Free publicity can be a valuable help in promoting your business image and boosting your sales. It involves developing the ability to spot an idea or opportunity and transform it into a newsworthy story or event. This guide offers you some tips on potentially newsworthy situations and some ideas on how you can exploit these opportunities.
Building a successful business involves raising your profile in the community. You can achieve this in a number of ways, often without any direct cost at all, except for your time and effort.
Become the authority
People prefer to deal with those they perceive as leaders in the field, so set about establishing yourself as the expert in your industry. You are sure to know more about your topic than the average person.
Whatever your industry, aim to get people to see you as the authority. If you sell cameras, they should want to come to your shop. If you are a human resources consultant, they should want your help with recruiting suitable staff.
Writing articles
An excellent way to achieve this is to write articles on your industry for publication. For example, if you are a photographer, you can write articles on the impact of digital photography. If you sell computers, you can write articles about the latest computer technology or how to combat viruses.
You’ll probably have noticed that trade journals covering your industry often feature articles by ‘leading figures’. If you feel that the trade journals are beyond your ability at this stage, build your confidence by submitting articles to local community newspapers first. These newspapers are often hungry for content and you may be offered a regular column.
If you lack writing skills, delegate this task to a staff member or try contacting a retired journalist or English teacher in your area. Find out if any educational institute near you offers journalism courses - these students might be keen to gain some work experience.
Giving informative talks
If you feel more comfortable talking than writing, then volunteer to talk to local organisations, such as Rotary, Lions and Zonta clubs. These organisations are always on the lookout for good speakers, and if your talk proves interesting you’re likely to be referred on to other clubs.
If you’re nervous about public speaking, then you can get help from communications courses at a local educational institute, organisations such as Dale Carnegie (www.newzealand.dalecarnegie.com) or Toastmasters International (www.toastmasters.co.nz), or from a PR consultant. Most people who have undergone effective communications training report a very positive impact on themselves and their businesses.
Offering information packs
The contents of your talks and articles can be recycled into very effective free information packs that you can offer to prospective customers.
Always popular are ‘How to’ articles such as ‘10 tips to improve…’, ‘7 ways you can get better results at…’ or ‘A beginner’s guide to…’.
You can use these articles in many ways, including:
- Incentives for people to come into your premises (‘Collect your free guide to…’).
- Free extras with purchases (for example, buy a digital camera or power tool and get ‘A beginner’s guide to…’).
- Credibility building in direct marketing mail-outs (“Enclosed is a copy of my recent article, ‘How to protect your computer from viruses’ published in the Computer Gazette”).
Reprints or photocopies of your articles in newspapers or trade magazines carry the extra credibility that comes from publication (but do get permission first).
Keep the advertising low-key
The golden rule is to keep the promotion of your business low-key.
You’re unlikely to get invitations for articles or talks unless what you have to say is genuinely interesting and helpful. A brief mention of yourself and your business at the beginning or end of the talk is all you should expect - but this should be quite enough.
If people are interested and see you as the authority, they will seek you out. You can mention, however, that you have additional free material available.
For example, a human resources consultant could offer at the end of a talk to send an information pack on ‘How to recruit the right people’ or ‘How to avoid a personal grievance claim’ to those interested - an excellent way of gaining new prospects.
Rather than hand out free information packs at the end of the talk, gather business cards or address details instead so that you can add the names to your database of prospective customers and follow up the business opportunities properly.