A great small business publicity campaign requires courage, planning and persistence. You need courage because you will be the front-facing representative of your company and must speak on its behalf. You need planning to determine what types of press releases to send, which journalists to talk to, and how to implement your campaign. And finally, you need persistence to keep up your publicity efforts until you start to see results.

Ready to get started? Here are 5 steps for creating your small business publicity campaign.

1. Create your press kit – Your press kit is a package of content about your company you can give to journalists. Traditionally, it is a folder of information, but you can also deliver your content digitally on USB drives if you prefer to be “green.” You would send a press kit whenever an editor or journalist wants to learn more about your company.

   A good press kit should contain: an intro letter, some recent press releases, a company fact sheet, bio sheets for key partners, copies of published articles, business brochures, and a businesses card.

2. Press releases – Putting together several newsworthy one-page press release are key to the success of your small business publicity campaign. Your press releases should be written for journalists and sent to publications that would be most interested in your business. Keep them concise and on-point. Ideally, you will want to send it to media contacts you know and follow up with a phone call, but initially, you can use online press release services like PRWeb.
3. Get published – Look for targeted newsletters and trade publications (online and offline) where you can submit articles about your subject area. Start small and work your way up to larger publications. With just a few published articles under your belt, you will feel more confident pitching article ideas to bigger publications.
4. Start speaking – Look for public speaking opportunities and start presenting on your area of expertise. Start small and locally to get the hang of it, then work your way up to radio talk shows. The more you speak, the more opportunities will come your way.
5. Pitch ideas – Once you find several targeted publications that are receptive to your articles, you can start pitching article ideas and outlines to editors. Editors love this because you save them time while delivering great content for their readers.

With any small business publicity campaign, you will experience rejections, but don’t take them personally. With courage and persistence, you will build momentum and start to see great results.

Mistake #1 – Trying to Sell Your Services From Your Ad

Too often, small businesses try to sell their services from small ads. You will often see ads that describe a laundry list of services and the opportunity to “call now for your free consultation.”

With small business advertising, you only have limited space and can’t make a complete case for why prospects should hire you to solve their problems. Rather than offering a free consultation – which prospects view as “sales pitch” and avoid – offer free information like reports, white papers, or audio/video content that prospects can download via your website in exchange for their contact information. Sell the information in your ad and sell your services in the follow up.

Mistake #2 – Not Writing for Your Target Market

What problems, concerns or frustrations do your prospects have that would compel them to seek out your solutions? Too often, small businesses focus on themselves and the services they provide rather than what prospects are looking for.

• Focus on benefits – What is the key benefit prospects will receive when they respond to your ad?
• Create a compelling headline – Your headline is an ad for your ad, so it must grab prospect’s interest and make them want to keep reading.
• Use the principles of AIDA – Your advertising copy should follow the principles of AIDA: attract attention, generate interest, spark desire, and offer a call to action. People take action because of two things: the desire to gain and the desire to avoid loss. The latter is usually more effective at getting people to take action.
• Use offers and calls to action – Why should people respond to your ad now and how can they take advantage of your offer?

Mistake #3 – Advertising in the Wrong Place

Take some time to research publications. Even if you have the most compelling ad, if the right people won’t see it, you are wasting marketing dollars. Knowing where and when to place your ads is just as important as what you say. To generate more responses:

• Research your target market – what print publications, websites, and newsletters do they read?
• Consider bigger ads – Larger ads work better than smaller ads because they give you more space to make the best case possible for your products and services.
• Consider ad placement – Where within the publication will your ad run? Will it be near the front or back? Right or left side? Top or bottom of the page? Beside relevant content? The best ads run at the top of the page near relevant editorial content.

By avoiding these 3 small business advertising mistakes, you can create more effective and more profitable advertising campaigns. Advertising doesn’t have to be a cost for your small business. With the right advertising strategy, you can know that for every dollar you spend, you make more in return.

Two key examples of false advertising include:

• Hidden fees or surcharges – The company advertises a specific price but fails to disclose added fees and surcharges.
• “Going out of business” sales – Sometimes, the liquidators hired to sell the closing store’s merchandise will actually raise the prices before discounting them.

