http://www.carwashguys.com/innews.html

Places where you would think that they are very impartial, will spin a story to fit their topic. For a company PR department they say most all news is good news and not to worry. Yet the other point is that if the story is too slanted it is not real. The reason I mention this is because after giving hundreds and hundreds of interviews in my life, I can say not one grasped the topic of conversation and all took quotes out of context, inadvertently misrepresented an event or spun a story to fit their needs of personal opinion or even worse were on their little time line deadline and left out pertinent information. I realize this has been going on for decades;

http://www.carwashguys.com/history/museum1.shtml

In my personal experience and probably since story telling came to terms with the printing press and newspapers were born. In my company we did not have a PR firm, just worthy news and news worthy events. Yet even as worthy as the WashGuys are it is nuts to think that the reporters are in such a hurry that they cannot do it correctly. It seems to me that the reporters secretly wish to be in power and therefore use their pen to promote their own agenda. The biggest problem with that is that most often the agenda is very skewed towards an academia socialist viewpoint. Which last time I checked we are a Capitalist country and everywhere socialism has been tried it has not succeeded as well as our current structure.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

All press releases should be typed double-spaced with two clicks between each word. This makes it easy to read and retype. This saves aggravation for the person retyping it into their word processor. You should use Arial font because it is easy to read and 13 to 14 point font size. This is because many newspapers will scan typed material into their computers these days and it makes it easier for their optical character recognition software (OCR) to read it. They will change the font later anyway to match whatever font they use in their newspaper.

You can fax a press release to them but we recommend dropping it off if you have time and it is convenient. You can also wash cars while you are there. Once again you will save them OCR headaches because things come out blurry on a fax. The very best is to e-mail it to them because it’s already in their computer ready to be edited by their staff. The easier you make it on them, the better your chances of getting your press release or news item published.

After you get to know the editors over many months you can email them directly. Eventually you want to think about getting to know the local program directors on a first name basis also. I had run a small business for 20 years before I learned how easy it is to keep your name in the local media. We spent hours and thousands on advertising, when our competitors simply sent in small snippets of information each week. Think about it. Be a winner in your small company.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

So you see, franchising is the American way. It’s what makes up America. Although, over the years, men with egos and power have perverted the system, it is still a good method of controlling vast territories. It was designed to deliver life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to its customer’s, the people. Franchising is a great tool and it opens possibilities to each and every citizen in our country. Realizing this and what we are doing here, we believe every franchise vehicle in the United States should put an American flag on their American Dream. The company vehicle represents the company which is in fact someone’s American Dream; a business of their own. Our Company has car wash trucks and we have flags on all our units nationwide because symbolize more than an industry standard, more than a convenient way to get your car washed, more than just a good deal and a great idea. It represents a chance, a dream for each franchisee. It’s their American dream, whatever they choose to make it.

The flag represents this great country and all it has to offer. Since our franchisees must be clean cut and fit, (the All-American image), it is even more fitting that an American flag is on our trucks. Older citizens who remember are proud to be Americans and they appreciate young people who feel the same. Veterans also like to see the flag on vehicles. It makes them feel proud to have risked their lives fighting for this country. We celebrate holidays that bring back memories of who we are, what we’ve sacrificed and what it means to be an American: Armistice Day, Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, The Fourth of July, President’s Day, Flag Day.

When there is a crisis, our flag is a bond holding us together. It’s a symbol of strength, power and freedom. It exemplifies exactly what American Small Business all about. Many of our Nations franchisees will come from military experience. A few might be out of work Aerospace workers who worked as team members for military and NASA contracts. Both of these groups will appreciate seeing the flag on your companies work vehicles. It builds camaraderie. It builds hope. It builds confidence. Many people still cry when they see a flag. Our founder is one of them. The flag on a franchised work vehicles puts the prospective customers at ease. There will be a flag on every one of our trucks and I hope this article has persuaded all of you to make sure that an American Flag is on all your company’s vehicles too. Your business in not just a game. This is about a dream, freedom and the American way. Think about it and put on that flag today!

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Many employees obviously might be reluctant to do this. So along with representatives from the United Way, you take your mobile washing rigs to the corporations and let the company managers wash the cars of the employees that agree to withhold money from their paychecks so as to make a contribution to the United Way. The employees get a real kick out of watching their bosses slave away washing their cars. And they will be doing it using your rigs. Therefore you get the Public Relations plug. Any employee agreeing to the deduction gets their car washed by their boss.

