What Should a Small Business Really Spend on PR?

“How much should we spend on PR?” is one of those questions with no neat answer. A local accountant and a fast-growing software startup need very different things. But you can get to a sensible number for your own business in about twenty minutes, and it starts with a question that has nothing to do with money.

What do you need PR to do this year?

Maybe you want a few news stories online before you talk to investors. Maybe you want customers who search your name to see recent, positive news instead of a two-year-old blog post. Maybe you want trade journalists to know your product exists. Write down one goal. It will stop you from paying for things that sound impressive but do not move it.

Once you know the goal, there are really only three ways to spend.

The first is to do it yourself. You write the announcements, research journalists and send the pitches. It costs time rather than cash, and it works well when someone on the team writes clearly and can spare a few hours a week.

The second is to pay each time you have news. A distribution service publishes your announcement on news sites and sends you a report. You only spend when something happens, which suits most small businesses with a handful of real announcements a year.

The third is an agency or freelancer on a monthly fee. That makes sense once you need ongoing media relations, crisis support or a full campaign, and once PR is clearly paying for itself.

Most small businesses begin with the first two and move to the third later.

The part people underestimate: distribution prices

If you choose to pay per announcement, look closely at how pricing works, because it varies far more than people expect. The large newswires were built for public companies. They often charge by word count and region, and photos and logos cost extra. Reading a plain breakdown of PR Newswire pricing before you buy will show you how membership fees, word limits and add-ons change the final bill.

There are cheaper routes too. King Newswire’s newswire service, for instance, uses fixed packages with longer word limits and includes a publication report. Whatever you consider, compare the full price of a normal release with an image, not the headline starting price.

Setting your small business PR budget

Count the real announcements you expect in the next twelve months. Launches, new hires, partnerships, awards and milestones usually add up to somewhere between four and eight for a small business. Multiply that by the cost of the option that suits your goal. Add some time or money for writing if you are not doing it yourself, and keep a little aside for the surprise opportunity or the problem you need to address in public.

That is your starting budget. Look at it again after six months.

To know whether it is working, keep a simple record after every announcement: where it was published, how many visits came from those links or from people searching your name, and whether enquiries or sales moved in the following weeks. If an announcement did nothing, check the story first. Weak news struggles everywhere, however much you pay to send it.

The businesses that waste money on PR usually make one of three mistakes. They put everything into one big launch and then go quiet. They pay for a reach they cannot verify. Or they send long releases to a wire that charges by the word. Avoid those, and even a small budget can build a steady public record of real news.