False advertising is regulated by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). If your prospects feel they have been misled, they can send a copy of the original ad to the FTC, which will then determine if they can get their money back or if changes must be made to your advertising campaign.

To protect yourself against false advertising, follow these guidelines:

• Be truthful. - Keep your ad truthful and only make claims you can back up.
• Use accurate pricing. – The price you advertise is the price you must honor. Don’t try to deceive prospects by including hidden fees or surcharges.
• Don’t put down competitors. Don’t make misleading or erroneous claims about competitors or alter their logos or trademarks.
• Use legitimate testimonials. The testimonial must come from someone who used the product the way it was intended to be used. Disclose if you paid for any endorsements or if results are not typical. See the FTC’s guidelines for using testimonials and endorsements for further information.
• Get permission. Make sure you have the rights to use photography and graphics.
• Get releases. Make sure to have written releases for anything or anyone in your ads.

If you blog, make sure you disclose if you got any product for free that you might review. See Wired’s article FTC Tells Amateur Bloggers to Disclose Freebies or Be Fined for more information.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide legal advice.

A good example of social proof is the product rating system on websites like Amazon.com or Citysearch.com. Say you are looking for something (books, hotels, restaurants, etc.), and find two comparable options, one with an average 3-star review and one with an average 4.5-star review. You’re more likely to pick the one with the higher rating based on what other people have said. That’s social proof in action.

Testimonials not only help Amazon.com sell more books or Expedia.com book more hotel rooms, they can also help you sell your services by highlighting other people’s successes and results through working with you.

3 Ways to Collect Client Testimonials

For clients to give you testimonials, you need three things: (a) Great service that leaves clients happy; (b) An easy way to collect client testimonials; and (c) A reward system to thank clients who share their thoughts. Here are a few ways to collect testimonials from clients.

1) Send a testimonial request form or letter.
Send prospects a letter stating something to the following: “I’m putting together a list of testimonials from satisfied clients. Would you take a few minutes to tell me what you thought – good or bad – about my services? I look forward to learning what you liked, but I also welcome any suggestions you might have.”

Give prospects an easy way to return the form. If you ask them to mail it back, provide a self-addressed stamped envelope. If you ask them to fax it back, provide the fax number clearly on the form.

Be sure to include a signature section that asks permission to use their comments in your marketing materials. For instance: “You have my permission to use my comments in your ads, brochures and other promotions used to market your services.”

To boost response, you can also mention that if they complete the form, you will send them a “thank you” gift.

2) Collect photos and videos during celebratory moments.

Carry a digital or video camera to capture live pictures and comments. For instance, if you hold a live workshop, collect a few pictures or comments from participants during breaks. If you are holding negotiations or a new product is about to launch, be ready for the final celebratory moment afterwards.

Before you can use these photos or videos, make sure to have your client sign a short release form stating you have permission to use their photos in your marketing materials.

3) Use a client feedback phone line.

Advertise a client feedback phone number on your website. When clients call in, they’ll hear a short recorded message encouraging them to leave comments. They can then leave a message stating their name, their comments, and permission to share their comments with company staff and in your marketing materials.

You can then use these audio recordings as testimonials on your website, in ads or by another hotline for prospects to call in and listen to “what our clients are saying about us.”

Reward Clients Who Give You Testimonials

After you’ve collected a testimonial from a happy client, be sure to thank them because they are not only sharing their thoughts with you, they are also granting you permission to use their comments and picture in your marketing materials. In other words, they are helping you out considerably. Potential gifts ideas can include a free report or product, a discount on additional services, a gift card to a local store or restaurant, or free services from another vendor.

By collecting testimonials and including them in your marketing materials, you’ll drastically enhance your credibility and more easily sell prospects on the benefits of your services.

What Is The Purpose of Your Advertising Campaign?

Why are you running an advertising campaign? What do you hope to achieve. Everyone expects advertising will help them attract new clients, but this goal is too vague to be meaningful. Consider setting SMART goals for your campaign. Some reasons why businesses run advertising include:

• To increase awareness – If the purpose of your advertising is branding, realize that branding takes time and repeat exposure.
• To generate leads or sales – An advertising campaign focused around generating leads or sales is much different than one focused around building awareness. For many small businesses on a limited budget, using direct response marketing is a quick way to generate leads.
• To develop client loyalty – Sometimes, the purpose of your advertising campaign is to get current and past clients to do more business with you. These types of campaigns target your current customer database.

