Can you give our readers a brief idea of what's on and indeed in the tin?

PR on a Tin offers start-ups and growing businesses a more agile and smarter way to work with their PR budget and create the right campaigns for their brand. The management and marketing teams can decide which standalone PR service they want and when, have a clear idea of what they will get and how much it will cost.  It offers an alternative to the traditional price model of the ongoing monthly/annual retainer.  Instead, the marketing budget is freed up and a business can have access to fresh PR creative and strategic insights for as little as an hour or half a day.

Over the past 25 years, I have worked with hundreds of start-ups and scale-ups. I think the retainer model goes against the natural PR ebb and flow and it doesn't always benefit the business and support its growth in the best way. There are times when a business can put the PR pause button on and other times when it needs to gear up.

 PR on a Tin provides the essential profile building blocks - as well as ad-hoc services which include copywriting for articles, speeches and award entries and creation and progression of thought leadership campaigns.

What are your top dos and don'ts for businesses looking at doing PR?

• Do make sure your website sells your wares in an engaging way. There is little point investing in PR and getting great coverage, if the resulting website traffic jump off your site in less than a minute and you lose valuable customer or client leads.
• Do make sure you take time to get your brand positioning and PR strategy spot on. Try to enjoy the creative process rather than see it as a chore. Don't skip this and fast track to the tactics stage. Done well, PR is an art and a science. You need to go through this process to ensure you have a distinct and compelling brand and it supports the commercial vision. Then the ideas for stories about your brand will flow (with a little bit of help from the experts!).
• Do share the PR collateral and make sure your business has an integrated new business development drive. For example, let's say an expert by-line article written by the CEO appears in a top tier industry publication - make sure your employees and especially the sales and marketing team are sharing this on social media channels to create more buzz and build momentum. This may seem obvious, but this rarely happens within organisations.
• Do recognise the great influence of trade and industry magazines. Businesses may see broadcast outlets and National media as their ultimate wish list (and this is great brand building) but I know from conversations with clients, that they have got more direct leads and business from quality pieces in the industry publications.
• Do make sure your employees understand the importance of social media etiquette and what they post - whether that's at work or after work hours. A few years ago, I was asked to handle a crisis for a professional services firm, when a partner decided to have an acrimonious X exchange (formerly Twitter) with a well-known and vexatious personality. The partner's inflammatory comments, which he posted at the weekend on his own personal account, could have caused a huge reputation and client-fallout for the firm. Prevention is always better than cure.

For more information, please contact sampepper@pronatin.com [1] or visit  www.pronatin.com [2] .