Local business? You need local PR

If you have a local business, i.e. your customers can only use your product or service while living in the general vicinity, you should be concentrating on local PR.

Yes, an article in the New York Times or the UK Guardian will stroke your ego, but it will NOT necessarily bring you more direct business. We find that bigger, national press recognition works most effectively as a testimonial for your website, a framed picture on your office or storefront wall or even as a reprint for your marketing materials (been meaning to post examples of my favorite press pages so stay tuned!).

But if you’re looking for that phone to start ringing, get to know your local reporters!

When we first started working on PR for Sandbox Suites, we landed two huge stories within a span of 24 hours. The first story came out in San Francisco Chronicle – the Bay Area’s most well-read newspaper/local news site. The story talked about coworking as a new trend and mentioned Sandbox Suites along with a couple of other local spaces. The next day, New York Times ran a similar story – also with a focus on the coworking trend and also talking exclusively about San Francisco spaces.

Here is the reaction we received:

San Francisco Chronicle

  • – phone started ringing that same day
  • – huge boost in tours
  • – huge boost in web traffic
  • – when asked how people heard about us, people mentioned the Chron story up to 1.5 years after it came out

New York Times

  • – a few journalist friends saw the story and sent congratulations emails
  • – of course, the New York Times story looks great as a testimonial on Sandbox Suites website, press page and as a framed piece in their office.

So target the publications that your audience actually reads and don’t forget to show off those big-name press clips.

About

Sasha Vasilyuk is the founder of I Do PR and an award-winning journalist who has covered travel, culture and business for Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, San Francisco Chronicle and others.

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