Hype Yourself

A no-nonsense PR toolkit for small businesses

Lucy Werner

• Publisher: Practical Inspiration Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781788601221
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Small Business
• Index: Business

***BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2021 SHORTLISTED TITLE***

Hype Yourself is an invaluable toolkit for getting you andyour business featured in the media: newspapers, magazines, radio and TV. Crammed full of insider advice, from the building blocks of your PR strategy to the execution of creativecampaigns, it includes expert tips from journalists and industry specialistsand is supported by a stack of online resources.

Lucy Werner is founder of The Wern, a PR & branding consultancy and training hub for startups, entrepreneurs and independent brands. She is also a writer, speaker, blogger, teacher and podcaster on all things brand building for small businesses. For more information follow @wernchat or visit www.thewern.com

CHAPTER 1

PR PLAN

OK, I’m going to start by throwing you into the deep end, ahead of strategic thinking. For this chapter, I want you to have an organised declutter hat on. Imagine your current PR strategy is a pile of dirty laundry and this is the Marie Kondo process to have some neat clothes at the end.

By the end of this chapter you will have laid the foundations for an effective campaign. It is an essential road map for your self-hype journey and makes you think into the why and what of your business – I’ll ask you regularly to refer to this throughout the book.

I am amazed at how many people (including PRs) are carrying out campaigns with no overarching strategy. Success can already be hard enough to measure without setting some goals and there is no point putting all the hard work in to hype yourself if you don’t know why you are doing it. We will now run through the following:

– Business objectives

– Communications objectives

– Your why

– Audience

– What is unique about your business

– Communications calendar

– Crisis Q&A.

Grab your notebook or download the strategy template from www.thewern.com/book. Throughout the book I will provide various business examples, but for the strategy work in Chapter 1 I have used my own business as a case study. The full template for this is also available from the website.

1.1 Business objectives

We need to start with outlining your business objectives, which we will constantly remind ourselves of all the way through. It is nigh on impossible to hype yourself in an effective way without knowing these, so best to get them sorted from the beginning. Changing the goals halfway through the campaign means you may have to start from scratch, so it is essential that your business targets are outlined on one page.

ACTIVITY

In your workbook write down the title ‘Business objectives’, have a read through the following questions and answer the questions that feel relevant for your own business.

NB: You don’t have to have an answer for all of these pillars, I’ve just included some examples to get you thinking.

Turnover or business growth

– Do you want to get more bums on seats?

– Do you want to launch or sell more products?

– What are your revenue goals?

– How much website traffic are you looking to attract?

– How many email sign-ups are you looking for?

– What’s your social media following target?

Internal goals

– Are you looking to find brilliant industry talent to come work with you?

– Do you want to empower existing employees to be industry experts?

– Which areas of your business do you need training or assistance with?

Operational

– Can you improve on any element of your supply chain to improve profitability?

– Are all logistical elements of your business up to scratch?

Industry/customer awareness

– Are you looking to secure alternative revenue streams where you need to raise your own industry profile?

– Do you want to be considered as a major player within your niche?

– Do you need to reach a wider audience?

– Do you need to boost awareness within a specific demographic?

EXAMPLE

At the beginning of 2019, this is what business objectives looked like for The Wern.

Revenue

– Increase revenue streams from consultancy to coaching, books, teaching, courses and products.

– Increase turnover by 50%.

Operational

– Review effectiveness of current suppliers and contracts.

Growth

– Establish email marketing database.

– Grow existing social media channels by 200%.

Awareness

– Grow my profile as a PR expert for small businesses and entrepreneurs to underpin the above goals.

TIPS

– Your business objectives should be brief and to the point.

– A business goal shouldn’t read like an essay, make it achievable.

– A measurable goal means that everyone who is working on the business is heading for the same direction.

– Double-check that your business objectives also fit your personal objectives.

1.2 Communications objectives

The next header in the template or your own workbook is for your communications objectives. For this segment, I want you to think about how and why you want to hype yourself. From your business objectives we have an end goal, but this activity is to dig deeper into the voice you will use to hype yourself. The best relationships are based on truth and in order to hype your business we need to help pull out the voice of the true you.

ACTIVITY

Think about the following questions:

– Are you trying to establish yourself as a voice of authority? In what area?

– Are you an entertainer?

– Do you want to be a quirky, fun brand? Or are you trying to educate consumers about a new product category?

– Is there an education role in explaining your business offering?

– What is unique to your business personality?

– Can you describe your tone of voice?

– Can you use adjectives that mimic your true personality?

EXAMPLE

To accompany The Wern’s business objectives, I started the year off with the following communications objectives:

– A no-nonsense industry expert that is friendly but direct

– Keeping honest by sharing business vulnerabilities and lessons learnt on the journey

– To lead by example, demonstrate how I use PR to amplify my own business.

TIPS

– Take some time to really think about communications objectives.

– Check against your business goals.

– If there are multiple staff in your business, consider different objectives for each member.

– This is about how you speak.

1.3 Your why

Before we proceed, I want you to stop and check. What is motivating you? Why are these your business goals and how have you come to the decision that you want to communicate in this way?

ACTIVITY

In your notebook under the header ‘Why’ consider the following questions to determine your motivation.

– Where are you n...