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Wedding PR - How To Do PR Yourself

Wedding Professionals:

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While some wedding businesses absolutely need to hire a PR consultant, others aren’t always able to afford that additional expense. Here are five tips that I personally use that will help you handle PR on your own:

Create a list of press contacts. To find a list of influential wedding bloggers, I personally like to refer to BrideTide’s latest list of the 2011 Top 100 Wedding Bloggers. You can also use social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and BridalTweet to cultivate professional relationships with writers. Google is another great resource for finding a list of writers who cover wedding topics. Finally, a site call HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a free service that sends daily media opportunities to subscribers. You can become a subscriber and answer queries that are relevant to your business.
Create an online press room. Establish a special section of your website to include your press release, photos, logo and your contact information. As an example, you can view BridalTweet's online press room .
Send a personalized, relevant and timely email to the appropriate press contacts. There’s nothing worse than sending a generic email blast to a list of reporters or wedding bloggers. Your message will very likely be ignored. Within your email to the writer, address them by their name and include a short message about their publication or blog. Make sure that your email is relevant to what the writers normally cover and that it is timely. This means that you should tie it to recent news, bridal events, seasonal topics or wedding trends. Include a concise snapshot of your news story and why it makes sense for the writer to cover it. Your email should then contain a link to your press room, which will also include your press release. And use some creativity to ensure that your message stands. To break through the clutter, consider sending a press packet in the mail or sending product samples. You may want to ask for the writer’s permission before sending a sample because some reporters aren’t allowed to accept large gifts.
Follow up. After you send your initial email, you definitely don’t want to follow up too many times but one gentle email reminder is appropriate. I’d recommend using this opportunity to make sure that your story doesn’t go unnoticed. If someone does write about you, be sure to follow up with a nice thank you note or email.
Amplify your success. If you are successful and your wedding business does get press, be sure to spread the word about it through your own wedding blog, Facebook, Twitter and BridalTweet. You can also showcase your press mentions within your online press room.

Do you have any wedding PR tips to share? If so, please comment below.

About This Blog: Christine Dyer is the Creator and Founder of BridalTweet. Christine has an MBA in marketing and shares over ten years of marketing expertise with the wedding community. In this weekly blog, you'll find advice on an array of wedding business topics such as how to market to brides, social networking, wedding PR, wedding sales, vendor networking, branding, pricing and much more. Please pass this news along to your own professional wedding network. To receive this advice in your email inbox each week, Sign Up for a Free BridalTweet Membership.

Comment by Lucmann Pierre on August 10, 2010 at 12:21pm: This is such great advice. I'm glad I joined Bridaltweet. Since the launch of my Off-Premise Caterering business "LE PIERRE CATERERS" based out of NJ, I've been doing my own PR work. Though I don't consider myself a PR expert by any means, nor would I ever replace or de-value the work of a professional PR person, I think I've been doing a great job getting showcasing my business to give it the necessary exposure to reach my target market. Because of all the hard work I've put in, I've been able to land some great TV exposures on a notional level, most recently on the TODAY SHOW as you can see (ME with Al Roker) on my profile Pic. Again, Thank You Bridaltweet! I will continue to come back to your site for great advice. - Chef Lucmann Pierre

Comment by Linda Lou Seeger on August 12, 2010 at 9:38am: Workin on a blog for decor, flowers and colors any suggestions?

Comment by Event Pros LA on August 12, 2010 at 11:47am: I would break the blog into different color sections. I blog quite often and find that the searches that brides do are normally for a specific color and ideas around that color unless you are doing one blog that is about Fall 2010 color trends, than you can write about multiple colors in one blog. I hope this helps and good luck!

Comment by Sarah Kavanagh on August 24, 2010 at 12:16pm: Thanks for sharing this with us x

Comment by nora gonzalez on August 31, 2010 at 11:45am: Your hints are always super helpful,it is a pleasure to read your column,always
Nora

Comment by Keli of I DO Belize Weddings on September 8, 2010 at 12:43pm: awesome, thank you!

Comment by Amanda Walls on September 16, 2010 at 10:00am: Thank you so much for your wonderful articles!

Comment by Peter L. Duncan on November 7, 2010 at 10:44am: Christine, This info is hugely helpful... you rock!!!

Comment by Peter L. Duncan on November 7, 2010 at 10:58am: Christine, You've outdone yourself once again, by producing a really "meaty" article that is incredibly helpful. Many thanks for your investment into ours, and I'm sure so many other businesses around the globe. Cheers, Pete.D.