Publicity and advertising used to be words that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck ? the thought of spending huge sums of money just for an advert or to promote a new business just seemed like throwing money away for no guaranteed results.
Well in reality, there is paid for advertising and promotion, yes, but did you know you can get free newspaper and television advertising for your home business? And it doesn?t mean you have to sell yourself short to get it.
How to get free publicity in the media
It?s simple ? just pick up the telephone and telling your local newspaper or radio station about your home business. You see, a lot of local papers and radio stations are under resourced. Don?t be surprised to find that a local paper has an editor, a reporter and some sales staff ? and that?s it. So what that means for you and I is that we should maximize on this to get free publicity for our business.
One of my first jobs in publishing was working as a deputy editor for a small, but successful trade publication. There were two editorial members of staff ? me and the managing editor. We therefore depended on PR agencies, freelance journalists (although the budget was tiny for commissioning articles) and businesses to contact us to tell us about developments in their businesses.
Besides that, local media love community interest stories because it makes them look more sensitive and caring about what what?s going on in the community. This is not purely altruistic, however, because the more community focused they appear, the more readers or viewers they get, and therefore the more advertising they get from brands who don?t have to watch their marketing budget like home businesses.
In fact, during a recession the media is often hit quite badly, and editorial staff cuts are very commonplace. So use this to your advantage and contact editors and journalists about your home business – if they think your business is
interesting enough, they will interview you, for free.
If at first you don?t succeed…
When your story is profiled depends on how busy they are and what type of other newsworthy events that are going on in your community.
If you find that you have waited a while to hear of an interview date, try calling your contact once a week until you get your interview. Don’t be rude or forceful (you’d be surprised the amount of calls and emails I get from people who think they have a right to appear on www.motherswhowork.co.uk), but be persistent. Reporters understand about persistence, because that’s how they get many of their stories ? and having been (and still am) on the receiving end of this, it is expected.
