Do a piece in your local newspaper

[theplanner]

This is a good one.

When I reach 10 years in business I contacted the local newspaper and they did a piece about my company.

I just phoned them up and they were interested.

It was about a 1/4 of a page in the end and I didnt need to advertise.

Just make it newsworthy.

The planner

[peterjhale]

Thanks for that tip.

Journalists will be happy if they receive a telephone call from someone with a newsworthy item - but it must be something different that what's been before.

Newsworthy is the important word on this one !

[theplanner]

cheers - journalists are nice people really

[mbailey]

Let's expel a myth - journalists are not hacks that will camp out on your lawn, go through your rubbish and generally ruin your life. At least, for the vast majority of cases! They have a need: to fill column inches with content relevant to their readers. You can meet that need and build a mutually beneficial and long-lasting relationship.

Make sure that your news is relevant and informative - don't just send out any old rubbish that's not going to be of interest in the vain hope of getting some coverage - save it for when you have something decent to say. This might be a product announcement, important staff or company news or a case study on a customer. Case studies are a great way of getting cost-effective coverage while providing magazines with quality content that is of interest to reader. Everyone wants to learn how others are doing something better, faster, cheaper etc.

I recently received coverage in over a dozen magazines/websites due to a single case study that cost me half a tank of petrol and one morning to write! That's equivalent to around £20k of advertising - not bad for a morning's work!

Martin Bailey
Author: Marketing your Business
www.marketingyour.biz