Three Ways to Use Public Relations Strategies to Market your Service Business

Over the weekend, it was my pleasure to speak with some youths at the Redeemed Christian Church of God on the invite of my former Youth Pastor, Olubiyi Olabanji, on how to create opportunities.

It is so important to acknowledge the role the church and my pastors — especially Pastor Banji, played in my growth as a public relations professional. I dare say many mainstream artists, professionals, and workplace evangelists were groomed in their local churches. Tweet at me to mention some names that come to mind here!

As a ‘former’ chronic introvert, the church was the only avenue I had to learn public speaking. Being a lead chorister and eventual student minister, I had to learn how to hold a microphone to teach, sing and bring people into the presence of God. I recall clearly that as a teenager while leading praises, my hands shook so much because I was nervous. It kept distracting people — until one day, I took the mic and I said to everyone:

my hands will shake because I am nervous. But take your mind off my hands because my voice and God’s presence is what you should focus on.

They all laughed and I observed how everyone in the room visibly relaxed. The day I owned my nervousness marked a turning point in my life as a public speaker and eventual public relations consultant.

That incident taught me one cardinal rule in public speaking/crisis management: Never attempt to ignore an elephant in the room. Identify it, confront it then bring your audience over to your side BEFORE you go ahead to speak or address other issues.

It would be foolhardy for any business executive or public speaker to assume their audience is unaware or dumb — which is what is implied when glaring issues are ignorantly side-stepped.

“What is the correlation between my story and the topic,” you wonder. It’s simple: principles are universal but applications would differ depending on what areas of life you need them.

As a consulting/service business, marketing opportunities are incredibly limited when starting out. As the business grows, recommendations, referrals and testimonials form the holy grail of establishing your organisation as the the best in its field.

But when you are still building a brand, how do you stand out? How do you get a fighting chance to show your capabilities? As someone said to me years ago:

“It is not because you don’t know; you have just not had the opportunity to do it.” This was so significant to me, even though it was said in passing and casually (thank you Joel). That year, I was despondent and questioning my expertise because I didn’t have the range of work experience I desired.

That has since changed — I know now because I have had the opportunity to build Mosron Communications and work with amazing clients over the years.

So, here are three ways I used to position my PR Consulting firm which you can use to position your service business too:

TEACH. I strongly believe in the Biblical principle of “give and it shall be given unto you”. Because services are intangible, you must continuously explore ways to help potential clients ascertain your expertise. One of the easiest ways to do that is to teach. Teach on Twitter. Teach during a webinar. Be a guest faculty at a school. Teach.

The beautiful thing about teaching is that the more you do it, the more you open yourself up to contemporary knowledge and healthy debates that make you an even better professional.

WRITE. Many service professionals create their service business centring their network as the ultimate business development strategy. As we say in Nigeria “e go shock you” (you will be shocked)! It is when you start your business you will realise that many of the people you have in your network are not quite your friends — they are professional colleagues and work associates. There is only so much value you can squeeze from an unwilling source.

Are you looking to build a sustainable service organisation that generates business outside your first or second connections? Then write. Your short articles, tweets and opinion pieces will go farther than your proposals could ever reach.

NETWORK. Don’t limit your mind to physical networking only. The COVID-19 pandemic has redefined how we do business, meet people and rejuvenate after a tiring day at work. Are you networking when you attend webinars and virtual industry events? Always take time to look through the list of participants during an online event. Go the extra step to check them out on LinkedIn. Then send them a well-worded private message on the meeting app you are on. Connect with them on LinkedIn too.

Online, networking strategies include engaging the content of people whose network you want to be in, or who are potential clients. Take an interest in people.

Business development and positioning for a service organisation is a long-term, strategic and intentional process. Put in the work, and soon you will be overwhelmed with briefs, clients, and requests to speak on multinational platforms.

When you try this and it works — or if you have some challenges on the way you would like help with: do reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter.