Every opportunity is important

Sit down at a white board today and write down a list of the ideal PR opportunities for your business. These are the ideal placements that you believe will generate the greatest return measured by exposure, sales and awareness.

Having that list is important, and should drive a majority of your proactive PR strategy, but the vast majority of the PR opportunities you face on a regular basis will be far smaller, and feel far less strategic. That doesn’t mean they’re not valuable.

Case in point from this morning’s Wall Street Journal. Sarah Needleman wrote a piece about parking lot politics, and we were approached for a comment. As a result of just 20 minutes on the phone a few weeks ago, HouseValues is in this morning’s Journal.

Sure, it’s not a piece about the company’s vision, or new products, or successful customers. But it’s momentum nonetheless, it keeps the company highly visible, and I guarantee throughout the day today it’ll generate phone calls and other demonstrations of interest that become something quite tangible and important to the business.

Ignore “less strategic” opportunities at your own peril. Yes, judge them against the amount of time they’ll take to execute, but give yourself as many at-bats as possible, especially in PR, to generate momentum and visibility for your business.