Effective Public Relation Strategies That Drive Traffic
There are many effective public relations strategies that drive traffic and are essential to the growth of small businesses, both on and off the Internet.
Well planned public relation campaigns can be costly; but they do get people talking about you, and raise awareness of your business.
Many small businesses don’t have the resources, or the time to conduct a full scale public relations campaign. But, they can still build buzz around their company, and increase their website traffic, by using a few proven low cost strategies.
Traditionally, effective public relations involves working with bloggers, reporters, and other influential people who can either talk or write about your company in a way that benefits it.
Although these traditional strategies are effective, they tend to be trite in many people’s minds.
Building relationships takes time, and the following tactics are the most time tested, effective public relation strategies that drive traffic on the Internet.
- Learn to write press releases about your new products or services.
Press or news releases are effective public relations strategies that drive traffic and actually work phenomenally well.
Many sites, including this one, can provide you information on how to write an effective press release.
Just make sure that your release is “newsworthy” and keep it simple. Don’t use technical industry jargon that muddles the water; just write to your customer. Explain to them how it will benefit them or make their lives easier to live.
Get the most affordable or free distribution method for your news release.
You can use a news wire, which can be quite costly, a web only press release service, which is often free or less costly, or just post it on your website or blog and share it with reporters or other influential friends.
- Learn about influential bloggers, personalities, or news reporters who cover your niche; strike up a conversation and see if they might be interested in your news.
Get sociable and learn to build relationships with people who might just think about you or your business the next time they have a story to write.
- Learn about and sign up for, “Help A Reporter Out”.
This is a free service that was started by people in the public relations industry to help reporters with sources for their stories.
The newsletter at helpareporterout.com, is full of public relations opportunities, that can be used to create effective public relations strategies that drive traffic .
- Learn about Twitter and other social media sites that can be used for effective public relations strategies that drive traffic.
Start Twittering people in your niche market and actively engage them in some conversation about your business. Don’t try to sell your products directly or promote yourself.
Instead, use a subtle approach and talk about what your followers are talking about. Get them interested enough in your profile to click on your website URL, where the selling actually occurs.
- Learn how to guest blog on sites that are similar to your niche market.
Positioning yourself as an “expert” by guest blogging on a regular basis, will gradually grow you a following that will generate backlinks to your website, increase your credibility, and increase your search engine ranking for your website.
These are only a few of the effective public relations strategies that drive traffic, gain additional exposure for your business, and increase your bottom line.
