I wrote an article on getting started with public relations for small and bootstrapped companies. It’s available on the Bootstrappers.mn blog at: https://www.bootstrappers.mn/post/bootstrapping-public-relations
It starts off like:
Public Relations (PR) is an industry where we gain exposure to audiences using news outlets and third-party publishers. These are news publications, magazines, books, blogs, and social media. We can buy advertising in any of them, but PR is making the news and not actually paying for placement in the news. The goal is to gain free coverage by talking about items that are of interest to the public. And the best strategy is to constantly provide value. Value to writers, value to readers, and more specifically, value to potential customers.
PR typically includes subfields like branding, media relations, publicity, event management, special events, and relationship building within an industry. A good public relations firm will match a brand with where target customers are consuming content. But we don’t always need a good public relations firm for this, especially when there are industry thought leaders on staff or as a leader within an organization. Most people bootstrapping a company will have founder-led PR.
Feel free to check it out if it’s your kind of thing!