Since they are using your equipment you can be sure to block off the storm drains to prevent pollution and this gives another public relations plug to the event as completely EPA compliant. This works well and a great synergy takes over. We also recommend to have the United Way representative call all the newspapers. The employees, managers and executives love it. It’s also great P.R. for you. Who knows maybe your auto detailing company will be on the front page of your newspaper the next day. That is what usually happens to us.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

No promotional tool is more underused than product news coverage. I know because my company, Media Relations, Inc. has been arranging product news stories for 18 years. We are forced to be an aggressive sales organization because of the limited demand for what we sell.

But, the more we educate people about the power of publicity, the more companies see the light and understand its value. Product news coverage is sales-rich content that meets people where they live. It’s inexpensive compared to other promotions, and your competition is most likely missing it. Imagine the impact on sales if reporters were telling the masses about your product in their stories.

Most PR firms follow the textbook business model. They are all over the board, offering any service that falls between a business and its "public". These include everything from investor relations and crisis management to community affairs and press conferences. My company’s philosophy is different in two very distinct ways. First, we specialize in product news coverage, and second we sell coverage by the story, not by the hour. That means you always get media coverage for your money.

I call this "Pay-Per-Interview Publicity" and it is our biggest selling feature. Many clients have gotten burned by big retainers and little coverage. They love our accountability. Although there isn’t much of a market demand for our service, once a company tries us, they often become a customer for life.

Reaching people at home in such a natural way can’t remain below the radar forever. With people aggressively blocking sales messages with things like National Do Not Call lists and TiVo, marketers are going to have to abandon traditional promotional methods and find more meaningful ways to connect with people. Funny thing is, newspapers, TVs, and radios are literally right under their noses. They’ve been buying the ads but missing the real power: the stories.

Our clients don’t send a few press releases and hope reporters call them. They harness and control media content by hiring us. We help them mobilize reporters to reach and teach people about their products and we’re the best in the business.

P.S.

I’m always surprised to find that even after we explain to people what we do, some of them think we sell ads or infomercials. I want to make it clear that I’m talking about putting you in touch with reporters and producers who need content for their publication or program. There is no money that changes hands between the media and us. Over the years, we have developed connections with reporters and producers who are on the look out for story ideas. We simply try to persuade them to do a story about your product and charge you a fee if they do.

We’ve gotten pretty good at this. Our staff of 40 makes as many as 30,000 calls to the media each month, and they have booked tens of thousands of product news stories for our customers. We would love to have the opportunity to promote your product.

Lonny Kocina is founder and president of Media Relations, Inc. He has led the company to become the top performance-based public relations firm in the country by creating a unique pay-per-interview publicity structure.

It’s easy-to-swallow “medicine” when it leads managers to persuade those key outside folks to their way of thinking, then move them to take actions that allow the manager’s department, division or subsidiary to succeed.

In other words, effective public relations “medicine” is applied when PR alters individual perception leading to changed behaviors among a manager’s target “publics,” thus helping achieve his or her managerial objectives.

Here’s the underlying essence: 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.

But managers should always remember that their PR effort must demand more than special events, brochures and press releases if they are to come up with the public relations results they paid for.

Here’s a sampling of what this “medicine” can deliver: fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; capital givers or specifying sources beginning to look your way; customers starting to make repeat purchases; membership applications on the rise; community leaders beginning to seek you out; welcome bounces in show room visits; prospects starting to do business with you; higher employee retention rates, and even politicians and legislators starting to view you as a key member of the business, non-profit or association communities.

Luckily, your PR people are already in the perception and behavior business, so they should be of real use for this initial opinion monitoring project. But you must be certain of several things. First, who among your PR team really understands the blueprint outlined above and shows commitment to its implementation, starting with key audience perception monitoring? Second, be certain that your public relations people really accept why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. And third, make sure they believe that perceptions almost always result in behaviors that can help or hurt your operation.

Review the bidding with your PR staff. Especially your game plan for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Questions along these lines: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the interchange? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?

You may wish to use those PR folks of yours in that monitoring capacity since, as noted, they’re already in the perception and persuasion business. And further, because it can run into real money using professional survey firms to do the opinion gathering work. But, whether it’s your people or a survey firm asking the questions, the objective remains the same: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.

Here, you are aiming at creating a PR goal that does something about the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. Will it be to straighten out that dangerous misconception? Correct that gross inaccuracy? Or, stop that potentially painful rumor cold?

Where you establish a goal, you must establish a strategy that tells you how to get there. So keep in mind that there are just three strategic options available when it comes to doing something about perception and opinion. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. The wrong strategy pick will taste like blue cheese on your corn flakes, so be sure your new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. You wouldn’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a strategy of reinforcement.

It’s always a challenge to create an actionable message that will help persuade any audience to your way of thinking. Here, you must do so, and it must be a well-written message target directly at your key external audience. Identify your strongest writer because s/he must build some very special, corrective language. Words that are not merely compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if they are to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

Now it’s selection time once again, namely, the communications tactics most likely to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. There are scores available. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But you must be certain that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.

