Large companies are able to spend huge amounts on advertising and PR campaigns, though they love free publicity as much as anyone.

But small and mid-sized businesses need to target their marketing dollars wisely to get as much bang as possible for every buck. For smaller businesses, free publicity may well be the difference between failing, merely surviving, or shooting for the moon. Even for larger companies, obtaining free positive publicity can mean success in a fiercely competitive market.

The public is overwhelmed by thousands of advertising messages. Free publicity in the form of print or broadcast articles about your company, its executives or staff members, or its products and services can attract the attention of potential customers in a way that one more ad just can’t.

PR professionals are always coming up with clever ideas for getting their clients noticed, especially in the form of free and powerful publicity. Keep in mind that your goal is to attract the public’s attention in a way that will draw them to your door and keep them coming back.

The public is your current and potential customer base, and public relations is all about reaching them in a way that will encourage both sales and customer loyalty. A major purpose of PR is to place media articles about you and your business in local, national, and trade publications. Such articles lend your business credibility in the eyes of the public and position you as experts in the field.

People often think about using a product or service for the first time after reading an article about it in a newspaper or a magazine. Another function of such publicity is to create an appealing image for your company, to encourage customer identification and loyalty.

There are three key areas of public relations you can use to boost your advertising results ten-fold over your paid advertising.

The key to public relations lies in

·     Public relation or publicity
·     Merchandising
·     Promotions

With a solid plan in place that encompasses all these areas, you’ll have a great approach to use public relations in the best way possible. Public relations include all that is the media. Don’t limit yourself.

The attention of newspapers, television, radio, magazines, bloggers, ezines and more are all equally powerful. Online marketing is just as important as conventional media, if not more so.

Here are the steps to get noticed by the media

1. Put together a press release for your company. The press release should be relevant to your target market and address consumer interest, not just announce your business.

2. Compact your press release to include one hook and one angle. Choose the most attention-getting topic to make sure the media person you’re sending it to is interested in reading it.

3. Put your press release in professional formatting. With press releases, you need a dateline, the most important information at the top, facts, figures and wrap it up with contact details including who and how. Print the press release on your letterhead.

4. Send your press release to all television and radio stations, local and metro newspapers, national newspapers, industry magazines, and any other form of media that reaches your target market. Don’t forget to include relevant blogs, ezines, press release submission sites and send them to industry professionals.

More importantly than a perfect press release is to make sure you have addressed the needs of your target market in the products/services you offer and make that clear in the press release.

If you’re providing people a solution to a problem, a way to avoid a problem and an opportunity to enhance their lives, the media and the public will be interested. If you have a connection (or the ability to get a connection) with a celebrity, this can practically guarantee you’ll get attention. Make sure you offer newsworthy information and then follow up with media outlets to make sure they’re publicizing that information.

“One of the most powerful techniques every business should use is free publicity. As the name implies, there is no cost, just the time and effort required to attract attention to your business.” Jay Abraham