Get Your Business in the News.

Do you invest in public relations for your business?  Doing so doesn’t have to be expensive.  In fact, if you want to approach your local market, the only necessary cost involved is your time and a little brain power.  Local newspapers, magazines and e-zines are always interested in something new and different to report on.  If you can get a little creative, you can get your business in the news, generating free publicity.  Free is good, don’t you think?

Creative and Catchy

Do you have a new product launching, or a new way to use an existing product?  Brainstorm, if necessary, and come up with something unique and story worthy.  Create a theme that applies to the benefit of your product or service.

Promotional Times printed a story in their newsletter recently that cited a company that was offering a new water-saving washing machine.  To promote it, they developed the tagline, “How thirsty is your washer“, and issued press releases based on the new theme.  It attracted sales.

If you’re working from home, you probably don’t sell appliances, but you get the idea.  Put a creative spin on the major selling feature of your product.  If possible, come up with your own winning slogan to accompany it.

Current Trends

Don’t forget to consider trends while you’re contemplating your approach.  If you can make your campaign tie in naturally with what’s hot in the market, then cash in on it.  When anti-aging is big in the news, play up your line of mail order anti-oxidants using the anti-aging benefits as your prime selling feature.  Your online dollar store might be the perfect for a story on savings and convenience during recessionary and stress-filled times.  See where I’m going with this?  Find the appropriate need and fill it.  The nice thing about trends is that they present an immediate market, if you get in on them early.

How to Get in Print

Once you have your great and interesting product all ready for the public, you can proceed with contacting publication editors, reporters or issue your own print announcements.

-          Call or email your local newspaper or reporter, giving them a brief overview of what new and wonderful thing you’re offering, and invite them for an interview

-          Issue your own press releases.  You can do this online as well.  There are places to submit that are free, as well as ones that you pay for.

-          Hold an event and invite the local press.  The event could be an open house, ribbon cutting, seminar on your product, Christmas party, doesn’t matter.  What matters is the press exposure that you’ll get.  I would caution you though, to make the event interesting enough that it actually gets written up in the paper.

-          If your local newspaper has a Business Monday (or whatever) section, or your city has its own business magazine, then let them know about your wonderful new product/use.

-          Offer a press release, interview or article to any appropriate website owners.  If they deal with local issues or markets, then odds are they are going to be interested.

The best part about using creativity as your number one marketing tool is that it is limitless.  You can take one product and come up with numerous different slants on how to use or promote it.  This is the stuff that makes marketing fun.  So, go ahead and get your business in the news.  You’ll enjoy yourself and get some free publicity to boot.

This post is courtesy of Shirley Anderson.