In this week’s #FreeAdviceFriday column we hear from Nick Zonnios, Head of PR for Clemenger. The Clemenger Group is Australasia’s largest and most successful marketing communications companies.

For those just getting started with PR, Nick’s advice is to first look inside your business to unearth stories and editorial opportunities. Because what you find, may just surprise you!

Here’s what Nick had to say:

Often it can feel a bit overwhelming trying to think about where to start to try and generate some PR for your small business. However, more often than not, some of the most engaging and interesting stories are right under your nose.

Mining your business for stories can be an incredibly powerful tool to help promote your business, pique the interest of journalists and ultimately to generate positive media coverage.

Have a look at what you’re doing day to day, is there an interesting trend that you’re seeing from your customers? Anything unique in orders that you’ve been receiving? Has there been a significant change in what your customers are ordering because of external environments?

For example – are you a local manufacturer who’s recently changed the way you operate and what you produce to meet a new demand due to COVID-19? Are you a local fish and chip shop that’s noticed a crazy increase in orders of an obscure item on the menu? Are you a residential plumber that’s noticed an increase in call-outs due to people flushing things other than toilet paper down the drain?

All of these are interesting, local stories that can show ingenuity (manufacturing example), provide a warning to locals (plumber examples) or just share a funny or interesting trend (fish and chip shop example).

Take a step back from the day to day and look at your business objectively and find things that are unique, interesting or are showing an interesting or quirky side of customer behavior, and you’ll have the basis of a great story to begin a discussion with media.

If you want to learn more about how to do your own PR and generate (FREE!) media exposure for you business, then check out our Mastering the Art of Media Relations handbook on your TOOLS page. Good luck!