By the way, you may wish to keep this kind of message low profile and unveil it before smaller meetings and presentations rather than using higher-profile news releases. Reason is, the credibility of any message is fragile and always at stake, so how you communicate it is a concern.

You’ll need preliminary progress reports, which will alert you and your PR team to begin a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. You’ll want to use many of the same questions used in the first benchmark session. But now, you will be on red alert for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

If things are not moving fast enough for you, you always have the option of accelerating the effort by adding more communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies.

The value of public relations as effective medicine for managers becomes clearer when you realize that the people you deal with behave like everyone else – they act upon their perceptions of the facts they hear about you and your operation. Which means you really have little choice but to deal promptly and effectively with those perceptions by doing what is necessary to reach and move those key external audiences of yours to actions you desire.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.

Robert A. Kelly © 2005.

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communi- cations, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations.

Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com
Mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net

You have better things to do.

Like demanding the real results you’re entitled to, and for which you’ve paid good money! Results, that is, that will come about when you do something positive about the behaviors of those important external audiences of yours that most affect your operation. In particular, when you persuade those key outside folks to your way of thinking, then help move them to take actions that allow your department, division or subsidiary to succeed.

In other words, good public relations can alter individual perception and lead to changed behaviors among key outside audiences. And that can help business, non-profit and association managers like you, achieve their managerial objectives.

How do I know? Because 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.

Luckily, here’s what can materialize from this approach: prospects starting to work with you; capital givers or specifying sources beginning to look your way; welcome bounces in show room visits; membership applications on the rise; customers starting to make repeat purchases; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; community leaders beginning to seek you out, and even politicians and legislators starting to view you as a key member of the business, non-profit or association communities.

Clearly, your first priority will be involving your public relations people by getting them on board this particular approach to PR. They must buy into why it’s so important to know how your outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Be especially certain they accept the reality that negative perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can damage your organization.

Take the time necessary to lay out how you will monitor and gather perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Questions like these: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the interchange? How much do you know about our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?

Take comfort from the fact that your PR people are already in the perception and behavior business and can be of real use for the initial opinion monitoring project. Professional survey firms are always available, of course, but that can be a budget buster. But, whether it’s your people or a survey firm who handles the questioning, the objective is to identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, and misconceptions.

Now, you identify which of the problems outlined above becomes your corrective public relations goal – clarify the misconception, spike that rumor, correct the false assumption or fix a variety of other possible inaccuracies?

The truth of the matter is, you can meet that goal only when you select the right strategy from the three choices available to you. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. Picking the wrong strategy is about as cool as using cajun spices in your Tiramasu! So please be certain the new strategy fits comfortably with your new public relations goal. You wouldn’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.

Some regard this as the toughest part of the job — create a persuasive message aimed at members of your target audience. Yes, it’s always a challenge to put together action-forcing language that will help persuade any audience to your way of thinking.

And so, since s/he must create that very special, corrective language, be certain you have your best writer on the assignment. You need words that are not only compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if they are to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to the behaviors you desire.

From here on in, things get easier. For example, identify the communications tactics you need to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. Insuring that the tactics you select have a record of reaching folks like your audience members, you can pick from dozens that are available. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others.

Stay alert to the fact that the credibility of the message can be dependent on the credibility of its delivery method. Which means you may wish to deliver it in small getogether-like meetings and presentations rather than through a higher- profile media announcement.

When you receive requests for progress reports, consider yourself alerted to the need for you and your PR team to undertake a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. You’ll want to use many of the same questions used in the first benchmark session. But now, you will be watching very carefully for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

Don’t fret if things seem to be slowing down. Your PR program usually can be accelerated by adding more communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies.

When all is said and done, the bottom line is, this workable public relations blueprint will help you persuade your most important outside stakeholders to your way of thinking, then move them to behave in a way that leads to the success of your department, division or subsidiary.

So, stop doing public relations the hard way.

The public relations rules that will best serve any business, non-profit or association manager, read this way: the people you deal with do, in fact, behave like everyone else – they act upon their perceptions of the facts they hear about you and your operation. Strongly suggesting that you deal promptly and effectively with those perceptions by doing what is necessary to reach and move your key external audiences to actions you desire.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.

Robert A. Kelly © 2005.

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communi- cations, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations.

Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com
Mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net

Signature files are great ways to get free publicity for your business. It’s just a short blurb at the end of your email. It’s not considered spam. Of course, you shouldn’t just send blank emails to people, just so they’ll see your signature file. That might be considered spam to some people.

Joint ventures are also great ways to get free publicity for your business. Joint ventures are fairly easy to set up. Just find someone who is not in direct competition with you that may benefit from your book, product or service. Ask them if they will promote your product to their list in exchange for a link on your website or an announcement to your list. Most business owners will agree to such an arrangement as this is a win-win for everyone.

