| |
| |
|
PR Information |
|
|
|
How To Get Zero Cost Publicity For Your Business Part 1
Would you like to expand the volume of your business? You can let thousands know about your service, your store, or your new product without spending a penny. Whether you want to make more sales or get an offer on television, you can broaden the scope of your clients by free publicity. You don't have to climb a flagpole or hire a dancing bear to get attention. In fact, with just a telephone, flyers, and some follow up letters, you can be making much more money than you are now. What product or what business are you involved with that needs more customers? You might have a neighborhood store or you may have invented something that is difficult to market. Maybe you've launched a new web site. How are you presently getting customers? Maybe you're advertising in trade journals, magazines, or newspapers. Perhaps you're doing banner swaps or participating in co-op programs with other ezine publishers. Perhaps you're an author, trying to market his or her new book. Or maybe you're a young comic or an actor trying to establish his/her career. Regardless of your business or enterprise, whether it is an online or an offline business, free publicity is available for you. Furthermore, you don't need any special training to do it. Take a look at the variety of options available to you. What is Publicity? Before we get into the different types of publicity out there, it would help if we knew what we were talking about. Publicity is making something known to the public, spreading information to the general, local, or national market. It is information with a news value used to attract popular opinion or support. Everybody uses publicity. Politicians, manufacturers, celebrities all use publicity to gain attention and further their causes. Publicity isn't limited to large organizations. Small committees and enterprises use the local newspapers to publicize events and endeavors. Publicity differs from advertising because it is free. Although some organizations trade tickets or services for mention in a particular publication, generally publicity is newsworthy information that a publication produces. Good publicity is one of the best ways of letting people know you have a worthwhile business. Do your research. Before you begin a publicity campaign, you should know the answer to the following questions: What is the product or service I am promoting? What is the radius of the market (local, city, state, country, and world)? What do the customers want? Where do the customers go to buy my product? Are my buyers mostly online or offline? Where to publicize Depending on your product or service, you have a full gamut of possibilities for advertising without paying. Deciding on the type of media is as important as knowing about your product and your customers. If you want to publicize directly to the general public national publications, metropolitan newspapers and Sunday supplements are the way to tap into the market. For a local enterprise - a profitable business, a charity, or community service- the local paper is the best source of free advertising. Don't go for the big fish first. Start with the local press and then work your way up. Make it newsworthy In order to qualify for publication, your story must be newsworthy. Anything published in the newspapers, magazines, and trade journals must be of importance to its readers. You may have a new product or product line that can be featured in the magazines. If not, you need to come up with a unique angle. For example, you may have to come up with fresh ideas for your service. Or maybe an unusual piece of information in the inventor or business owner's biography might make an interesting twist. Formatting tips Keep the press release to one page. It should be brief and informative. Write the words For Release in full capital letters at the right. Make sure you include your daytime phone number, address, email address, and website address if you have one. Write a personal letter to the editor. Be cordial, but keep it short. If you have a product that you can mail, send the editor a sample if he or she agrees to that. Watch the publication and clip the press release when it is published. These are just a few ways of getting free publicity for your business. Watch for my next article, More Ways to Free Publicity For your business or you can send an email to dspencer@pnewsletter.com with the subject line more ways to free publicity. DeAnna Spencer publishes the weekly ezine Prospecting and Presents. All subscribers get one free ad per week. Subscribe today by visiting http://www.pnewsletter.com
MORE RESOURCES:
PR - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Submitting A Press Release Can Benefit Your Business A Press Release is a captive story that can be about a person, a business or organizational group that is submitted to the media. The distribution of a release can be targeted to media outlets in newspapers, TV, radio stations, magazines and global newswire networks. Possibilities Of The Blogosphere For The PR Industry In Spanish-Speaking Countries Only two media in Spanish speaking countries offer RSS: the Spanish newspaper El Mundo and the Argentine Clarín. Although the blogs are becoming more visible in the media and are becoming a research topic, still they are something of small "evangelist groups", who promote its use? but this can change in little time. Media Training: Why Nobodys Listening to You SORRY?WERE YOU SAYING SOMETHING?Many spokespeople approach media interviews the same way they would a major speech. They think at length about what they want to say, jot down a few notes, and try to memorize a few key