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Here are our top tips for promoting your firm:
Page 52
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• Consider DIY publicity, It is possible to handle your own PR, but be aware it takes significant time. Appoint a green champion, someone knowledgeable and passionate. They will need facts and figures, green resources to hand out and good hi-res pics of your firm, its trucks and themselves. Start by building relationships with the press. Invite journalists down to see what you have done. Most magazines will publish a forward features list ring up and offer your input for anything touching on the environment.
• For local press, organise a small press event. Invite local schoolchildren down to plant bulbs or trees and relaunch you as a green company. Sell it as a local initiative"Making our town greener". Throw in a couple of local politicians if the MP is too busy, invite whoever will be standing against them next time round. Remember that for local coverage, the more photogenic the better.
• Choose a PR/marketing agency carefully. PR is timeconsuming and skilful, and many will be better leaving it to the professionals. A PR agency can be expensive -most will want a monthly retainer so make sure you agree objectives, timescabs and costs upfront. Whoever you choose to do your PR should also be a member of the Public Relations Consultants Association or the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, or have a solid background on a relevant business title.
• Be careful about sponsorship. It can work very well if you can find a subject or organisation that has a broad enough appeal to your customer base and matches your core values. For green issues, it is probably best to avoid any politicised group, such as the Green Party and perhaps sponsor an environmental development zone, such as a local park development. However, it is hard to quantity the payback from sponsorship and it may be better to do it just because it makes the staff feel proud.