The importance of local PR

At Suzanne Howe Communications, we gain exposure for clients on a national and increasingly also international basis, promoting new products and services, or celebrating awards wins, but always enhancing brand awareness. For certain clients though, ‘local’ PR is crucial, and its importance should never be overlooked.

The invaluable benefits of local PR

For all businesses, people are the key to success and local PR has a hugely important role to play.

If you’re looking to recruit, people are more likely to apply for job with a company they’ve already heard about. Existing employees also enjoy seeing their employer, their colleagues and even themselves in the local media, so in that respect PR is excellent at raising staff morale.

Share your positive people stories

Does your business have Investors in People or a Diversity Mark accreditation? If so, sharing that news with local media will help to enhance your reputation. If you have an apprentice scheme, it is worth sharing the success stories of individuals who are already working with you, or building PR stories around events such as National Apprentice Week.

Does your business support local charities, or do individual staff members carry out fund-raising activities? The local media love those sorts of stories, and sharing them will help develop relationships with local newspapers, news sites and other local media such as radio. The PR generated will benefit the charities too.

Inward investment

Many businesses rely on, or seek, inward investment in the form of local grants, for everything from innovation to recruitment. PR plays a powerful role in enticing and reassuring potential investors, and the media loves to publish stories around successful growth and expansion.

Which media?

In each area, the local media can include long-established newspapers whose circulation is very much based on local businesses and people stories. Many of these have spawned successful online platforms with a loyal local audience.

Many editors love to interview successful local business leaders, so if that appeals to any of your management team, also consider the value of being heard on local radio, or even being seen on regional TV.

Beyond that, in most regions there are specialist business media who love to share success stories and hear local businesses’ views on topical issues.

The media are as important as our clients and we devote a lot of time to developing relationships with editors and journalist to match their needs with our clients’.

Success stories

Many of SHC’s clients have benefitted from a local approach to PR, alongside their broader campaigns.

In June 2022, SHC shared the story of Fenton Packaging Solutions’ investment, expansion and rebranding. The relocation was aided by Leeds City Council’s Enterprise Zone, and the local media in Leeds, Yorkshire and the North of England gave the story major exposure.

In September 2022, pioneering UK cleaning firm Cleanology continued its national expansion with a new contract win covering three of Mercedes-Benz’s showrooms in the North-West – including the luxury car company’s flagship site in Stockport, the largest in Europe. In November Cleanology made a significant acquisition of TC Bibby & Sons, one of the largest cleaning contractors in North-West England. In both cases, the regional and local media were quick to cover the story.

The power of pictures

For the Fenton Packaging Solutions story mentioned above, one of the aspects that attracted the local media to the story was a picture of one of its new trucks with a group of happy smiling people standing in front of it.

When Cleanology went electric in April 2021, having signed a deal with Nissan, and taken delivery of a brand new all-electric London fleet, the photographs for the story all featured famous landmarks such as The Shard, Tower Bridge, and the London Eye, resulting in many London-based news media picking up the story.

When we begin the journey of providing PR services to clients, we always recommend the benefits of adding local PR. Talk to us if you’d like to know more: hello@suzannehowe.com