As Public Relations trainers in Shropshire, as well as copywriters themselves, the ladies at Journalism & PR are often asked, “Are you not doing yourself out of work by running DIY training courses for business owners?” Here, director Rhea Alton explains...

I can see exactly where these people are coming from and the question is a good one because technically we are. We could charge the sole-traders and small businesses that come on the course for one press release (which costs nearly double the cost of the PR course) and then leave them to it because their funds have run out.

Marathon

BUT to run an effective PR campaign you need more than one release. If you are purely advertising an event or a new product then we can help as one release is probably all you need, but if you are looking to promote and build your business it is a marathon rather than a sprint.

For the businesses in the very early days or the sole-traders there is often no cash to spend on PR promotion and they have spare time to carry out their own PR. This is our target market for the PR course – those who are doing their own PR because they want to but need a few hints and information on how to do it effectively.

Budget

Once a business is established, the realisation of how important PR is means it will be included in a budget and that is where we come in as PR consultants.

The training course shares some of our knowledge with the delegates. Simple snippets of information that can make all the difference.

When I was a full-time journalist trawling through the thousands of emails I had received overnight I would look for the word Shropshire in the title. If it wasn’t there I wouldn’t open it.

Headlines

When I opened it the first thing I would do is delete the headline because it is not a journalist’s job to write the headline. I have since found out that some businesses spend hours thinking about their headline – which is fine if you are sending to an online news site but often pointless if you are issuing it to print media. 

Another simple tip is the importance of who, what, where, why and when. Seems obvious information but you would be surprised how easy it is to miss one out!

Shropshire is full of wonderful and creative businesses – I am one of many who love hearing about them...make sure you shout about yours!

For more information on Journalism & PR, call Rhea or Kirsty on 07810 435833.