HOW PR AND SOCIAL CAN WORK FOR YOU THE DO’S AND DON’TS TO HELP NEW RETAILERS SURVIVE AND SUCCEED
In Partnership with:
HOW PR AND SOCIAL MEDIA CAN WORK FOR YOU
Kevin Read, Executive Chairman of Bell Pottinger
For any new business, even before the digital age, spreading the word is absolutely crucial. Start-up retailers are unlikely to be blessed with large marketing budgets, but PR and social media can provide powerful tools. We asked one of the UK’s leading PR experts, Kevin Read, Executive Chairman of Bell Pottinger (Corporate, brand, digital & design) for his top tips.
LET’S GET STARTED Taking the plunge and starting a new business is never easy. Securing the finance, finding the premises, negotiating the lease and refining the product all loom large. So much so that sometimes the important tasks of getting noticed, encouraging initial trial and being recommended fall into a secondary ‘must get around to’ list. Given every new business has a unique template the ‘must get around to’ lists are always different. Different pressure points mean there is no single answer to how to ensure, you, your business and your products and services become better known, trialled and trusted. But, there are a number of core PR and social media approaches that can be adopted on a modest basis and pursued with enthusiasm and focus. You don’t need to be an award winning writer or an expert social media coder to get started. FIRST STEPS Before devising your plan of action you must be very clear about your market. You need to understand the profiles of the customers you want to appeal to, and ideally the media they consume and the social media they use. This approach
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means you communicate in the right language and avoid generic messages that fail to attract interest from those you want to appeal to. When starting a business it can be easy to underestimate all the people you know and how via them you can reach out to wider network of prospects. Social network theory tells us that some people are more important than others – the so called influencers. Often it is the people with whom we have weak connections that we are most likely to do business with. This means it is vital to explore social routes to reach out to our networks, and communicating via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter can become very important. WEB PRESENCE Many start-up advisors would today recommend the need for a web site. They would be right but the key point is that it doesn’t need to be all singing all dancing from day one. For many small businesses – a small site – built using a simple platform with easy to edit pages will suffice. Naturally, careful attention needs to be paid to the look and feel. External design input can be very helpful. This is an area where most SMEs will need expert advice.
YOUR STORY Talking to the media, bloggers or social media contacts about your new business will be vital. But before you pick–up the phone, post an article or send a tweet you need to think very carefully about your story.
THE GOLDEN RULES: • Tailor your plan to your market • Leverage your networks
The essence of your first story will focus on why you have started your business. There are many approaches – but one of the most straightforward involves answering three central questions.
• Create a modest web presence
What problem does your business solve
• Approach local and trade media
What is your unique solution What benefits will you bring to your customers Alongside your answers you will need to decide who the face for the business is. You might consider working with a specialist to finalise your story and to package it for the media and the social media world. TRIAL Kick-starting a business will always involve trial. You need to find ways for influencers, critics and followers of fashion to try your products. The digital world is perfectly suited to devising ways to make unique start-up offers. Picking-out key individuals, including bloggers, for either free or discounted trails will be important. Sending them personalised messages via an array of social channels should be high on your ‘let’s try’ list. Securing local or trade media coverage can also provide a perfect platform for encouraging people to discover more about your business, possibly through your website where you might host a time limited offer. MONITOR AND ADAPT Whatever programme you put together it is important to watch carefully reactions. If the media take your story in a certain direction seek to build on it. If one product line out performs another be prepared to adapt. Analyse your web and social media statistics regularly. LOOK FOR PATTERNS. Use the data to help plan future products or services. If all goes well enter an award or two. KEEP-GOING Very few brands are overnight successes. Carefully planned communications – in classic or digital form - will be a vital ingredient for your business to get noticed and be trusted. Along the way you will face criticism. But my advice is listen, learn, adapt and be persistent.
• Devise stories for your business • Engineer ways to encourage trial • Monitor how it is going • Keep going
HOW TO TELL YOUR BUSINESS STORY • Work out what challenge your business addresses • Be clear about the solution your product or service provides (the point of difference) • Highlight the benefits that flow from your offer • Identify a face for the business, product or service • Devise the headline for your businesses launch • Prepare content for distribution in print and digital forms • Consider working with a specialist to get your story out 3
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