When you run a pet product business, you know you need to generate publicity so more people see what you create and you make more sales.
With so many different tools and platforms out there, it can be overwhelming deciding on what’s going to work best for you.
The good news is you’re in control of a lot of the publicity you generate for your pet product business.
You have social media, your website, email marketing, events, blogs, podcasts, videos and partnerships – these are all ways you can go and get publicity for yourself.
And you can generate publicity by working with the media and other organisations too.
In this podcast, I’m talking about the two types of publicity you can use for your pet product business and you can listen in on the player link or read the key points covered as a blog.
Note this is a recording of a workshop I did for Product Guru in March 2023. If you’d like to chat about working together, click here to head to the Contact Me section.
What is publicity in 2023?
Publicity can refer to any form of media exposure or promotion that aims to create awareness of a product
Thanks to Social Media and other digital platforms, publicity can take on many different forms, including platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn give you a way to reach your target audience and create publicity.
We have Content Marketing, where you create and share valuable content such as blogs, podcasts and videos to attract and engage your audience.
There’s In Person Publicity, where you might attend events so people see your products, ranging from huge exhibitions like Crufts to local fairs and shows and word of mouth marketing where people chat about your product.
You might work with Influencers so your product is seen by their followers and fans, work on Strategic Partnerships with other brands, or take out ads online or on social media to reach the kind of people who need your product.
And finally, there’s Public Relations or PR where you work with traditional media, newspapers, magazines, TV, Radio, leading websites, where the journalist or editor decides whether to feature you.
The publicity you control
When you’re the publisher, you control the message and decide what you say and don’t say.
As marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk explains: “Every person is now a media company. Producing content is the baseline for all brands. If you’re not producing content, you basically don’t exist.”
That might sound harsh, but if you’re not telling people about how your product can help, how are they supposed to know about what you do?
You can share your products on social media, and use your website to showcase how your product solves a problem.
In this talk, I share how Marcus Sheridan’s ‘They Ask, You Answer’ book can help you in creating content to drive people to your website where you talk about the solution you provide.
Another helpful content marketing book is The Content Fortress by Martin Huntbach and Lyndsay Cambridge.
Case study – Ben Dodd from Adios Plastic
Ben makes compostable, environmentally friendly poo bags.
He uses social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, builds his authority on LinkedIn, attends pet business events like Crufts, uses an email newsletter, uses ads on social media, sells in outlets and pet shops and partners with other pet brands to showcase his products alongside theirs.
The publicity you create on other people’s platforms
This is where your product is featured on a platform you DON’T control.
The journalist controls the message, so you have to get past them for your product to be published, and persuade them your story needs to be heard.
There is also an element of luck. You might pick up a great piece of PR by responding to a tweet like Kim from Leo, Charley and Me did when she appeared in Good Housekeeping here.
But you might have invested in hiring a PR and have a story ready to be published, then a news story about the Royal Family breaks the day before and your feature is pulled out of the paper.
Before you work on this, make sure your ducks are in a row on your own platforms, so when the journalist or blogger or publisher checks you out, you’re appealing.
How to get PR ready
If you want to be PR ready, it’s important that you have great photography, including product shots and lifestyle images of the products being uses.
Your website should be easy to navigate, contain helpful content, look professional and have reviews of people sharing positive experiences of your brand.
You’ll need a story idea because if you go to the journalist and say ‘write about me,’ it’s likely you’ll be told to take out an advert.
Find out more about how to come up with a story idea on the links below.
How to find stories in your pet business
Three moments you can use for story ideas
What does being published on someone else’s platform mean for your pet product business?
- You amplify the work you’re already doing raising your profile on your own platform.
- There’s the potential for millions of people to find out about what you do in one go!
- You build authority as the go-to brand or a leader in your field.
- Your social media followers, email subscribers and website visitors increase.
- There’s the potential for you to make more sales
As Virgin founder Richard Branson says: “Publicity is absolutely critical. A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front page ad.”
Finding the right balance of the two types of publicity
With so many tools at our fingertips, it’s a brilliant time to have a pet product business, and journalists regularly showcase petpreneurs.
To be the most effective with your publicity, it’s about balancing the publicity you control, so your social media, blogs, emails, and being brave and approaching others to showcase your work too.
If you’d like support with this, my Pets Get Visible membership is a place where we can chat about both types of publicity.
Find out more here: Is my Pets Get Visible membership right for you?
I don’t offer done for you PR services but if you’re a pet business and you’d like to learn how to approach journalists yourself, I do offer coaching.
You can book in for a chat here: https://calendly.com/rachelspenceruk/discovery-calls
Plus find plenty of resources to help you with pitching on my freebies page: https://rachelspencer.co.uk/freebies/
Learn more about Adios Plastic here: https://adiosplastic.co.uk/
