In this instalment of our eBay Elevate webinar series, Hype Yourself founder Lucy Werner provides actionable tips and exercises to help you build a winning PR plan for your small business.

How to build a PR plan for your small business

Public relations (PR) is the strategic process of generating media coverage, social posts and in-person engagements for your business. If done well, it can be a cost-effective way to complement and supercharge your marketing and advertising efforts - and raise your business’ profile among potential customers.

To help you do exactly that, Hype Yourself founder, Lucy Werner, hosted this eBay Elevate webinar on DIY publicity and building your brand. Give it a watch to learn new goal-setting techniques, how to generate ideas and draft PR pitches, and how to identify the right media outlets for your business.

If you missed it, fear not! You can watch the webinar on demand, which explores:

The many faces of PR

In a nutshell, publicity is the process of pitching to the press. Public relations (PR), meanwhile, is everything you do in the public eye. From social media, to your website copy and networking at public events - anywhere you show up in public can influence people’s perception of you and your business.

What does my personal brand currently stand for?

An effective exercise is to Google yourself. Where do you show up? And more importantly, how do you show up? This is a great starting point to see how you appear in the eye’s of strangers - so you can begin to start shaping your public image in the way you want to be perceived.

Top tip: Google loves Twitter and YouTube. So updating these channels are a quick and easy way to get the content you want people to see out there.

What are your values?

Knowing what you and your business stand for is a powerful way to build your brand and give you a clear sense of purpose and direction. But rather than just looking inside your business, it’s important to remember that any partnerships you pursue should also align to your values.

For example, if you’re a business in the sustainable fashion space, it might be tempting to accept an offer of partnership from a fast fashion giant. But while this might boost your brand in the short term, it might also serve to undermine your reputation in the long term.

Your press toolkit is an essential part of PR, which should include:

One-liner: a short introduction to say what it is that you do, without any jargon!

Biography: your opportunity to go into more detail about you and your story, ideally within 150 words. Follow a model of Attention, Benefits, Call to action. Top tip: Look to leading figures in your industry.

Images: a picture is worth a thousand words! Take time to capture the perfect headshot.

Media list: think about your values and business goals. What are you trying to achieve? Where does your audience consume their content? Think about all the different places and platforms where you want to show up.

Thought topics: from establishing business expertise, to appealing to human interests, or talking about passion points - different thought topics will help you to achieve different goals. What is your audience searching for? Doing the research upfront will help to streamline your thought topics and talking points.

Be sure to watch the webinar for more details on how to create the above! As well as a deep dive into crafting a winning pitch email and press release.

If you found this content useful, subscribe to our Events page to keep up-to-date with upcoming eBay Elevate webinars and in-person events, where we’ll be delivering a jam-packed schedule of expert-led sessions tailored for small businesses.