The Art of Advertising Your Small Business on a Dime

When you’re an entrepreneur you’ve probably ALREADY spent a lot of your resources developing your product or service. So I’m guessing your advertising budget isn’t large as let’s say…McDonald’s.   

McDonald’s spends a huge amount of money on constant ads. They make you remember that if you’re hungry, it’s fast and easy to eat a hamburger. Most entrepreneurs, however, don’t have that kind of financial resources to get the word out about your businesses.  

There are a lot of inexpensive things an entrepreneur can do in order to get publicity – which by the way is even more effective than advertising. One of the best things you can do is to become a frequent contributor to the Letters to the Editor/Op-Ed. Studies have shown that the Letters to the Editor/Op-Ed is the most read section of any publication.  

Shannon Cherry, the Power Publicist, shared with me 2 steps of how to incorporate one of your upcoming events into a letter to the editor:  

Step 1: Subscribe to publications that your target market is reading. That’s not the ones you like, but what your target market is consuming.  If you cater to mompreneurs, you’d probably want Parents, Cookie and Wondertime, as well as your local paper.   

(By the way, when you buy these subscriptions you can write them off on your taxes as business expenses. Another nice perk is that it elevates doing fun magazine reading into something for your business.)  

Step 2: When you see a story that you have an opinion on as an entrepreneur or that piggybacks onto an event you’re having, write a letter to the editor.

• State a fact and a supporting opinion that really gets their attention.  Give them a couple more facts and grab their attention again based on your expertise until you fully answer the problem or question under consideration.  
• Make sure you write your name, company name and website so you drive traffic to your website if you have one. Then add your other contact details and send it out. It’s that easy.  
• When you’re sending it to a magazine consider the lead-time. Are they commenting on stories that happened two magazines ago?  Then that’s their lead-time. A newspaper processes information a lot quicker. So consider that when you’re talking about an upcoming event.  

You can’t procrastinate. Don’t read your newspaper or magazine and put it aside, saying, “I’ll get to this later.” The key is getting your letters to the editor in publications as soon as possible.  

When you contribute often you’re expertise will become known, and local and national reporters will see you as a source for their stories and will call you. Every three weeks is a good schedule for writing letters.   Mark it on your calendar and commit to searching the publications and writing your letter. When you make it part of your business plan, you’ll get the necessary seven to 10 times exposure that people will remember without you ever spending a dime on advertising.   

An added bonus is that this techniques is often more viral. People see an ad and may never talk about it. But if people learn your name in a newspaper, on television or on the radio, other people start talking about it.  

This is just one great tip from my Online Success Toolkit where 17 other experts together with Shannon Cherry have shared their wisdom. It’s packed with easy to use tools and strategies that help entrepreneurs successfully growing your businesses online.