Any business owner would love to get publicity for their company. However, for many businesses that becomes financially unattainable – especially for a small business with a very small or no marketing budget. Let’s be honest – how many startups or small businesses have a budget to carry out a national TV commercial like the big corporations? Not many. But, don’t give up just yet. Did you know that it is possible to get some free publicity for your business? Today we are sharing with you 7 tips to getting FREE publicity for your business. We are pretty sure you can find at least 1 or more of these tips that are perfect for your business.
- Help A Reporter Out (HARO): You may remember that we had mentioned this link before – in a previous blog post. HARO is a free online resource that connects you (or your business) to reporters looking for sources and stories. When a reporter is seeking sources for a story – the reporter will put out a query asking for people with certain knowledge or experience to respond. If a reporter likes your response, you could land an interview for a story. Usually that means you’ll be quoted in the story with a link back to your website.
While you can not pitch a story unless asked by the reporter (these requests are sent to all subscribers via email) you can definitely attract some traffic and attention to your business if you are included into the reporter’s stories. This is definitely worth a shot.
- Pitch a story directly to a news reporter: Do you have an amazing inspirational story behind you and your business? Do you have a super awesome event or product launch that you want the news and media to cover? If you want a reporter to actually write a story about you and your business (and not just a quote or a link back) then you should definitely try to pitch yourself! You can find some really great tips at this link (from finding contact information to a basic pitch letter and follow-up).
- Write a press release and send it out: When your business is launching a new product, has a huge event or fundraiser, receives accolades/awards etc., you should create a press release and blast it out to newspapers, magazines, bloggers, industry experts etc. Don’t know how to write a Press Release? Don’t worry – our friends at FitSmallBusiness.com have a fantastic, super-detailed tutorial just for you! It will give you all the tools you need to write the perfect Press Release and the rules you should follow. You can see that here! (*If you would rather use a paid service to do the “work” in regards to press release “Distribution” you can use a service like PR Web – on this site you can create a press release they will host it and then distribute to news outlets and search engines. You are also able to track its progress and view its analytics. But, again – that website is not free)
- List on local event calendars: take less than a minute to google your city’s local event calendar (i.e: “Google Search: Los Angeles local calendar of events”) and you can find free pages like this and this. Your local news channels and newspapers may also have a submission form online. Also, don’t forget to make public events on social media. (Facebook events can target locals and advise them of your upcoming event, pop up shop, blowout sale, etc!)
- Use “Google My Business”: Using Google My Business, you can increase your visibility online, provide valuable business information to your customers and interact with your fans from your cell phone. Set up a business profile page and put in your vital business information (location, store hours, contact information and photos). When someone Google’s your business, they’ll see something like this:
With this tool you will have access to an “Insights” section. You will be able see how well posts are doing, get a look at the demographics of your followers and see helpful charts about your engagement rates. You will also be able to integrate your social media and customers can leave and read reviews.
- Use your blog: As we have mentioned a few times in our previous posts – blogs are a huge plus for your website. Not only does it help keep customers (and prospects) coming back to read your posts – but it also helps your websites SEO and ranking. Be consistent and blog at least once a week – if not more. For more information check out our previous blog post: 7 reasons your business needs a blog.
- Reach out to a celebrity or Influencer / blogger: One of the best and easiest ways to get a celebrity or (high following) blogger to talk about your product is to reach out to them and send them a freebie. An endorsement and social media post or blog post mention from either can bring you tons of attention. This one may take a little research online (to find legitimate contact information) but it’s worth a shot. There is a website called Contact Any Celebrity that has this information handy – however it is not free. But, you can take advantage of their 7 day free trial if you decide to try it out. The best (free) way to go about this is to simply send them a message or tag them on social media and ask them if you can send them something.
As always, make sure you are taking full advantage of your FREE social media accounts and the free tools they offer as well (live feeds, event invites, etc.) You may find that one of these tips works better for you than others. Try a few and evaluate what works best and focus on that moving forward. Is there a free publicity tip that you love and is not listed, let us know by commenting below.