Pr advice for 2011 from pr expert louise wood

PR expert Louise Wood offers her advice and tips to make sure your salon gets on top of PR and marketing throughout the new year.

January is a traditionally quiet time for salons, so it's a great opportunity to take stock of all your plans and processes, including PR.

Here are my top tips on how to get started:

• Decide your goals
  
  
• Having a clear idea of what you want PR to help you achieve is essential. Do you want to win awards? Shoot and show off your photographic work? Make stars out of your team? Launch a new salon or service? Build your salon profile in the local area? Make a list of your key goals for 2011.
  
  

• Decide your budget
  
  
• While the column inches you achieve might be free, the process of securing them usually isn't. However big your budget, spend it wisely. Consider retaining the services of a professional specialist agency, which for a basic service will cost you around £750 a month. If your budget doesn't stretch that far, then at least allocate expenses for shoots, awards entry production, entertaining the press, competition prizes, postage, and stationery.
  
  

• Make time
  
  
• PR doesn't do itself. Whether you have retained an agency or not you will still need to allocate time to brainstorming news stories; meeting the press; giving interviews, quotes and tips; going to relevant events; and briefing and motivating staff.
  
  

• Stock up
  
  
• It's important that all interactions with the media are professional and a real reflection of your brand. Providing press with quality information in the right format will help to get it published. Stock up on branded headed paper, create a good website with a regularly updated news section, and keep a good quality digital camera in the salon to capture ad hoc news stories.
  
  

• Know your media
  
  
• Understand which media are right for you and your goals. Make a list of contacts for the print, web and broadcast media that are relevant. Regularly listen to the radio shows, read the magazines and newspapers, and check out the websites so you can spot opportunities to tailor your message to the media for greater impact.

• Create a calendar
  
  
• Good PR is about linking what messages are important to your business with what captures the imagination of both the press and their readers. Make a rough calendar to guide you through the year and then create events, stories or promotions around occasions such as local music festivals and seasonal hair needs. Don't forget to go 'off plan' whenever a news story such as a celeb's new look pops up, and then capitalise on it with your own comments.

• Put your PR and marketing questions to Louise Wood in the HJi forum