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Frugal Marketing Get Free Media Exposure How you can get your share of free coverage in newspapers, magazines and electronic media. Did you know that more than half the stories in a typical daily newspaper are planted? It's true—especially in the "soft news" pages: lifestyle, books, arts, travel. * * * Would you like to see your business featured in the pages of your nearest metropolitan daily? Be a guest on a radio talk show? Get featured on cable TV? No problem. You don't need a professional publicist—just plant some news yourself! The trick is to come up with an angle that shows your business as *news*—as something worthy of attention from the media. This is not as hard as it sounds. In fact, there are dozens of ways to frame your accomplishments so that editors and reports are convinced their readers (listeners, viewers) will be interested. For example, events you sponsor, any tie-in with a charity organization, outside recognition in your field, unusual publicity techniques, and thousands of other situations all lend themselves to media coverage. And press releases (or news releases, as they're sometimes called) are a great tool to inform the media. Put contact information at the top, type the text double-spaced under a headline, and keep it short. For print media, you boost your chances if you include something besides text: a photo, a book cover, etc. Some degree of luck is involved; if your release hits on a day the country goes to war, it isn't likely to bring you much coverage. But if you hit a great angle on a slow news day, you may find yourself looking at your own picture and a 30-inch story in your morning paper. You can even get coverage in major markets such as New York and Los Angeles; in some ways it's easier, because the daily papers in those cities are huge, and have a larger "news hole" to fill. But also, community and neighborhood papers in those large markets are extremely receptive, even if you don't get into the biggest paper in town. and small town or ethnic papers are often desperate for your news. The more complete, concise, and well-written your release, the better its chances of being used. What do you gain? Not just free publicity (that might even include your address and phone number), but also validation by a respected independent source that your business is important. And that coverage can lead to more coverage.
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