It’s very difficult for one particular advertising campaign to achieve all of these goals. Prioritize which is most important to you.

Who Is Your Target Audience?

Once you determine your small business advertising’s purpose, choose your target market. Advertising that tries to reach “everyone” usually speaks to no one. People are conditioned to filter out marketing messages that aren’t relevant to them, so be specific about who you are trying to reach. Picture your ideal client.

• What are their demographics? Such as gender, age, income, job title, marital status, etc.
• What are their psychographics? How do they perceive your business? Your competitors? The products and services they currently use? What motivates or triggers them to buy? Is it seasonal? Is it because of a life event or major change?
• What is their key problem, frustration or concern that your product or service solves? Where is the pain in their life? People generally are resistant to change, so what is currently worrying or annoying them so much they will consider taking action to solve the problem?
• What do they want? What clients “want” and what they “need” may be two separate things. What benefits are they looking for? How will they decide on a solution?

Focus your advertising around what your prospects “want.” Ideally, what they want is a quick-fix solution to their problem that doesn’t require them to do much work or invest much time or money in solving the problem. That’s not always realistic or what they “need,” but if your advertising speaks to the heart of the problem, it will be much more effective than simply promoting your company, products or services.

Who Is Your Marketing Message?

Your advertising message should be clear and follow the principles of AIDA: attract attention, hold interest, arouse desire, and motivate action. Effective advertising gives prospects a compelling reason why they should take action now rather than tomorrow or next week. What is your offer? How do they take advantage of it? What specific action steps must they take to receive it?

Where Should You Advertise?

The key to your small business advertising strategy is to put your message where prospects will see it. Where are they? What publications do they read? What websites and blogs do they visit regularly? What events do they attend? Advertise where your target audience will have the highest likelihood of seeing or hearing it. There’s no single advertising medium that is “good” or “bad.” In fact, a good medium for one product or service may be a “bad” medium for another. It all depends on who you are targeting and what message you are using. The general rule of thumb is to find mediums that fit your advertising goals, reach your target audience efficiently, and is within your advertising budget.

If you want a few ideas, here are 7 Low Cost Local Small Business Advertising Methods.

1. Business Cards – No matter how big or small your business, you need business cards. Many companies offer inexpensive, professional-looking cards in a variety of styles. A great place to find an attractive design for your business cards, stationary and brochures is www.stocklayouts.com. You simply purchase a template design, modify it, and take it to your local printer or an online printer like www.printing4less.com. Consider using the back of your card to advertise a free report or discount coupon.
   
   
2. Flyers – If you know who you are targeting, printing flyers can help you market your business. Think about where your target market gathers and place your flyers in that location. For instance, many colleges have kiosks where you can place your flyers if you target college students. Many coffee shops or grocery stores like Whole Foods have a bulletin board to staple flyers. Sometimes, community centers and gyms allow members to leave flyers in a designated area. And sometimes, you can partner with other local businesses to exchange flyers – you hand out theirs and they will hand out yours.
   
   
3. Press releases – A press release is a short announcement you send out to local newspapers and magazines that describes something new with your company. For instance, you launch a new product, take on a high-profile client, host an educational seminar, or announce the results of your own market research study.
   
   
4. Business directories – There are numerous business directories both online and offline where you can advertise your company. Many trade organizations, like your local Chamber of Commerce, have member directories you can buy ads in. In addition, online sites like CitySearch.com and Yelp.com offer ways to promote your business online.
   
   
5. Community events – Consider setting up a table at local community events and handing out freebies or purchasing sponsorship for local school events.
   
   
6. Religious advertising – Some religious organizations, like Catholic churches, sell advertising on the back of their bulletins. Usually, the costs are very reasonable for the number of people you reach.
   
   
7. Pro-bono or community service work – Consider offering a high-profile charity pro-bono work or participating in some type of community service project that the media will be covering.

Inexpensive small business advertising opportunities for local businesses are all around you if you know where to look. Focus on where your target market is and look for ways to reach them.

What Are Features?

