah’s Magazine, etc. A large majority of those features have come as a result of DIY PR using HARO.
Most recently, as a result of replying to HARO queries, Psi Bands were featured in Travel+Lesiure, The Daily Beast, and Macaroni Kid National. Just today I pitched a major publication, and they will be featuring my suggested “time saving tips.”
Q2: Do you encourage other entrepreneurs to learn how to DIY PR? Why or why not?
YES. You can have huge, positive results with little to no cash outlay. Sometimes we have to submit a product sample, but that is a very minimal cost if the upside is a feature in an impressive and notable publication.
Q3: What is your number one piece of advice for how or where entrepreneurs can learn to DIY PR.
If they can follow directions, write/type, and have an electronic device, then they should sign up for HARO, which is free, and start pitching.
Doug Morneau, Founder , Real Marketing Real Fast
Q1: Have you had any PR success without hiring a PR firm?
I have been successful gaining PR in local, regional, and national newspapers, websites, and many podcasts interviews.
Initially I set a goal to earn 12 PR articles in 12 months. Began with the local and regional newspapers, reached out to reporters with either a pitch, offer to share research, or followed up on a current article they published that I could relate my expertise to their current story. The outcomes have been front cover story in the business section, and several articles.
As a podcaster myself, I have met other podcasters at business events and conferences and been invited to be a guest interviewed on their shows, or have been invited to be a guest after interviewing them on my show.
Q2: Do you encourage other entrepreneurs to learn how to DIY
PR? Why or why not?
Yes. I encourage entrepreneurs to leverage DIY PR. Why? Because it works well. I have more earning media success doing it myself than when I had a PR firms working for me.
Q3: What is your number one piece of advice for how or where
entrepreneurs can learn to DIY PR.
The number one piece of advice is to start now, you don’t need to be big or famous. Start with your local media because regional and national media may also pick up and run the story.
