Path to Visibility

How can public relations benefit a small business or personal brand? 

Today is part one of a two part mini training to help you understand what public relations is and how it can benefit your small business or personal brand.

This week I talk about the importance and benefits of public relations for a small business and next week I’ll cover the value of personal branding as a way to distinguish your business and make it more approachable.

 In today’s episode:

• {03:22] What is PR?
• [03:56] How is it different from advertising?
• [04:19] Common misconceptions
• [07:04] 5 key benefits for small businesses
• [08:41] How brands like Coke build buzz with PR 
• [09:44] How events get you in front of your target audience 
• [12:00] Why Public relations builds credibility 
• [13:37] The importance of consistent messaging 
• [15:22] PR in a crisis
• [19:00] How PR can take you “from no one to someone practically overnight”

Links mentioned in this episode:
#3 – Digging Deep: How a Small Company Made it on the Global Stage with Alan Coutts, former CEO  of Noront Resources

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Thank you for listening!  Connect with Janice on LinkedIn.

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How can a small, cost-conscious business effectively communicate their message?

One of the goals of this podcast is to help small business owners learn how to use public relations to build their visibility and reputation so they can have the kind business they’ve always dreamed of.

One of the ways I want to accomplish this is by interviewing successful small business leaders, marketing experts and journalists who will share advice and best practices.

Today’s guest turned a small early stage, Canadian mining company with only 12 employees into a global player that was sold for $650 million.

We’re going to hear from Alan Coutts, former CEO of Noront Resources (now known as Ring of Fire Metals) about how he made that transformation happen and hopefully you can take away some lessons and apply them to your own business or personal brand.

In this episode we'll cover:

• [5:06]  The importance of developing messaging  that resonates. 
• [7:36]  Why its vital to understand how you are perceived by your customer or audience.
• [10:57]  How to get comfortable with and use public relations successfully.  
• [20:43] What turned Alan from a social media skeptic into a believer and advocate.
• [32:13] How his company earned a seat at the table with big global players and was just as influential as them.

Thank you for listening!  Connect with Janice on LinkedIn.

How do you get started with media coverage for your business or personal brand?

Getting quoted in the media is a great way to make people aware of your product, service or company in a way that leads to them seeking it out. 

As a public relations consultant for more than 25 years, working with big brands like Microsoft, Swiffer, Febreze, and American Express, I'm often asked for advice on how to get media coverage, and I'm happy to tell you that it's not that difficult. 

Many people want more visibility and would love to be known and sought after. The true value of PR is exactly that. People will hear about you and seek out your product, service or company. 

Media coverage is one of the best tools for generating this kind of demand. In this episode, I break down, step-by step, how to get quoted in the media, which is the fastest and esiest way to benefit from media coverage. I will cover other methods in future episodes, but learning how to get quoted is a great place to start--and it's easier than you think.

• [05:04] You don' t have to be featured in a major news outlet to get value from being quoted in the media.
• [08:24] The reason people see you differently once you've been in the media and how that can build momentum for your business or personal brand. 
• [10:08] The key to using media coverage and social media to build awareness for your product, service, company or personal brand. 
• [13:02] How being quoted in the media can help you target your message to a specific audience. 
• [16:29] The 5-steps to take if you want to get quoted in the media including:  where to be quoted, how to create a targeted media list, how to get to know journalists you want to pitch, how to reach out and follow-up 

Thank you for listening!  Connect with Janice on LinkedIn.

Links in this episode:
Why I started this podcast
Media List Template

Hi, my name is Janice Mandel and welcome to the very first episode of the Path to Visibility podcast which is all about helping small businesses and professionals learn how to raise their visibility so they can build their business or personal brand. 

I’ll be coming to you every week, and I’ll be talking about all the ways you can build a profile and reputation for your business or yourself, so you can get your message out to the audience you want to reach. 

I’m not sure what brought you here today…maybe the title got you curious. 

Or maybe you’re feeling discouraged because you’ve been working hard to raise your visibility but you feel like you’re not where you want to be. 

Or maybe you’ve gotten some good results but you’re not sure how to keep the momentum going. 

Whatever the reason, I’m very happy that you found you way here. 

Because I’m going to take you under my wing and show you how to create the kind of visibility and reputation you've always dreamed of.

 Let me just take a minute to tell you a bit about me—because you may be thinking…this all sounds great Janice, but what qualifies you to teach me.

Well, for the last 20 plus years, I’ve been doing public relations for some of the biggest brands and companies in the world. 

I started out at Hill and Knowlton which was the world’s biggest PR agency at the time and I worked with clients like Microsoft, American Express, Nintendo and Procter & Gamble launching products like Windows, the Membership Rewards program, Super Mario, Swiffer, Febreze and many others. 

These are all well known brands now, but when we launched them they were unknown and I was part of the team that were responsible for coming up with ideas and plans that would help create excitement and demand for these brand new products. 

Procter & Gamble eventually hired me and as their head of public relations for Canada. So needless to say I’ve helped manage dozens of brands over the years. 

More recently I ran my own PR agency working with small and  medium sized businesses in financial services, real estate development, mining and other industries. 

I wanted to start a podcast because I know from experience that small businesses can benefit from many of the same strategies and tactics that big companies use to attract attention.

And I’ll be interviewing successful business owners, marketing experts and journalists, and offering some actionable tips of my own so I can help you do just that.  

So if you’re feeling overwhelmed and confused about how to create demand for what you do it’s my hope that by listening to this podcast, you’ll become confident and clear on how to grow your audience and your business. 

I want you take away information and actions from every episode and apply them right away because I know how important it is to build visibility the way you want so you can get your message out to the people you want to serve.

I hope you’re feel excited about what’s possible and inspired to learn more.

 Let’s get started…

Thank you for listening!  Connect with Janice on LinkedIn.