GenerationTarget.com - Mature Market News

Free Publicity is Good Publicity - Part 2

Don't discount the importance of your local media. Aim to become their go-to expert for your field and you never know where it may lead.

Businesses should always be looking for effective promotional tactics, and the cheaper the tactic, the better. For instance, do you realize that the media exists in a symbiotic relationship with all sorts of businesses and organizations? Newspapers, magazines, radio and TV are hungry for content to fill space or time. If you send them interesting stories even tangentially related to your business, you might get a mention in a widely-read features article.

Make a point of getting to know the names of the media people in your area. It can help your marketing strategy to introduce yourself to the editor of your community newspaper and to journalists from local radio and TV. If you place advertisements with a newspaper, visit the paper's offices to meet the editorial staff. You don't want to get in their way, but try to make an appointment for a quiet time of the day or week. Keep in touch with your contacts by sending information about your business or the industry in which you work.

This tactic can have many helpful ramifications. If a tax cut or advance in technology affects your industry, for example, you may well be the local media's go-to person for expertise. In the event of such a development, you might give the papers and broadcast stations a call in any case. While they might not use your comments every time, you have started to establish yourself as someone with opinions on the industry.

To this end, start taking notice of the business world spokespeople commonly used by the media. You'll see the same faces time and again. These people are not picked by accident; they are chosen because they deliberately set out to market themselves as spokespeople. You can do the same by starting modestly at first (perhaps at the community newspaper or radio level first) and then looking for increased recognition. Nowadays, when almost every small newspaper has an online edition, your story has a good chance of turning up in a web search – maybe one performed by a national network program researcher.

Back To Mature Market News →

Go To The GenerationTarget.com Mature Market Bookstore →

COMPANY INFORMATION | MARKETING BOOKSTORE | TRAINING AND EDUCATION | PRESENTERS AND SPEAKERS |