What’s your PR Plan?

Public Relations is often the last box small and growing brands check off their list. More often then not, there aren’t enough funds to even hire a freelance publicist or a public relations firm. We understand. We know what it’s like to be on the brand side as one of our co-founders also designs and manufactures a fashion brand. Our in-depth knowledge of both sides gives us a very unique perspective and it’s one most PR people don’t have.

Even if you have no money left after producing a new line of products, you still need to think about PR and come up with a plan; even if it’s DIY. After all, what good is a newly created product if no one knows about it? You can easily start implementing small fashion PR steps that ultimately help the bottom line.

1.) Make sure your website is up-to-date and has excellent on-page SEO. That means your meta tags, site title, and description need to be concise and informative. Don’t forget to use one of your top keywords in the site title and one to two keywords in its meta description. You can do all of this for free on your own.

2.) If you are e-commerce, set up a separate blog on your site. Though most big SEO’s now say an additional blog won’t help as far as search results, we still recommend one. Your blog is a great area to go into greater detail about your products and/or new collections. And, it’s content. Google still loves content. Obviously content off your site with a backlink to your URL is the best, content connected to your site is still fine. Your blog is also a way to be your own spokesperson and if you are a halfway decent writer, it’s free.

3.) Photograph your products and create line sheets. If your products are easy to photograph and you are fine handling a camera, be your brand’s own photographer. You can rent a good camera and lens online, make a white backdrop, and shoot away. I like to shoot my products outside, but of course away from the sun. After shooting your products, you may need to knockout the background and add various shadows. Hire a freelancer on freelancer to do this. Next, create your own line sheets; we use Illustrator or PS. Line sheets are used to show case each product with size and price. The canvas of a line sheet can be the size of a sheet of paper and all background must be white. Line sheets need to be simple and to the point- no fancy fonts, no over embellished images.

4.) Start reaching out to influencers and editors. Most email contacts are easy to track down, so don’t think you can’t do this part on your own. Make each email personable, address them by their name, and never send mass emails. Each email should have an upbeat tone, introduce yourself and your brand, but keep it as short as possible. Attach line sheets to each email.

These are just a few of many DIY public relations steps you can do yourself without hiring a fashion public relations firm. When your budget increases the next step is to look into hiring a PR specialist. Many public relations firms have differently priced packages. Ask a lot of questions before signing a contract; you don’t want to be stuck paying several thousand dollars a month if sales are down. Look into a PR firm that bills by the month.