Home
>
Public Relations
>
10 Secrets to Free Publicity

executive chauffeured services Westchester Cadillac Deville rentals Deerfield Cadillac Deville rentals Oakbrook limousine airport Highland Park Addison shuttle .. Drug testing

10 Secrets to Free Publicity

Public relations is popular because it is very cost-effective and it works. If you send out one press release, for example, and it gets into print, it could generate more interest in your product or service.

Businesses that want a leg up on their competition need to focus on boosting their public relations (PR) efforts. This keeps them from going under when the economy is weak, and gets them ahead of their competitors when sales start picking up. Now is the perfect time to get a fresh start on your publicity strategies.

Here are ten tips to help you use free publicity to kick-start a business into high gear:

1.Articles: Articles don't have to be long; they just need to be informative. Writing articles gives you instant credibility, too. Submitting online, as well as offline, provides another good chance to get your name in print at no cost. Be sure to put your contact information in a contact resource box at the end of the article.

2. Press releases: Reporters everywhere are looking for stories, and a press release gives them the information to write that story. Just make sure it's newsworthy, not just an advertisement.

3. Newsletters: Writing a newsletter is another way to keep your name top-of-mind. This can be online or offline. Both contain content valuable to your target market and many times advertise your products and services. The cost of this is nothing, yet the return potential is infinite.

4. Business cards: Think of your business card as a small billboard and start handing them out everywhere. Include them in all your correspondence ? even in your bills!

5. Public speaking: Speaking in front of an audience usually makes you an expert. People like to buy from experts. If they're in your audience, then they'll remember your expertise and come to you when they need your product or service. Speaking is free, and it's just like making a sales call to many people at one time.

6. Free reports: Offering a free report online is a good way to get an e-mail from prospects so you may market to them later. This is the whole basis of permission-based marketing, or opt-in lists. You can do the same thing offline.

7. Radio: Radio is expensive, you say? Not if you are being interviewed or calling in on a talk show. Getting interviewed is free, except for your continual follow-up with producers. Calling in is free, but sometimes it's hard to relay contact information.

8. Online forum participation: There are many online newsgroups or forums for a particular subject area. Participating in these is another way to get your name out. Many online forums will let you put an e-mail signature with a link to your site or message with another site linked. Take full advantage of this; these links get clicked often when of interest to the forum participants.

9. Strategic alliances: Introduce yourself to other businesspeople who don't compete with you but sell products or services to the same target audience. Offer to promote them if they promote you. Make sure they're people you like and trust.

10. Letters to the editor: Many times a letter to the editor has a better chance of getting published than the actual press release. You'd be surprised how many people read this column in publications. This is also another way to become friends with the editor. If they see you enough and match you with a newsworthy press release, then your chances of getting a press release in print increases.

Shannon Cherry, APR, MA helps businesses, entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations to be heard. She's a marketing communications and public relations expert with more than 15 years experience and the owner of Cherry Communications. Subscribe today for Be Heard! a FREE biweekly ezine and get the FREE special report: "Get Set For Success: Creative, Low-Cost Marketing Tips to Help You be Heard." Go to: http://www.cherrycommunications.com/

limousine chicago service

In The News:

Cell phone customers are fuming and they’re refusing to extend their long term service contracts, or at least that's the message based on recent subscriber numbers released by U.S. carriers.

The 16th annual Webby Awards took place Monday night in New York City at the Hammerstein Ballroom, where winners and celebrities walked the red carpet in support of innovation.

No more violent shaking. No more tapping the “57” logo. And certainly no more ketchup left to waste at the bottom of the bottle -- all thanks to PhD candidate Dave Smith and his team of MIT researchers.

Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 2,700-year-old seal that bears the inscription "Bethlehem," the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday, in what experts believe to be the oldest artifact with the name of Jesus' traditional birthplace.

They floated like butterflies, now they are being stung -- for a second year running. Eleven months after officials in China were ridiculed for some of the worst Photoshop efforts on record, they are at it again.

The designer behind many of Apple's most popular gadgets will be knighted Wednesday at Buckingham Palace in London.

Your sneakers will come alive with the soon to be released-- Nike+ Basketball and Nike+ Training—apps plus shoes.

The first commercial spacecraft ever launched toward the International Space Station is playing a game of catch-up today (May 23) as it heads toward an unprecedented rendezvous with the orbiting lab.Dragon, built by commercial rocket firm Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

The Boy Scouts of America is trying to recruit a new generation of kids to join its troops with high-energy, high-tech activities that include thrill-inducing zip lines at a new adventure camp, apps and a television show.

The next iPhone or iPad from Apple is surely around the corner, and Google is getting into everything from cloud computing to car making. But what the cards hold for $100 billion behemoth Facebook is far from clear, experts say.

Rumors of the hairy humanoid known variously as the yeti, bigfoot and sasquatch have persisted for decades. Now scientists are hoping to make more of a case for the creature -- with the help of genetic testing, Reuters reported.

Scotty has finally been beamed up. The ashes of the actor James Doohan, who played Scotty on the 1960s television series "Star Trek," were launched to space this morning (May 22) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Cows are a red herring. The most dangerous potential source for methane release lies underneath thinning permafrost and glaciers in the Arctic. Ecologists have just mapped the seeps where methane is bubbling up, and they found more than 150,000 of them.

At a time when black magic was relatively common, two curses involving snakes were cast, one targeting a senator and the other an animal doctor, says a Spanish researcher who has just deciphered the 1,600-year-old curses.

Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, U2 frontman Bono and more honored the memory of late Apple founder Steve Jobs Monday in New York City at the 16th annual Webby Awards.

Humans' close relationship to dogs has so far obscured their history so much that it's not yet possible to use genetic data to tease out the details of their domestication, new research indicates.

A Jurassic mom's almost certainly painful death is perfectly preserved in a rare fossil skeleton, one of the many unique items that will go on display in the Houston Museum of Natural Science's $85 million dinosaur hall when it opens to the public June 2. We take a first peek at the exhibit.

A Jurassic Mom's almost certainly painful death is perfectly preserved in a rare fossil skeleton, one of the many unique items that will go on display in the Houston Museum of Natural Science's $85 million dinosaur hall when it opens to the public June 2.

The rise of Kickstarter's crowdsourcing platform means consumers can now vote with their dollars, investing in unique new projects that they believe in, from smartphone watches designed from e-paper to coffee joulies that keep your drink at the perfect temperature. Here are the 12 most funded design projects.

Jodie Foster may have seen proof of alien lands in the 1997 Robert Zemeckis film "Contact," but the real life astronomer the filmmakers based their sci-fi odyssey on didn't find so much as a tentacle.

10 Secrets to Free Publicity

Public Relations Public Relations