Small business failure? Walnuts!

Pardon my enthusiasm, but much of your small business’
success is elsewhere. That is, between companies
important external audiences.

How they perceive you and what they believe about you and
your business, directly affect your chances of success. Y
That’s because those perceptions generally lead to predictable
behaviors, good or bad. They are very important!

Now here comes the PR pro who proves
opinion waters, then decides if, on your behalf, he / she
need to create, change, or reinforce that opinion about yourself
and your company. This is important because it will affect the
the content of the message you prepare directed to those perceptions.

You will then try to reach, persuade, and take action.
YOU-want those same people whose behaviors affect your
operation more. And we are talking about actions like neutralize
a rumor that clears up misperceptions of the quality of your service,
o strengthen awareness of your organization’s contributions
to the local and regional community.

Now, of course, you and your public relations attorney agreed in advance, on
at the beginning of the program, about behavioral changes
I would like it to happen. So, it is a simple task to review
together how successful is the public relations effort in
Your small business name is on or off.

As you might suspect, I don’t give up easily when it comes to
How Public Relations Can Help a Small Business Succeed.

So who does what to get us to this point?

First, list those two or three groups of people, that is, key
external audiences, such as your main potential customers, or certain
segments of area residents or influential community leaders,
and others if appropriate for your product and service offerings.

You need a base from which to evaluate opinions about you.
and your small business. So you need to take the time to
engage with members of these key audiences to discover how
they perceive you, especially in any area of ​​potential problem.
This is the information gathering phase of the program.

Only then can you and your PR representative decide what
opinions need to be recreated, changed, or simply reinforced.
This becomes the public relations goal to be achieved in a realistic way,
mutually agreed time frame.

Now, we prepare messages that are more likely to persuade both
harboring misconceptions, or no perception about you,
and make them your way of thinking.

Remember that bad perceptions can lead to bad behaviors and,
Fortunately vice versa!

At this point, you need to select communication tactics:
“Beasts of burden”, I call them, that will take care of you
messages crafted for the eyes and ears of each target audience.
In other words, how will you reach these important people?

You and your public relations attorney have a wide variety of tactics. Everything
of personal meetings with members of each target audience,
your regular speeches, emails, newspaper and radio interviews to promotional events, award ceremonies, press releases and many
others.

As time goes by, you should continue to talk to the members of your
target audiences who watch and listen carefully for signs of
knowledge of your business and its role in the market and in
community. Stay alert as well for increasing receptivity to
your messages from prospects.

These are indications that reflect local feelings about your
organization. As your public relations advisor will tell you,
Progress in this regard will be directly proportional to the amount of
effort and attention that you personally give to the outreach program.

The good news is that when public relations change behaviors
between groups of people important to your organization, the effort
can be declared successful when those altered behaviors help
achieves your management goals.

That is why the title of this article continues to be “Small Business
Failure? Walnuts! “

Feel free to post this article and the resource box on your
ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy
be appreciated at [email protected].

Robert A. Kelly © 2005.