How to Attract Free PR

We just love serendipitous collaborations! Nicole McDonald, owner and design genius behind Eco Collective Australia reached out because she was interested in writing a blog about PR. Little did she know that we were looking for makers to contribute to our blog. A few email exchanges later she had penned this fantastic article detailing ways for you to get free PR. It might be just the jumpstart you need for your business!

As a creative small business owner myself, I am well aware of the many facets that constantly need to be taken care of to keep the shop running. Being creative at heart often makes it difficult to embrace parts of your business that seem dull and boring like bookkeeping and marketing. But the only way to grow your business and achieve regular and consistent sales is to get your business out there and in front of people. So PR and marketing should be one of your main focuses, love it or not.

I opened my Etsy shop back in 2014 with no prior experience in sales or marketing. All I had was a few bags, some B grade photography taken with my old iPhone and a great deal of excitement. But after the initial exhilaration and my first few sales that were mostly from friends and family, I needed to find other ways to get my products noticed.

PR campaign with Eco Collective Australia, Etsy, and the Melbourne Museum.

So I entered two of my bags into the annual Etsy Design Awards and couldn’t believe that one of them got chosen to be a finalist. The traffic to my shop went through the roof, and people started favoriting my shop and items which helped with the search engine rankings. Sales slowly started to increase, and some bloggers took notice. This gave me a great deal of confidence, so I kept updating my shop and improving my photos.

I am still not in a position yet to afford a professional photographer but have read many blog posts and signed up for boot camps to improve them. As the quality of my photos improves, so does the sales and free PR. Etsy has asked many times to provide high-quality resolution images of particular products and has wanted products sent to their HQ to take part in photo shoots which have always been a way to get amazing free PR. The trick here is to respond quickly, professionally and to keep to your word and time frame.

Another great way to get your shop noticed and build a strong following outside of Etsy is through Instagram. I am still pretty new to this platform myself, but it has been a valuable investment. This again is advertising, and it is free. All it takes is time, consistent posting, and great images. You can #tag influential Instagrammers to sometimes get a free feature on their feed or enter competitions for a free feature. There are loop giveaways and bloggers that will happily promote your

brand if you are willing to send one of your products to them for free. Just beware there are a few scammers out there too, so just familiarize yourself with the platform first so you can discern who is genuine or not.

So you see, even on a no or low budget it is possible to get PR for your business. You just have to be brave and put yourself out there, enter into competitions, open an Instagram account or ask a blogger if they are willing to feature your product in exchange for it. Above all, keep going, keep improving and become creative in your marketing approach.