Hype Yourself: A no-nonsense PR toolkit for small businesses

***BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2021 SHORTLISTED TITLE***

Hype Yourself is an invaluable toolkit for getting you and your business featured in the media: newspapers, magazines, radio and TV. Crammed full of insider advice, from the building blocks of your PR strategy to the execution of creative campaigns, it includes expert tips from journalists and industry specialists and is supported by a stack of online resources.

Lucy Werner is founder of The Wern, a PR and branding consultancy and training hub for startups, entrepreneurs and independent brands. She is also a writer, speaker, blogger, teacher and podcaster on all things brand building for small businesses.

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Endorsements
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: PR plan
  • 1.1 Business objectives
  • 1.2 Communications objectives
  • 1.3 Your why
  • 1.4 Audience
  • 1.5 What is unique about your business?
  • 1.6 Communications calendar
  • 1.7 Crisis Q&A
• Chapter 2: Master your media toolkit
  • 2.1 One-liner
  • 2.2 Boiler plate
  • 2.3 Images
  • 2.4 Biographies
  • 2.5 Guest posts
  • 2.6 Features
  • 2.7 Press releases
• Chapter 3: Starting your press office
  • 3.1 Journalist details
  • 3.2 Why help a journalist who isn’t directly related to your business?
  • 3.3 Where to look if you have a product and how to pitch
  • 3.4 Guest posts
  • 3.5 Podcasts
  • 3.6 Guest panellist
  • 3.7 Write for the national news
  • 3.8 Hosting your own event
  • 3.9 Feature pitch tips
  • 3.10 News desks
  • 3.11 Interviews and Q&As
• Chapter 4: The brain farts
  • 4.1 Newsjacking
  • 4.2 Picture stories
  • 4.3 Video stories
  • 4.4 Influencer engagement
  • 4.5 Research
  • 4.6 TV
  • 4.7 Radio
  • 4.8 Social media for PR
  • 4.9 Business book
• Any other business
• When to hire a PR agency or book some PR coaching
• Don’t believe the hype?
• Useful resources
• Key terms
• Recommended reading
• Acknowledgements

Lucy Werner is the writer behind Top 50 business newsletter Hype Yourself on Substack.

With over 20 years of communications experience, she has taught hundreds of entrepreneurs through workshops and courses for creative spaces like The Futur, Bayes Business School, and the University of Arts London.

She’s the author of two bestselling books, Hype Yourself and Brand Yourself, and has been featured in the Alt Marketing Power 100, The Dots Rising Stars, and Start Up Magazine’s Female Founders to Watch.

She is a Domestika instructor and Adobe Express Global Ambassador, based in rural France.

I needed this book in my life right now! It's an easy to understand guide to promoting your business and yourself. It starts with the basics, of defining what your business is, what it provides, and who your customer is. The tone is positive and encouraging, yet also no nonsense. The writing is straight forward and complicated jargon is broken down for newbies like me. I went to the website and downloaded the pdfs mentioned in the book to complete the exercises. I started the first couple, and will definitely be returning to the book to finish the process. I learned a ton here, some that I will began implementing immediately in my work to grow and monetize my book blog.
Lucy's writing style had me jazzed up about some information that I'd read before and found daunting or boring. I feel affirmed that I'm on the right path, and my energy is renewed in believing that I am capable of doing the hard work to grow my business. I highly recommend this one!

Bloody love this book! I read it in 3 sittings and have taken so many tips from it. Lucy points to so many things a business owner can do to Hype themselves, some obvious, some less so, but all completely do-able. I have set myself up a PR action plan for 2020 and am excited about what lies ahead.

I love this book, it's so practical and motivating. It's packed full of ideas to help you get your small business in front of the right people, not just through traditional PR but by appearing on podcasts, writing guest blog posts, collaborating with influencers, putting on events and all sorts of other creative ways to grow your authority in your field. It gives you the practical tools you need to not only find these opportunities, but to execute them really well and get a great return on your time investment. As that's often all it takes; big budgets are not at all required to get good use out of this book!
Lucy walks you through everything in such a friendly and accessible way, and makes the whole idea of PR seem way less scary! This book has shown me that we are all more capable than we think of getting press coverage for our businesses, and the tools inside have empowered me to go out and start creating those opportunities for myself straight away! Thank you for sharing your knowledge so generously, Lucy!

Buy this book if you are a small business without the budget for a PR agency. It will help you enormously, and provide great insight if you are working with small business clients in other areas of their business. It's jargon free, or rather, it explains the jargon of journalists so you can speak their language and secure coverage.
A must-read. Highly recommended.