points. Using Publicity As A Creative Marketing Tool Publicity is an important and often overlooked tool of creative selling; and a more cost-effective way of reaching your target audience than advertising. With the inherent third-party endorsement of the media implied in every editorial story, a news or feature article in a newspaper, magazine, or on television or radio, is an infinitely more credibly-perceived communications message than an ad or commercial. Media Relations: Should You Pay For News Coverage, Part II Last month, we told you about "pay for play," a practice in which news organizations charge sources to appear on their programs. In other words, if you ante up enough cash, these "news" programs will air a puff piece about your company or organization. Publicity Performance Not Enough? Even after a nice piece in a national publication, or a stint on a popular talk show, do you still have a feeling that your public relations dollar could be better spent?As a business, non-profit or association manager, do questions like that linger in your mind?Because if they do, you may be coming down with a real case of "I want my PR money's worth!"If that's how you feel, I'd guess that you're probably doing very little that's positive about the behaviors of those important outside audiences of yours that most affect your operation.Which means you may be failing to create external stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives. Managers Who Tap Into PRs Value Business, non-profit and association managers get a ton of satisfaction when they do something really positive about the behaviors of those outside audiences that most affect their operation. Especially when they deliver external stakeholder behavior change, the kind that leads directly to achieving their managerial objectives; and even more so when they persuade those important outside folks to their way of thinking, then move them to take actions that help their department, division or subsidiary succeed. Media Relations: When Google Got Googled Before meeting my soon-to-be-wife for the first time, I "Googled" her. Google, with its amazing alacrity, turned up several documents in less than a second. Managers: A Key to Your Survival Most business, non-profit and association managers live to tell about it only IF they achieve their operating objectives. Very little wriggle room there. How Managers Hurt Their PR Results Business, non-profit or association managers hurt their own public relations results when they become fascinated with PR tactics - press releases, publications and brochures and, particularly, fun-to-manage special events - while failing to plan for the perceptions and behaviors of the very people who probably hold their managerial success in their hands.We're talking about those important outside audiences whose behaviors most affect their departments, groups, divisions or subsidiaries. Add Some Firepower to your PR Sure, as tactics usually presented to business, non-profit and association managers, special events, brochures and news releases are fine.But they're not the high-octane PR firepower you need to deliver growth results like new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; accelerating prospect contacts; rising membership applications; customers making repeat purchases; rebounds in showroom visits, or capital givers and specifying sources looking your way. 6 Steps to Using Trade Magazines To Reach Customers When developing a publicity campaign for their business many owners overlook the importance of trade magazines and journals as vehicles for reaching new customers. While mass media publications have widespread readership, the targeted nature of trade publications make the information that appears within them even more powerful. Trade Show Tactics Revealed Being part of a trade show gives small business a chance to experience economies of scale and to mix around with the big guys. This may also be the most stressful period for the PR Dept. The Best PR Has to Offer Managers How cool is this? You're a business, non-profit or association manager. You decide to get serious about your public relations and shift the spotlight away from communications tactics. PR: Room at the Bottom? When special events and communications tactics rule the PR roost instead of a workable plan designed to manage external audience behaviors that impact your organization the most, that's where public relations results can wind up.You know, bad results like key target audiences showing little confidence in your organization, or seldom taking actions that help you succeed and, in the end, failing to help you achieve your unit objectives. CD ROM Business Cards Created properly, an extremely effective marketing tool.It's a great concept, - and it has a 'cool factor' of 300%. Getting Traffic Through Publicity If your reading this, you must be online and most likely have a website. You must also be interested in making money from this website, but there is only one way you can do that- traffic and lots of it. Does the PR Blueprint Work? Managers, please take a minute and read two sentences: People act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is accomplished. Underestimating the Power of In-House PR Do small-business owners always have to rely on large PR agencies to get attention from the press? An entrepreneur recently asked me this question during a networking event for women business owners. Of course my answer was, "No," but not for the reasons one might expect. Free Radio Publicity for Marketing-Minded Financial Planners Radio is a powerful publicity tool. Most stations offer news and talk programming.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
