Small businesses have to work even harder to get a piece of the pie. They need to get their name heard and their products or services recognised. Some larger businesses have marketing departments or outsource to a marketing company to manage it all for them but for smaller businesses you may need to do a lot of the leg work yourself.

To manage your PR you need to have a way of recording and tracking events and promotions. There are some great apps out there that you can subscribe to which will help you plan events and your marketing. Some even link in to your analytics so you can see how your marketing is having an effect on the traffic to your website.

Get in touch with some local journalists and inform them of any events or promotions you have coming up. Ask them if they would be able to run a story on your businesses ventures and maybe offer readers a discount or free gift if they use a code that is printed in the paper.

Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are a great way to build up a community of followers and see your brand grow overnight. It is free to use unless you wish to do the paid for advertising.