free advertising

In this series, we’re going to look at some ways to get advertising, without spending one  red cent. (or any other color for that matter.)

Note – nothing in life is truly free. I would never recommend that someone develop an advertising strategy without some kind of budget – but the point of this is to demonstrate that advertising does not always need to be expensive, and that you can trade TIME, ENERGY, and CREATIVITY for MONEY when it comes to communicating your message!

So – Part three of our series:

3. Publicity

Publicity is pretty simple, actually. It’s getting media attention that you didn’t pay for. The secret is learning to write a press release, and submitting it to all of your local media outlets.

There’s also an element of building a relationship with your local media – and to be honest, I plan on writing a book about the art of publicity in the future – but I’ll give you a few tips now.

A) Do something newsworthy. Chances are good – a LOT of what you do might already be newsworthy. If you have a fairly public type organization, a new staff person might be worth of a press release. If your company makes a charitable donation, or if you get your employees to volunteer to do some kind of community service – these things are worthy of a press release.

Don’t miss up on any opportunity to get news coverage.

B) Write your press release as though it is an article in the paper. If they don’t have to edit it – they’ll like it even more – but keep in mind – they MAY edit it. They may also NOT publish it. But keep submitting to your local news outlets (radio, tv, newspaper, local blogs, etc) anyway!

C) Follow up with a THANK YOU every time one of your press release gets published. It’s about the relationship. If the media LIKES you – they’ll publish future releases. Be a friend. It will come back to you.

Do you need some help coming up with some marketing strategies?

CONTACT ME TODAY – AND I’LL HELP YOU BUILD A MARKETING CAMPAIGN TO SHARE YOUR MESSAGE WITH YOUR TARGET!
[contact-form-7 id=”64″ title=”Contact form 1″]

or call: 814-636-0152

In this series, we’re going to look at some ways to get advertising, without spending one  red cent. (or any other color for that matter.)

Note – nothing in life is truly free. I would never recommend that someone develop an advertising strategy without some kind of budget – but the point of this is to demonstrate that advertising does not always need to be expensive, and that you can trade TIME, ENERGY, and CREATIVITY for MONEY when it comes to communicating your message!

So – Part two of our series:
2. Market to Existing Customers – Upsell – Re-engage – Word of Mouth
We talked in our Effective Advertising series about building a relationship.
This is where that comes into play.

Upsell – When someone is in your store or at your desk, or on the phone – train your sales staff to UPSELL. Make sure that no matter what you are offering – there’s always another product to offer. Make it easy to bundle in additional services or products. “Do you need a hammer to go with these nails today?”  “Since you’re getting car insurance with us, are you interested in getting a quote for your homeowners insurance today as well?”

This advertising happens solely by asking one more question with every transaction. Cost – FREE.

Re-engage – If you have a company newsletter, or a call list –  or some other way to follow up with and re-engage your previous/current customers – you’ll find what powers every successful business – repeat customers.

Word of Mouth – Want to build a good word of mouth campaign? Train your workers to encourage your customers to tell their friends. Also – if you make a customer happy – get a testimonial! Just ask them to write you a review on your social media page – or have them email you their thoughts – and then use that testimonial to get the word out! You can use these in your PAID advertising as well – but if you build into your system the idea that your services are good enough to tell others about – then you train your staff to encourage all of your customers to spread the word!
“Thanks for stopping in today! Tell your friends about us!”

Another good idea –  encourage people to CHECK IN on facebook or another social media when they stop in.

If you want to spend a few dollars – you can look into a building a referral rewards program. My friend runs an insurance company. His referral program works well. He gives a small gift for each referral, and then enters them into a monthly and yearly drawing for bigger prizes. He sends his small gift with a thank you note – and reaps a fantastic amount of new business from referrals.

Do you need some help coming up with some marketing strategies?

CONTACT ME TODAY – AND I’LL HELP YOU BUILD A MARKETING CAMPAIGN TO SHARE YOUR MESSAGE WITH YOUR TARGET!
[contact-form-7 id=”64″ title=”Contact form 1″]

or call: 814-636-0152

In this series, we’re going to look at some ways to get advertising, without spending one  red cent. (or any other color for that matter.)

Note – nothing in life is truly free. I would never recommend that someone develop an advertising strategy without some kind of budget – but the point of this is to demonstrate that advertising does not always need to be expensive, and that you can trade TIME, ENERGY, and CREATIVITY for MONEY when it comes to communicating your message!

So – Part one of our series:
1. Leveraging the Power of Social Media
The more strategic you are with facebook, twitter, linkedin, google plus, and your blog, the more effective you’ll be.

A) Let’s start from the beginning – set up an account  or a professional profile on each of the above social networks.  Invite your network – you should be able to import your contacts, which should help.

B) If possible – link your blog to automatically post there. (You can use If This Then That  http://www.IFTTT.com  to set up a recipe that will automatically post from your blog.)

C) Make a strategy. You can just post random things as they happen, or share pictures of cats. But your most effective social networking will come with a strategy. Figure out what you are going to post, and when. Then take the time to schedule your posts. (you can use a program like hootsuite if you want to schedule across networks.)

D) Post regular, Post Often, Have Fun.

E)Think about a budget. YES – We’re talking about free advertising. But if you CAN put a little cash on an ad campaign on facebook or twitter – it will be effective in building engagement. You don’t have to spend it. If you’re GOOD at social networking – you might not even need to spend any. But it can’t hurt!

Do you need some help setting up your Social Media Accounts, and optimizing them for results? Do you need help coming up with a social media strategy?
CONTACT ME TODAY – AND I’LL HELP YOU LEVERAGE SOCIAL MEDIA TO YOUR ADVANTAGE!
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