Total Guide to Getting Free Publicity for Your Business - Part 1

This week, we caught up with Jo Smyth, who's a former journalist turned PR consultant, that runs her own agency - Word Worker - offering PR and copywriting to businesses in Bristol and throughout the South West.

If you have a great product or service and want to get it some publicity did you know you can get it for free?

Unlike advertising or advertorial, which you pay for, editorial costs nothing. All you have to do is get a good angle to interest a journalist and there is every chance that they will publish your good news story, either in print, online or – ideally – both!

Many people confuse editorial and advertorial. Well, here is a simple definition: editorial is free and written by journalists; advertorial (usually some words to go with an advert) is paid for. While you have total control over the wording of your advert, or advertorial, you have to pay for it. And that can cost a lot.

Editorial is free. And, because it is free and at the discretion of the publication (or journalist), they aren't obliged to publish anything at all, and they can change the words or emphasis to suit. But - and here's the good news - if you have a great angle then there is every chance that you could interest a journalist in publishing your story.

The best way to interest a publication is through a press release. Write it well, and it has less chance of being edited; you could see your words in print or online exactly as you wrote them – and it will only have cost you a bit of time.

Your press release has to have a really good angle to attract the reporter’s eye. You need a hook, a peg on which to hang the story.

Here are a few ideas:

• Your business is celebrating an anniversary (5th, 10th, 25th?)
• You have developed a new product
• You have clinched a fantastic deal/contract
• You have sold your millionth widget (!)
• You are relocating
• Your have taken on staff and doubled in size
• Your business is being patronised by celebrities
• You are sponsoring someone/something
• You are selling in some great stores for the first time
• You’re fundraising for charity
• You've come up with a new invention
• You've done a survey among clients into their eating/sleeping/anything habits ... whatever gives you an excuse to get your name and product out there.

Now you have your angle you need to write your release … more on how to do that in the next instalment.