SECRETS OF GETTING FREE ADVERTISING

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.