IT is just a year since Emma Speirs took the decision to put her experience to good use and set up her own company, Ballyhoo PR.
Now she is looking forward to building on a successful 12 months and working with clients who want to make their own headlines.
Emma Speirs, the driving force behind Ballyhoo PR, understands the value of good public relations.
She leads by example so in just a year her business has become a familiar name thanks to Tweets, blogs and all those media favourites to raise a company’s profile from press releases to networking.
The strategy has clearly worked. Ballyhoo PR has a growing portfolio of clients from across a wide range of sectors who are taking the opportunity to share their stories.
Emma, who is based at Corby Enterprise Centre at Priors Hall, said: “Everyone has a story to tell but can miss opportunities to share their news. If PR is done correctly it can open doors the clients haven’t even thought about and help them to grow their business.
“I wanted to share my experience and offer cost-effective PR and copywriting to businesses, including many small and medium-sized enterprises, who are looking to raise their profile.”
Emma took a decision to go it alone after years of editing business-to-business magazines and working in PR roles, including account managing a leading national housebuilder, dog food producer and plastics manufacturer at a PR agency, and various in-house positions.
One of these in-house roles was at Northamptonshire Chamber of Commerce, where she grew her network of local business and press contacts, which has really helped in getting Ballyhoo PR off the ground.
Her current commitments include working with Debi Noone on the leadership team of the growing Corby Business Network group, which regularly attracts between 30 and 50 business people to its monthly meetings.
Emma said: “It really helps that I have worked in the local business community. Not only do I understand a client’s target market and often put businesses in touch with each other, but it also made me realise my passion for working with smaller firms and getting them to think about their business from a PR perspective and shout about their successes, products or services.”
Emma’s services are also available to support an existing marketing or PR team remotely, cover staff absences like a maternity break, or to handle a one-off project.
“It makes sense to spend money on PR and when done properly there is clearly a return on investment,” said Emma. “For some clients, this can be new business while others will benefit from raising their profile. I really would like to thank clients, contacts, suppliers and partners for their support and for putting their trust in my business.”
To discuss your company’s requirements, call Ballyhoo PR on 01536 682000 or see www.ballyhoo-pr.co.uk
PR
* Virtual PR department – acting as your own PR and marketing communications department and dealing remotely with any enquiries from the press, writing press releases and articles, copywriting for your website and emails, managing your social media accounts and much, much more as part of a monthly contract
* Ad hoc Pay As You Go press releases, distributing these to the relevant media outlets and providing updates of the coverage gained in the media and online
* Arranging photo calls and accompanying press release – for example the digging of first soil, ribbon cutting, cheque presentation to a charity. Includes liaising with dignitaries or celebrities and distribution of the press release to the relevant media
* Award entries
* Creation of a PR strategy
* Media relations – liaising with the press to issue statements and quotes in response to media enquiries, invite the media to an event and brief them, and set up radio and TV interviews
COPYWRITING & EDITING
* Copywriting for websites, blogs, email newsletters and more
* Editing of large projects such as magazines or an entire website to smaller documents like leaflets, newsletters, presentations or single paragraphs of copy
* Proofreading
