Affordable Public Relations: Learn How to Do PR on a Budget

As a small business, you need all the exposure you can get. PR is one way to get it. But you won’t have the financial resources to spend on expensive PR campaigns.

When you enter the market, you need to create a buzz around your brand. PR can help with that, but it’s not advisable to spend all your initial capital on it.

This one is pretty obvious. Nonprofit organizations typically have limited budgets and need to maximize their resources for the cause they support. Affordable PR is a must for them.

Unless you’re a celebrity, you probably don’t have the funds to hire a PR agency. But if you want to build a personal brand or promote yourself for professional reasons, you’ll need PR, and affordable services will be your best bet.

In-house PR means that you’ll need to build a team from scratch. If you already have a marketing team, that’s great. But if not, you’ll need to hire people or train your employees for PR duties.

It will require an initial investment in terms of time and resources but can save money in the long run. Also, the in-house PR team will do everything from writing press releases and managing social media accounts to pitching to journalists.

So, you will have to recruit people accordingly. Regular training and upskilling are also important to keep your PR team updated with the latest trends and tactics.

Create a Brand Story

Start by creating a brand story for your business. It should be able to communicate your values and mission in a compelling manner. Storytelling has become a very expressive medium for brands today, especially since more and more consumers now resonate with visual content.
A good example of a brand that has created a solid brand story is Nike. Their ads and campaigns always revolve around the theme of pushing oneself beyond limits and achieving greatness, no matter what.

When creating a similar brand story for yourself, focus on the core values that define your business. It should be authentic and not come off as if you’re just trying to sell something.

Use Social Media

With over 5.22 billion users, social media is the ultimate place for you to build your brand’s presence. First things first, it’s free. It couldn’t get any more affordable than this.

All major social media platforms now have business accounts and features that are specifically made for brands like you who want to make their presence felt online on a budget. Your in-house PR team can use social media to:
Tell the brand story
Engage with your target audience
Get direct feedback from them
Share your achievements and milestones

Duolingo is an excellent example of a brand that uses social media for PR and marketing. The brand’s personality shows through its cheeky posts, especially on TikTok and Instagram. Plus, they introduce their new features and updates through these platforms, too.

Network

Networking is possibly the most underrated form of PR. But it’s not just about passing out business cards at events and making connections. You can also build connections with industry leaders and journalists through social media and online networking events.

The easiest way to go about this is to follow industry stakeholders on LinkedIn. Engage with them on X and take part in conversations about industry trends and news.

You can also attend webinars and online events for free. Many of these events have opportunities for attendees to network and connect with each other. Take advantage of these opportunities to build relationships and make connections that can benefit your brand in the long run.

Share Company Information Through Press Releases

When you launch a new product or service, get the word out to as many people as possible. Press releases are a great way to do this. You can write and distribute press releases to various media outlets, including industry-specific publications.

Besides product releases, you can also share about big hires, company initiatives, partnerships, collaborations, and other milestones through press releases. Beware, though; press releases should not act as advertisements for your brand. Keep them informative and newsworthy to increase the chances of media coverage.

Design a Media Kit

Regardless of the size of your business, it needs a media kit. You can send this to journalists, influencers, and other media outlets to make it easier for them to cover your brand.

A media kit typically includes information such as company background, product or service offerings, key team members, high-resolution images and videos, past press coverage, and more. Publications will appreciate this organized and easily accessible information, making it more likely for them to feature your brand in their content.

If you’re short on resources, you can use Canva’s free features or a basic-level paid plan to design a professional-looking media kit. Canva has a number of free media kit templates for you to get started. There’s also a designed media kit creator with features like a drag-and-drop editor and collaboration opportunities.

Host Webinars

Organizing an in-person event can be pretty expensive, especially if you’re a startup or small business. On the contrary, webinars are an economical and effective way to reach out to your target audience and share valuable information about your brand.

Use them to establish thought leadership so that people in your industry see you as an authority. You can then talk about your brand. They’ll be more likely to believe you since you’ve already built trust with them during the webinar.

Collaborate with Other Businesses

Cross-promotion is another tactic that makes affordable PR feasible for your business or personal brand. You can work with another brand, and both parties can benefit from it.

Businesses that are complementary to yours but not direct competitors make good collaborators. The collaboration could involve making a joint announcement, or both parties could contribute guest posts on each other’s website.

For example, if you’re a fitness brand, you can collaborate with a healthy food brand or a gym. Similarly, if you’re an animal rescue nonprofit, partner with a pet supply store.

Both of you can then share the collaboration on social media, tag each other, and increase your exposure to each other’s followers. Similarly, you can post collaborative press releases. For a fitness brand, this could mean a joint yoga class at the local park, followed by a healthy meal from the food brand.

Typically, outsource PR services are expensive. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t find affordable options. Freelance PR professionals who are just starting their careers or smaller agencies that offer more budget-friendly packages are good options.

At Maximatic Media, we provide specialized PR for small businesses, getting them featured in top publications like US Insider and Block Telegraph. Our PR placements for small businesses start at just $300. At such minimal costs, you enjoy the exposure of being published on websites with high domain authority and traffic.

Similarly, we provide PR services for startups in a wide range of industries, including news, luxury, lifestyle, crypto, music, and more. Again, these services are extremely budget-friendly, which means you can get everything from press releases to company news published in industry-specific publications at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional PR agencies.

We boast a high success rate of getting our clients featured in top publications. Our strong media connections and expertise in creating compelling pitches have helped clients like you gain exposure and increase brand awareness.

A common mistake businesses and individuals make is purchasing subscriptions for too many tools. But just because a PR software or platform is popular doesn’t mean it’s necessary for your campaigns.

Instead, you should analyze the functions of the tool and whether you need them. If there’s a free tool that can do the same, opt for it rather than the paid option.

The Canva media kit templates that we’ve mentioned above are good examples of free resources that can save you the money you’d otherwise have to spend on paid options. Try not to overspend on tools by prioritizing the solutions you need and only investing in those that will directly benefit your PR efforts.

Don’t do your PR in the dark. Just like with any other aspect of marketing, tracking ROI is a must in PR campaigns.

Here are some metrics you can track to measure the success of your PR efforts:

• Number of media placements
• Website traffic from those placements
• Social media engagement
• Website visits from social media mentions
• Increase in brand awareness

As a rule of thumb, measure your ROI every quarter. You can then use this data to re-evaluate your PR strategy and make necessary changes for better results.

PR isn’t something that yields results overnight. It requires consistent effort and a long-term approach.

You must have a regular cadence for your PR campaigns, whether it’s sending out press releases monthly or pitching media outlets every week. The idea is to stay top-of-mind with journalists and keep your brand in the news. It will definitely pay off in the long run.