In a tough world economy, it’s important to get every penny’s worth out of your marketing dollars. You have probably been working diligently to spread those dollars out over several avenues of advertising, but sometimes the money just doesn’t go far enough. What if I told you there is a great FREE way to get your business known? I’m sure that got your attention. Although some “free” methods seem to work quite well, they can end up costing you in the long run, especially if those methods involve sporting another business’s ads with your own. But there is method that is tried and true.
First, I want to clarify that publicity is not the same as advertising. Publicity is letting people know who you are, and advertising is telling people what your product or service is and how it can benefit them. We’re going to put advertising on the back burner for a moment.
There are a lot of smart sales and marketing people that are using an inventive way to get publicity. Most notably, they use press releases. You can write them yourself, but they have to be newsworthy in order to be published. For example, simply describing the items in your catalog is not news. You should write about events and activities in your business, and be sure to add a contact name, telephone number, email address, and web site address so people can contact you for more details.
You can write about company sponsorships or participation in charity events, product demonstration events, scholarships, or when someone in the company is retiring and a new member is coming aboard. These items are newsworthy, and can be posted on press release sites, in local newspapers, on social networks, or released via video media. The idea is to get people to see your business name and relate to it in a positive way. And all it will have cost you is your time.
Let us know how well press releases are working for your business, and offer some tips in creating the perfect press release content.