Features are the characteristics or attributes that physically describe your service. These might include things like:

• you provide weekly Q&A coaching calls
• your products are available for instant download
• you offer several payment options such as cash, check, or credit card
• you offer a 90-day money back guarantee
• you provide a 24-hour tech support hotline

What Are Benefits?

Benefits emphasize the magnitude of the problem and how your solution makes your prospect’s life easier. They answer the question “so what?” Benefits can be classified into three types:

• Economic: Economic benefits stress cost savings or emphasize value.
• Psychological or Emotional: Psychological benefits stress security, reliability, expertise, friendliness or other feelings or beliefs associated with your service.
• Functional: Functional benefits stress what you promise to do such as help single women buy their first home at an affordable price.

How To Transform Features Into Benefits

In the previous examples, the benefits from your customer’s perspective are:

• Weekly Q&A calls: If I don’t understand something, I have a place to ask questions without feeling dumb for not understanding the materials or wondering how they apply in my situation.
• Downloadable products: I have access to the product now, even if it is 3:02 a.m. and my presentation on the topic is due in 5 hours.
• Payment options: I can pay online by credit card so I don’t have to worry about having cash on hand when the pizza delivery guy comes.
• Money back guarantee: Even if I don’t like the product or it doesn’t fit my needs, I have 90 days to ask for a refund.
• 24-hour tech support: It is 9 p.m. and my computer just crashed. I don’t know why and am incredibly frustrated, but at least I have friendly people to call who always pick up the phone immediately and have been able to solve any problem I’ve had in under 15 minutes so I can get back to work.

People buy benefits, not features, so don’t assume just because you tell people all the things you’ll do for them, they’ll understand why that’s useful and beneficial to them. Spend some time thinking about how your features enhance your prospects’ lives. Then stress the results in your marketing materials.

How Madison Avenue Measures TV Commercial Success

The biggest issue with clever slogans is that they are designed for TV commercials you’ll hear 30 times per week. That’s why we know Coke is “the real thing” and Wendy’s asks “where’s the beef?” and Nike encourages to “just do it.”

Those slogans don’t say a lot because if the TV commercial does its job, it will explain the meaning of the slogan. The slogan is designed to be memorable – so it sticks in your head and you remember the commercial when you’re ready to buy their product. Many times, they make that slogan into a jingle to make it even more memorable. If they can get it stuck in your head, they think that will get you to buy more of their stuff.

How well it works is negotiable. The Madison Avenue executives who design TV commercials don’t really have to show that their commercials are directly influencing sales. They just examine the year’s revenues – and if there was a blip upwards, they declare that the commercial worked. If they made less money, they assume the ad didn’t work. Of course, there are all sorts of factors that might come into play that they don’t track, but for the most part, that’s how it works.

What Really Happened to the Taco Bell Chihuahua

And even if something seems popular, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is driving sales. You might remember the Taco Bell Chihuahua who used to say “¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!” That little dog made its debut in 1997 and immediately became a cultural phenomenon. They made all sorts of TV commercials featuring the adventures of the Chihuahua and even started selling toy dogs because people loved it so much.

Yet, as much as people loved this ad campaign, it didn’t help Taco Bell’s bottom line. By 2000, Taco Bell sales were down considerably, and the company decided to abruptly end the ad campaign and try something else.

The funny thing is that once they did that, rumors started flying all over the internet that the dog had died and that’s why they stopped running the commercials. Most people thought that ad campaign was a huge success, so the only reason they could think of for why Taco Bell stopped running the Chihuahua commercials was that something must have happened to the dog.

So, just because you see something witty or clever or entertaining on TV, doesn’t mean it’s actually effective in increasing sales.

It’s a dilemma marketers still have today. How can they know if the advertising and promotions they are spending money on are actually making them money? And how can they cut spending on those that are wasted?

How does advertising really work? Let me ask you this – if you watched TV last night, do you remember any of the commercials? Or maybe you read the newspaper this morning – do you remember any of the ads?

Chances are, you don’t remember most of them. Why? Because those ads weren’t relevant to you. Most ads do an extremely poor job of communicating the benefits of their product or service. And because they aren’t relevant to you, you ignore them.

We filter out things all the time because if we didn’t, we’d be completely overwhelmed with information all the time. There’s no possible way we could remember everything that every marketer wanted us to know, especially when we can barely remember the stuff on our daily to-do list.

