How To Get Free Publicity for Your Business.

Publicity is the "EASY WAY" to business success that everyone is looking for.Put simply, product publicity is advertising that costs you nothing, yet brings in the orders for your product or service.

Whatever type of business you have, you should want and in fact, strive for as much publicity for your business as possible. Because it's "free advertising" that is essential for the growth of your business. However, to get free publicity, your efforts must be well thought out and carefully planned for maximum results.

Primarily, the basic form of obtaining free publicity is through what is known as a press or news release. Normally, this is one page article about your business or your product or service. Or it can be related to an event in your business that is about to, or has recently happened. Normally, these publicity stories are quickly distributed to the various media, local newspapers, radio and TV, and trade publications.

Of course, the biggest problem is getting the people to whom you've sent your publicity stories, to use them and publish or broadcast them. This of course leads us back to the "correct way " of writing
them and sending them in.

Do send short covering letter, addressed to the person you want your material to be considered by, in every case. This means that you are sending your story to the city editor of the newspapers, the
news directors of the radio and TV stations and the managing editors of the trade publications. There is no point whatsoever in sending your material to the advertising, circulation or business managers, explaining that you are a long-time advertiser, subscriber or listener. It is vital that you make contact with the person who has the final say about what is to be published or broadcast. You must convince them that the use of your material will somehow make them a "hero" to his or her readers, viewers or
listeners.

Your covering letter should just be a short note. Find yourself a paper supplier and tell him you want hundred or so sheets of good bond paper.Preferably choose a pastel colour such as blue or ivory and have this paper cut into quarters, giving you a total of 400 sheets of note paper. Notes saying "From the desk of..." are too elaborate until the people you're contacting get to know you. For the first time, until they use your material, don't use these semi-formal note sheets.

On your note sheet, type the date across the top, then a couple of spaces below, tell the recipient of the note, that the attached material is new and should be of real interest to his or her readers, viewers or listeners. I suggest that the following format be used to send to the editors and news directors
of the media in your area:

"Here's something new and for a change, truly helpful
to anyone trying to cope with inflation, the soaring costs of
living and those engaged in building their own extra income business.
This should be of real value and interest, to your readers.
Please take a look and if you have any questions, or need
more information, then please give me a call at: ............."
You then skip about four spaces and type your name, your business name, and your address. Sign your name above where you've typed it and staple this note to the upper right hand corner of your press release. Your note should always be typed and double-spaced.

So, you've now got your covering letter and you know who to send it to. Type up one note, take it to a nearby quick print shop and have them copy the note four times. Paste the four copies onto another sheet of paper and print 50 to 100 copies. Cut the paper into individual notes and you have all your notes for less that $10. Do not try saving money by photo-copying or Xeroxing. A photo-copy is a still just a photo-copy and will not do the job for you.

Now of course you will need the actual publicity release. This too must be "properly" written, if you expect it to be used by the media. As with nost things, there's a proper form or style to use and of course it must be typed, double-spaced, and short. About half a page in total will suffice.

An inch or so from the top of the paper, with inch and a half margins on each side. of the paper start typing from the left hand margin. Using capital letters, type: PRESS RELEASE:, underline these words and immediately following the colon, put in the date. Always put the date forward by at least a day, after the day you intend to mail the release.

On the right hand side of the page, on the same line and again in all capital letters, type the words
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:. Underline thisand immediately below, not in all capital letters, type your name, phone number and address.

Go down the page a couple of spaces, then in all capital letters and centered between the margins, type a headline, and underline it. Skip a couple of spaces and from the left hand margin, in capital letters, type FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: From here on, it's the news or publicity story itself.

Write the headline and then a story to fit the headline, or the story and then a headline to fit it. Whichever way you do it, it's basically the same as writing an advert or a sales letter. You just attract attention and interest with the headline and fill in the details with your story.

Below is an example of a headline you can use for press releases.

NEED HELP IN MAKING ENDS MEET?

NEW PUBLICATION FOR EXTRA INCOME SEARCHERS.
Here you continue to sell or involve the editors. Their readers are always looking for ways to make ends meet and they'll be interested in what your promise involves. Readers will be pleased to be enlightened with this source of help, so the editor reads the story to find out who, what, where and how.

Needless to say, your headline and the story you present, must sell him or her the benefits of your product or service to readers. Unless it does so, an editor will not use it. You must sell to the first person receiving your material. Keep this uppermost in your mind as you write your aricle. The editor must quickly see and understand how your product or service will benefit his or her readers and must be assured that it will do what you promise in your headline.

Always come straight to the point and say that your product is lower in price, more convenient to use or how your product or service is useful to people. It's also a good idea to include a sample of your product or the opportunity to try your services.

Editors receiving your information are fully aware your purpose is Free Advertising and you should keep this in mind. They're not in the least bit interested in you or your credentials. If they want
background details, they'll call you, which is why you listed your telephone number and address.

They are busy people and they havent the time or the interest in reading your trials and tribulations or
plans for the future. They only want a signal, that alerts them to something new and possibly of real interest to their readers. Convince them you've found a better mousetrap, or that your product or service fills a need or will interest a large segment of his readers, viewers or listeners.

Always follow-up with a short thank you note when an editor uses your publicity release.But never send a press release to an editor and then contact them demanding to know why they didn't use it or only gave you a quick mention. Do this just once and that particular media will "round-file" all further material received from you, unopened! If they don't ise your first effort, then review the story and perhaps write it from a different angle and try again!. Make sure that you're sending it to the correct person.

As mentioned previously, these are busy people, with hundreds of publicity releases landing on their desks every day. So your material has to stand out and in some way, fit the information they want to give to their readers, viewers or listeners. Regardless of your product, service or business, you must build your press release around the particular angle or feature that makes it beneficial or interest
to the readers, viewer or listeners of the media you want to run it. Without this special ingredient, you're finished before you start!

Timing is always important, try to associate your press release with current events in the news.
Job lay-offs and increased unemployment in the newspapers and on TV and radio should prompt you to send a release to all the media about the help and opportunity offered to make money from home.

Another kind of timing to keep in mind are publication deadlines. Always try to time it so that your material reaches the editor for the Sunday paper, because that's when the papers have their greatest circulation. Plus, readers have more time to look at them.

If you want it to appear in the Sunday paper, you usually have to get your release in at least nine days before the publication date. But if in doubt, call and check up on the deadline date.

Jane is the owner of My Web Cash Store website and writes about Ways to Make Passive Income, how To Make Money From Home and Online Affiliate Business. If you would like more information on these or any other home business topic,why not visit www.MyWebCashStore/holloway1217