Allan Prits is Head of Corporate Communications, Media and PR for UMIP, The University of Manchester's agent for Intellectual Property (IP) commercialisation. UMIP helps turn the results of world-leading research from the University into world-beating businesses, products and services which it achieves through the sale of IP or through licensing or spinning out companies.

In this guest blog, Allan looks at how PR support over the past ten years has helped not only launch spin-out companies and their first products or services but also further develop their profiles both on and offline. He gives some simple tips and advice.

Getting started in PR and marketing can be a daunting prospect for SMEs, but fortunately there's more resources than ever to help you get to grips with the basics.

Sorting the wheat from the chaff is no easy feat however, and the average small business owner doesn’t have the time to trawl through the vast volumes being written on these topics.

With this in mind, we've brought together ten of our favourite resources to help you get more from your marketing.

PR and marketing for SMEs can be a trial, especially when your business is just getting off the ground. While there's obvious benefits to promoting your product or service on a wider scale - smaller firms are often constrained by time, resources and budget.

In this guide, we'll examine some options that you can implement today for little-to-no cost and offer some top tips on getting started.

Despite the growing range of cheap digital marketing tools, small businesses are still at something of a disadvantage when it comes to promoting themselves and enhancing their visibility.

Many companies in this category lack a high-profile in terms of physical presence and won't typically have a huge amount to spend on paid methods such as advertising. While search and social media have certainly levelled the playing field to an extent, they're still highly resource-intensive tasks that demand both time and technical skill.

Given this situation, could it be worth it for SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) to branch out into PR? In this guide, we'll delve into the issue and provide some actionable advice on whether PR is right for your fledgling firm.