Public Relations: Only For Big Corporates Or Also For You As A Solopreneur?
The 3 key differences in PR work and how to use them for your business.
“PR is only for big cooperations. I don’t have the time and budget”
I hear this sentence a lot from solopreneurs and it makes me sad. Sad because this misbelief prevents them from using a very powerful tool to build their brand and attract leads.
Truth is, PR is for everybody, not only for big cooperations. Both big and small businesses can benefit from increased visibility and trust.
In the past, I’ve done PR campaigns for many international companies. Now, I’m both working with enterprises and solopreneurs to position themselves in the media.
And from my experience, what differentiates press work in both segments is not the benefits and results, but the tools and story angles used to build their reputation.
In this article, I’m going to walk you through the biggest distinctions in how media clippings are generated by corporations and solopreneurs.
Developing Stories
In Public Relations, everything starts with a good story.
The story is the lowest common denominator.
It’s also the reason why PR is more effective than advertising. With Public Relations and stories, we aim to provide value to the reader, thereby building a positive image that indirectly increases sales because people prefer our brand over another.
Advertising, on the other hand, directly influences people to buy something at that moment.
The story is at the heart of each great press activity you do. But not everybody can tell the same stories. Interestingly, the stories corporates and solopreneurs tell are not too different.
Corporates often share news about or position their
- new products, features, and services,
- their CEO, and
- industry insights.
The same is true for solopreneurs, however, the angle is a bit different.
If you’re a solopreneur, your business is much more concentrated around you as an individual. You alone present your company and everything you do can be tied back to you as a person.
As a result, your stories will root in
- your founder's story,
- your expertise,
- the problem you solve for people,
- your product (if you have a tangible one).
For solopreneurs and individuals, it is often harder to get their media relations going because they still have to prove their credibility to the journalist.
Companies on the other hand, because of their nature, have a bit of a head start. They are perceived as established and trustworthy, simply because of their legal structure.
However, this shouldn’t keep you from starting your press work. If you have the right strategy and process, you’ll soon experience the benefits.
The PR Tools To Use
Like any other industry, PR has changed a lot in the last twenty years and it will continue to evolve.
When I started working in PR ten years ago, it was as simple as writing a press release and sending it to twenty journalists to get five press clippings from it. This is not the case anymore.
Due to job cuttings, which leave more work for one press contact, journalists are overwhelmed. It doesn’t help that many companies and solopreneurs do (poor) PR work.
Nowadays, it’s more important than ever that you nail your story and use the right approach in contacting the journalist. Luckily, there are resources that teach you how the strategy behind great PR work and how and when to use each tool.
Let’s look at the differences between enterprises and individuals.
Corporates
How did the myth emerge that PR is only for big corporates?
I believe this misbelief partly emerged because people see the following activities when they think about PR:
- Press events
- Press excursions
- Influencer Cooperations
- Press boxes
- Media Cooperations
Yes, these activities require more time and money to implement than writing a text for a blog. Two things solopreneurs usually don’t have.
As a soloBRANDeur, you already know that isn’t necessarily an excuse for not trying, because if you have the right strategy and process, everything is possible.
However, enterprises also use
- Press releases
- Interviews
to position themselves.
Solopreneurs
Especially when you start working on your PR strategy, you will first have to build your reputation. As a result, not all PR tools will be suitable.
Instead, you can focus on the following:
- Guest articles in newspapers and magazines
- Guest articles in blogs
- Interviews in all kinds of media
- Press boxes
- Creator collaborations
As the industry becomes more and more digital, you will have even more methods at your disposal.
Public Relations is a creative discipline. You’re welcome to experiment with new story-method-platform mixes all the time. Don’t do what everybody else is doing.
Plus, enterprises are doing that too. They are testing new ideas to see what works for them and how they can stand out. Solopreneurs should do that too.
The Time Invested
Time is one of the biggest issues for self-employed people.
I get it. You don’t have a big team behind you that helps you with selling your services or products, customer service, marketing, design, and administration.
So, you might wonder how on earth you can find the time to do PR like the big corporates, right? Fun fact: You don’t have to.
I’m not going to lie to you. Yes, the way companies do PR does take up a lot of time. That’s why they have full-time employees.
You won’t get a press event with journalists scheduled in five hours. But you can get yourself into one or two media outlets in less than five hours.
And when you do that, you’ll build your reputation over time and become a recognized expert in the field, which leads to
- journalists proactively reaching out to you,
- more leads and customers over time,
- more money coming in in the long run.
Note that I stressed the time factor here too.
PR is not something you do for one or two months. It is not something that brings immediate results, that’s what performance marketing is for.
PR is a long-term strategy to create an image for your brand in public so you acquire clients automatically over the years because they choose you over your competitors.
The factor of time plays out in two ways:
- You can achieve a lot long-term with limited time investment
- The more time you invest, the more you achieve short-term
In short: If you have limited time available, go for press activities that don’t require you to set away twenty hours a week, such as sending out interview offers for local newspapers, podcasts, or blogs.
Summing It Up
PR is an important tool to grow a business for both big, established companies and solopreneurs.
The benefits are the same, it’s just the work and methods that change from institution to individual.
Don’t let big campaigns from companies like Red Bull, Nestlè, or Coca-Cola scare you — as a solopreneur, you don’t need them.
You can reach your target audience and build trust in a much more efficient way.
Just starting out with building your brand or not getting any visibility? Here’s a FREE list of 5 common branding myths many entrepreneurs fall for at the beginning.
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