The importance of local PR

At Suzanne Howe Communications, we gain exposure for clients on a national and increasingly also international basis, promoting new products and services, or celebrating awards wins, but always enhancing brand awareness. We have recently announced that SHC has expanded its European reach, but for certain clients ‘local’ PR is crucial, and its importance should never be overlooked.

The invaluable benefits of local PR

For all businesses, people are the key to success and local PR has a hugely important role to play.
If you’re looking to recruit, people are more likely to apply for job with a company they’ve already heard about. Existing employees also enjoy seeing their employer, their colleagues and even themselves in the local media, so in that respect PR is excellent at raising staff morale.

One of our clients recently achieved a Great Place to Work accreditation, and that’s something to shout about!

Share your positive people stories

Does your business have Investors in People or a Diversity Mark accreditation? If so, sharing that news with local media will help to enhance your reputation. If you have an apprentice scheme, it is worth sharing the success stories of individuals who are already working with you, or building PR stories around events such as National Apprentice Week.

Does your business support local charities, or do individual staff members carry out fund-raising activities? The local media love those sorts of stories, and sharing them will help develop relationships with local newspapers, news sites and other local media such as radio. The PR generated will benefit the charities too.

Inward investment

Many businesses rely on, or seek, inward investment in the form of local grants, for everything from innovation to recruitment. PR plays a powerful role in enticing and reassuring potential investors, and the media loves to publish stories around successful growth and expansion.

Which media?

In each area, the local media can include long-established newspapers whose circulation is very much based on local businesses and people stories. Many of these have spawned successful online platforms with a loyal local audience.

Many editors love to interview successful local business leaders, so if that appeals to any of your management team, also consider the value of being heard on local radio, or even being seen on regional TV.

Beyond that, in most regions there are specialist business media who love to share success stories and hear local businesses’ views on topical issues.

We have always said that the media are as important as our clients and we devote a lot of time to developing relationships with editors and journalist to match their needs with our clients’.

Success stories

Many of SHC’s clients have benefitted from a local approach to PR, alongside their broader campaigns.
In August 2025, our client Sabert Corporation Europe acquired Colpac Limited, and we achieved record coverage across the UK, France and Germany, but the stories we generated around the factories in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire were also hugely important.

Local coverage around Leeds, Yorkshire and the North have brought major benefits to Fenton Packaging Solutions whether its looking at awards wins or investment.

Sybron Sales and Marketing Director George Mason, said: Great work! We just had two interviews for new posts in Stafford and both of them knew loads about us as our name is all over Google when searching ‘Sybron Stafford’ following recent press releases.

The power of pictures

One thing that is guaranteed to gain interest from the local media is a picture showing people.

Here’s a few examples which have gained great results…

Talk to us…

When we begin the journey of providing PR services to clients, we always recommend the benefits of adding local PR.

Talk to us if you’d like to know more: hello@suzannehowe.com