Bring attention to your business.

You’re ready to start your own business, or you’ve already started, but you find yourself struggling to get attention from potential customers. Think about it. It can be hard to get noticed in a sea of content and information, especially when you're trying to promote your business or brand. You’ve shared out your business page, have asked family, friends, and the barista at your favorite coffee shop to spread the word but you’re not seeing as much engagement as you’d like. Your best bud deserves special thanks for always being there to like your posts, but how do you get the attention from an audience that's going to make a difference to your bottom line?

While there are marketing and public relations professionals you can hire to give your social media and internet presence a boost, when you’re running a small business of your own, every penny you save counts. That’s where learning some public relations fundamentals can help you sell your brand, your product, and build a steady following for your business.

Communication skills can help you confidently sell your business to others.

Being able to speak confidently about who you are and what you do with only a moment’s notice is a tough skill to master. When you’re building your own business from the ground up, having the ability to explain exactly what you can offer to customers and fellow business owners can make a huge impact on how well people know your brand.

Polishing your business persona and your brand start with how you communicate what you have to offer. In ICS Canada’s writing-intensive Public Relations Certificate Program, you’ll dive into why effective communication is so important to public perception and how you can use your skills to strategize and create fun, informational content for your business.

As a business owner, you’ll find yourself having to write a lot more than you may have previously thought you would. Just to start, you’ll want to make sure you can write for

• Social media. Businesses both large and small use social media platforms to stay relevant and get the word out about what they can offer customers. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can all help you source new customers, share your work, and connect with your community. Writing strong social media posts can get you more views, engagement, and post shares.

• Emails. Whether you’re responding to customer questions or reaching out to business leads, clear, concise, and compelling emails help you grab your audience.

• Blogs. The internet offers a lot of different ways for small businesses to be heard. Writing a blog on your website about topics relevant to your customers and your product can help you find a new audience.

• Your website. Have you ever visited a website looking to purchase something and find yourself overwhelmed by too much text on the page? Or what about those times when there just isn’t enough information, no matter how hard you look? Either way, it’s frustrating for customers to have to dig through your website to find what they need. By sharpening your writing skills, you can make sure you site has a balance between too much information and not enough.

• Trade shows and exhibitions. From advertising your presence at an industry show, or taking part in a networking event, brochures, catalogs, and clear information are essential to selling your brand.

• Local news media. Advertising in a local newspaper can be the perfect way to get attention for your business from customers in the area. Polished ads can make a good impression on those who prefer finding things out in print versus digital formats. Or, if you want to announce an exciting new change to your business, being able to put together a well-written press release can make or break your sales.

You can apply the principles of persuasion to make your work more appealing.

No one is perfect, and people – and businesses – make public mistakes every now and then that can hurt their bottom line if they don’t know how to respond. Learning the strategies that effective public relations teams use to manage conflict, positive and negative public opinions, and more can help you define who you are as a brand and sell your work.

What is your business about? What things matter to you and your prospective customers? Creating a strategy that tells the story of what you do and why you do it will let your customers feel like they’re part of your business.

As a small business owner, it’s also essential to be able to persuade prospective customers that what you’re selling is something they need in their lives. Understanding your audience and targeting your marketing and sales efforts to those individuals is an important part of the business. When you know who you’re selling to you can use your communication skills to gear your ads, posts, and emails to what those customers are looking for.

Learning public relations can help you grow your audience and your business.

Professional and polished communication and writing skills don’t come naturally to everyone. Being able to present your ideas, business, and brand well on with little warning can be essential to business success, though, and it can be learned. Whether you need a refresher on public speaking, conflict management, or want to know more about how what you write impacts how customers see your work, ICS Canada’s Public Relations Certificate can help you take the next step toward confidence, all around your schedule.