Another way to get free publicity for your business is to join as many webrings related to your business that you can find. Once again, this costs you nothing, and you get new traffic. A good place to find webrings is http://www.webring.com I also host a webring for people that are in the online marketing and advertising business. You can join it by visiting http://f.webring.com/hub?ring=marketingandadve .

Also, you can gain free publicity by writing informational articles. My suggestion is that you post these for free and include a resource box at the end of your article with your contact information and a short blurb about the product or service you are trying to promote.

Another source of free publicity is free for all links. A free for all links page is just what it sounds like. Anyone can list their url on this person’s page. The only catch is that some pages may collect an email address from you and send you a lot of emails. I would just put in an email address that I didn’t mind getting a lot of emails at.

Finally, giveaways are an excellent way to get free publicity for your business. You could give away a report, an e-book, or even a coupon for discounted services. These are just a few of the ways that you can get free publicity for your business. I’m sure your creative minds will come up with some additional ways.

DeAnna Spencer is a virtual assistant that helps entrepreneurs run a successful business by providing affordable administrative help. She also publishes a blog for small business owners. Visit this small business resource today.

It all works because public relations applies its underlying premise to deliver external stakeholder behavior change, the kind that leads directly to achieving those managerial objectives.

That’s why the pros let the tacticians handle the special events, brochures and press releases. The pros have better things to do.

Like implementing the underlying premise of public relations that makes it all possible. 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 usually accomplished.

Pros usually know that a variety of operating results can flow from such an approach to public relations: customers starting to make repeat purchases; prospects starting to work with you; capital givers or specifying sources beginning to look your way; welcome bounces in show room visits; membership applications on the rise; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; community leaders beginning to seek you out, and even politicians and legislators starting to view you as a key member of the business, non-profit or association communities.

Your PR staff will be key whether they are your employees, agency specialists or from a parent organization. You must get them on board this particular approach to PR as soon as possible. Ideally, they will already support why it’s so important to know how your outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Specifically, be sure they accept the reality that negative perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can damage your organization.

During your strategy meetings with PR staff, explain how you plan to monitor and gather perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Questions such as: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the interchange? How much do you know about our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?

You should be comforted by the fact that your PR people are already in the perception and behavior business and can be of real use for the initial opinion monitoring project. Professional survey firms are always available, of course, but that can be very expensive. However, whether it’s your people or a survey firm who handles the questioning, the objective is the same. Identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negatives.

Establishing your corrective public relations goal – that is, correcting or clarifying those negatives – is next. Here you identify which negative is most serious, for example, spike that rumor, clarify the false assumption or correct the untruths.

Never forget that you can meet that PR goal only when you select the right strategy from the three choices available to you. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. Picking the wrong strategy will taste like meat sauce on your oatmeal. So be sure your new strategy fits comfortably with your new public relations goal. You wouldn’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.

While it’s always a challenge to put together action-forcing language that will help persuade any audience to your way of thinking, you must, nevertheless, create a persuasive, corrective message aimed at members of your target audience.

Which is why you must have your best writer on this job. You must have language that is not merely compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if it is to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to the behaviors you desire.

Now you get to supervise a much easier task – assembling the communications tactics you need to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. Double check that the tactics you and your PR staff select have a record of reaching folks like your audience members. You can pick from dozens that are available, from speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others.

Remember that the believability of the message can depend to some extent on the credibility of its delivery method. Which means you may wish to deliver it in smaller meetings and presentations rather than through a higher profile media announcement.

Calls for progress reports are really calls for you and your PR team to undertake a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. You’ll want to use many of the same questions used in the first benchmark session. But now, you will be watching very carefully for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

Should you decide to pick up the pace a bit, your PR program usually can be accelerated by adding more communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies.

The really key point about this public relations approach is that this particular blueprint will help you persuade your most important outside stakeholders to your way of thinking, then move them to behave in a way that leads to the success of your department, division or subsidiary.

Which means you can say goodbye to doing public relations the hard way.

Here’s a public relations rule suitable for a place of honor on your computers or your refrigerators. The people you deal with do, in fact, behave like everyone else – they act upon their perceptions of the facts they hear about you and your operation. A strong suggesting that you should deal promptly and effectively with those perceptions by doing what is necessary to reach and move your key external audiences to actions you desire.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.

Robert A. Kelly © 2005.

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communi- cations, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net

Visit: http://www.prcommentary.com

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.

DeAnna Spencer is a virtual assistant that helps entrepreneurs run a successful business by providing affordable administrative help. She also publishes a blog for small business owners. Visit this small business resource today.