The mass advertising that does work beats you over the head with a particular message again and again – always trying different ways to explain that particular message in a new way.

The Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign

Take, for instance, the Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign. You might not think of a political campaign in terms of marketing; political campaigns are all about convincing as many eligible voters to 1) register to vote and then 2) to actually go to their local polling stations and cast their vote on election day. Obama won the 2008 election because of his extremely focused marketing campaign. What did he do?

• He spent millions of dollars on TV advertising.
• He held in-person events like speeches, rallies, dinners and fundraisers.
• He created a word-of-mouth army of thousands of volunteers in field offices around the country. People held political discussions with their families, friends, co-workers and other associates throughout the campaign.
• He used online marketing channels such as the campaign website and social media outlets like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube.
• He got free publicity from the media and from bloggers.
• He had the support of special-interest groups who ran ads for their candidate of choice.

Obama and McCain did a good job of getting voters to the polls. Roughly 127 million people voted, about 4 million more than in 2004. Obama won – due in part to an incredibly streamlined and effective marketing strategy. But he didn’t win by that much when you look at overall vote counts. He only won 53% of the votes – enough to win, but he didn’t convince 47% of voters that he was the right choice.

That is a prime example of how no matter how much you spend, no matter how many people you reach, no matter how focused your campaign message, you won’t appeal to everyone. But if you can reach enough of the right people with a message that’s relevant to them, you can still do very well.

It’s a great way to advertise, right? Madison Avenue calls it “branding.” If they get you to see their commercial several times a day over the course of months, you’ll become more familiar with their product or service – and will be more likely to try it.

Does it work? Maybe. Maybe not. Bigwig advertising executives don’t need to measure results, so they look at sales for the year. If sales are up for this year, they attribute it to a great advertising campaign. If sales are down, they pull the commercial.

Popular Commercials Don’t Necessarily Equal More Sales

That’s what happened to the Taco Bell Chihuahua. You might remember a few years back that Taco Bell ran a popular ad campaign that starred a Chihuahua whose catch phrase was “Yo Quiero Taco Bell.” The character was so popular, they produced toy figures of the dog.

The dog’s fame didn’t last long. The Hispanic community thought the dog was a thinly veiled Mexican stereotype, and nationwide Taco Bell sales plummeted during the dog’s commercial run. So despite nationwide brand recognition and that many Americans knew the Taco Bell catchphrase, sales still fell.

Creative and clever advertising only works – and this is a big “if it works at all” – because you are repeatedly exposed to the commercial numerous times each week over the course of months or even years. Coca-Cola can reach everyone because virtually everyone can consume their product – they just need to go down to their office vending machine, cafeteria, or convenience store and pick up a bottle.

Mass Market Advertising Is Expensive

As a small-business owner, if you try to mimic what big companies do with their marketing, you’ll go broke. Marketing your services is not like marketing a bottle of Coke. Aside from the fact that most small business owners don’t have a several million dollar ad budget, they aren’t just selling a quick impulse buy. It’s pretty easy to decide to spend $1.50 on a bottle of Coke. There isn’t a lot of risk in getting the decision wrong. You are probably already familiar with it – and $1.50 isn’t a huge investment in your part. If you really don’t like it, you can buy a different beverage next time you’re thirsty.

With services marketing, however, you’re not selling a small, cheap product. You’re selling an intangible service. When your prospect is considering hiring you, he can’t pick up a bottle, examine the label or color, and maybe do a sample tasting to see if he likes it.

Instead, he has to guess what working with you will be like. So he looks to every interaction with you from how your marketing materials look and read to what you wear to how you communicate with him to how knowledgeable you sound when you explain concepts in order to approximate what it will be like working with you.

It’s a big decision – one that’s pretty risky if he gets it wrong. What might happen? He might spend a lot of money for a solution that doesn’t fix his problems. He’s making a big investment not only in you and your company, but in your ability to help him solve his key problem in a cost effective manner.

Trying to convince him of exactly what you do, why you’re different from competitors, and why he should listen to you is an incredibly tough sell for a 30-second TV or radio commercial, especially if you can only afford to run it a few times over the short term.