Free Advertising?

[powelly]

Hi.. I am looking to launch a small venture and am trying to put together a 'cheap as possible' marketing strategy..

Has anyone any ideas of best places to seek 'free' advertising?

Any pointers appreciated.. the topic matter isn't too important so any target market is good.

Thanks

>> Edited by powelly on Monday 16th May 11:57

[PetrolTed]

Good 'PR' is free. If you can make it newsworthy, you'll get plenty of free coverage.

[srebbe64]

PetrolTed said:

Good 'PR' is free. If you can make it newsworthy, you'll get plenty of free coverage.

That's true. Publications are continually looking for things to write about. Try and find a bit of a twist somewhere in the story.

[PetrolTed]

Srebbe, did you get my reply to your email the other week?

[srebbe64]

PetrolTed said:

Srebbe, did you get my reply to your email the other week?

I don't know - I replied to you a couple of times?
Perhaps you could send it again to ensure there's not been a "gremiln"!

[Mon Ami Mate]

srebbe64 said:

PetrolTed said: Good 'PR' is free. If you can make it newsworthy, you'll get plenty of free coverage. That's true. Publications are continually looking for things to write about. Try and find a bit of a twist somewhere in the story.

Be careful with PR. I'm a PR consultant and I make money from doing PR well for people. Poorly undertaken PR can seriously harm the health of your business. PR doesn't work without strategy. You can't expect to just scribble out a couple of press releases and then sit back and watch work flood in. In order to put together an effective strategy you need to know what you are doing. You need to understand how PR can benefit your business and what it can realistically achieve. You need to create messages that succinctly communicate your corporate values and the USPs of your products/services. You need to closely define your audiences and work out how to reach them. You need a tactical implementation plan that may include media communications or communicating directly with your audiences. You need an evaluation campaign that enables you to gauge how effective your work is on an ongoing basis, to help you plan further for the future. You need to understand how the media works, so that you give journalists what they want, when they want it.

It always annoys me a bit to read people suggesting that PR is simple and can essentially be done by anybody who turns their mind and a few spare minutes to it. This is naive and impractical. A good PR person needs to be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his client and look out at the media and at his audiences, he needs to be able to be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with audiences and look back at the client and he needs to be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the journalist and look to both. He must be an experienced businessman, an experienced marketeer and an experienced journalist.

There are so many people out there who call themselves PR people who just are not. Good PR people are rare things and you need to be a good PR person in order to create effective PR.

This doesn't make them expensive. Any PR person worth their salt will put together a detailed, costed proposal free of charge. A workable strategy will take some time to research and write, but is essential for an effective campaign. This can still be done for a one-off hit of abot £1,500 (although strategy should be reviewed at least annually, because your products, services, messages and audiences are unlikely to remain static).

A good PR person should be able to put together an effective mini campaign for a small business for about £1000 a month. This will include one or two stories a month to the media, plus writing all your bits of collateral (website content, mailshots, sales letters, brochure etc). Compare the cost of that with the price of advertising.

If you absolutely have no budget, find yourself a PR consultant who can be temporarily bribed with beer and promises for the future. I'm always open to offers!



>> Edited by Mon Ami Mate on Monday 16th May 18:37

[steviebee]

Mon Ami Mate said:

srebbe64 said: PetrolTed said: Good 'PR' is free. If you can make it newsworthy, you'll get plenty of free coverage. That's true. Publications are continually looking for things to write about. Try and find a bit of a twist somewhere in the story. Poorly undertaken PR can seriously harm the health of your business.

Totally agree with Mon Ami on everything mentioned - and the same goes for advertising/marketing.

You get what you pay for - end of story!

You may however, want to check out Barter Card. If managed well, it's a way of availing yourself of various services that you pay for in trade - not cash.

(Note though, the emphasis on "managed well"!)