How a small business can “make news”

The day may come when your small business has something to announce—a milestone, new product, or a new partnership. This is an exciting moment, but one fraught with the potential waste of time and money, as public relations firms are ready to sell you inflated services unlikely to achieve great results.

So, how do you get value from a news release—the primary medium for announcing news—at a price that allows you to get a return on your investment? Keep reading.  

Why you might need a news release

A news release showcases your story on PR newswire or a smaller wire service. It is directly distributed to hundreds of traditional media outlets and influencers. However, the most helpful elements of a news release are hidden. Among them, a release is a great forcing function for building your narrative. Working with a good writer allows you to identify newsworthy elements of your story. You gain clarity and develop talking points on your news—and on your overall business—that you can use in a variety of settings into the future.

Your news release is also a durable, Internet-searchable record you can point to in direct communication with customers, partners, and employees—and that you can share on social media. Its publication on “the wire” provides validation and communicates importance.

Further, a good PR person will distribute it directly to reporters, bloggers, and podcasters with an appealing pitch. But generating “earned coverage,” meaning third parties reporting on your news, is a potential bonus, not the primary reason, to issue a news release. Still, it's easy to over-invest in the process. Here's why...

Why you get overcharged for news releases

A release can offer a lot of value, but a basic release costs about $3,000 to post on PR Newswire, and you need expert help to write it. Public relations firms charge a small fortune to do that, which can be taxing for a small business whose owner's goal is short term ROI in the form of news coverage. A fair amount of earned coverage is needed to make short term ROI pencil out—and what PR agencies don’t tell you is that you are unlikely to get it. Reporters set a high bar for reporting on stories—especially those about small businesses.

To offset this reality, PR firms will often provide somewhat misleading coverage reports that show your release appeared on more than 100 news sites, with a “potential” audience of tens or even hundreds of millions. But that’s misleading. A “potential” audience is not a real audience. In addition, Google and Bing search results combine every instance of your news release into a single result. That means even if your release appeared on 100 websites, it would show up as one (still valuable) search result. I say this not to denigrate news releases, or PR firms, but to provide transparency to small businesses.  

What to expect from a news release — and how much to pay

Now that you understand the good, the bad, and the ugly of news releases, do this exercise when considering one: first consider if your story rises to the level of “news,” meaning that it is genuinely important and would be interesting to a significant audience. Be tough on yourself, because if the answer is “yes,” you are going to need to invest a little time and money into the engagement. If the answer is “no,” a blog and social post are a great way to share the news.

But if you are going forward with a release, here is what you can actually expect it will do:

1.    Fuel your marketing and sales machine: a news release will help you clarify your story to aid your sales and marketing efforts, along with employee and partner engagement. Remember to distribute it to key audiences via email and social media.

2.    Memorialize your news, make it Internet-searchable, and gain legitimacy: a news release records your news for the Internet. Google, Bing, and other search engines will point to it. It also gives you added legitimacy by being published on PR Newswire, where Fortune 100 companies and others publish their news.

3.    Potentially earn coverage: you may earn traditional media coverage. What is even more likely are stories in news verticals and podcasts to which your audience pays attention. But it’s important to have someone to help you pitch your release directly to these outlets.  

Given the above, a small business should pay a moderate fee on top of the roughly $3,000 cost of posting a news release on PR newswire. That fee should cover the cost of working with you to develop the story, writing it, and getting it published. It should add about 60% to the cost of the news release—not the 180% (or more) that is common if you work with a PR agency.

That’s why, at Thought Leader Digital, we price our news release service for small businesspeople. We can help you determine whether a release, or a lower-priced option, such as a blog, makes sense for you. Feel free to reach out for a free consultation.

At Thought Leader Digital, we help B2B consultants and small businesses create thought leadership approaches and content—and we help them leverage LinkedIn to directly engage potential customers.