The
opportunities for getting free advertising for your product
or
services are limited only by your own imagination and
energies.
There are so many proven ways of promoting your
objectives
without cost that it literally boggles the mind just
to
think of listing them.
One
way is to write an article relative to your particular
expertise
and submit it to all the publications and media dealing
in
the dissemination of related information. In other words,
become
your own publicity and sales promotions writer. Get the
word
out; establish yourself as an expert in your field, and
"tag-along"
everything you write with a quick note listing your
address
for a catalog, dealership opportunity, or more
information.
Another
really good way is by becoming a guest on as many of the
radio
and television talk shows or interview type programs as
possible.
Actually, this is much easier to bring about than most
people
realize. Write a letter to the producer of these programs,
then
follow up an in-person visit or telephone call. Your initial
contact
should emphasize that your product or service would be of
interest
to the listeners or viewers of the program--perhaps even
saving
them time and money.
Other
ways of getting free or very inexpensive exposure include
the
posting of advertising circulars on all free bulletin boards
in
your area, especially the coin-operated laundries, grocery
stores,
and beauty and barber shops. Don't discount the idea of
handing
out circulars to all the shoppers in busy shopping
centers
and malls, especially on weekend. You can also enlist the
aid
of the middle school students in your area to had out
circulars
door-to-door.
Some
of the more routine methods include having a promotional ad
relative
to your product or service printed on the front or back
of
your envelopes at the time you have them printed with your
return
address.
Be
sure to check all the publications that carry the kind of
advertising
you need. Many mail order publications just getting
started
offer unusually low rates to first-time advertisers; a
free-of-charge
insertion of your ad when you pay for an order to
run
three issues or more; or special seasonal ad space at greatly
reduced
rates. And there are a number of publications that will
give
you Per Inquiry (PI) space--arrangement where all orders
come
in to the publication, they take a commission from each
order,
and then forward the orders on to you for fulfillment.
Many
publications will give you a contract for "" space. In this
arrangement
you send them your ad, and they hold it until they
have
unsold space, and then at a price that's always one third or
less
the regular price for the space need, insert your ad. Along
these
lines, be sure to check in with the suburban neighborhood
newspapers.
If
you send out or publish any kind of catalog or ad sheet, get
in
touch will all the other publishers and inquire about the
possibilities
of exchange advertising. They run your ad in their
publication
in exchange for your running an ad for them of
comparable
size in yours.
Finally,
there's nothing in the world that beats the low cost and
tremendous
exposure you get when you advertise a free offer.
Simply
run an ad offering a free report of interest to most
people---
a simple one page report with a "tag-line" inviting the
readers
to send money for more information, with a full page
advertisement
for your book or other product on the backside. Ask
for
a self-addressed stamped envelope, and depending on the
appeal
for your report and circulation of the publication in
which
your ad appears, you could easily be inundated with
responses!
The
trick here, of course, is to convert all these responses, or
a
large percentage of them, into sales. This is done via the
"tag-line,"
which issues an invitation to the reader to send for
more
information, and the full page ad on the back of the report,
and
other offers you include with the complete package you send
back
to them. As mentioned at the beginning of this report, it's
just
a matter of unleashing your imagination. Do that, and you
have
a powerful force working for you that can help you reach
your
goals.
Thank you very much for this post. I worked several years ago for a university in public relation division. From my experience, giving speech or opinion in television and radio did help much in promoting the university I worked for. Nice work.
ReplyDeleteYuli Andriansyah, Islamic Economics Department, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Islamic University of Indonesia