Secrets of Getting Free Advertising
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 own
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 with 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 or money.
Other ways of getting free or very inexpensive exposure include
the posting of advertising circulars on all the 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 weekends. You can also
enlist the aid of the middle school students in your area to
hand 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 - an 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 "stand-by" 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 than the regular price for the space you need,
insert your ad. Along these lines, be sure to check in with the
suburban and neighborhood newspapers.
If you send out or publish any kind of catalog or ad sheet, get
in touch with 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 of your report and the 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 of 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 the 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.