Poring over publicity

Technically, publicity isn’t really part of advertising, but good publicity can serve to advertise your business. Publicity is really about getting someone else to advertise your business. Basically, you’re calling attention to what you’re doing in a way that your newspaper may want to report on it, or a magazine may want to write a feature article about your business, or a TV show host or radio host may be so intrigued by something you’ve done that they talk about you on their shows. The two chapters in Defining and Positioning Your Message offer lots of great ideas and success stories on how some businesses have done this successfully.
Where your advertising appears is every bit as important as what message it contains — maybe even more so. Advertising is a numbers game: You want to spend as little money as possible, as effectively as possible, to reach as many people as possible, in order to make your phone and your cash register ring. Consider your many media options very carefully. You can waste your advertising dollars very easily by using the wrong media for your advertising goals.
Mass media advertising is affordable (turn to the chapters in Boosting Your Budget with Co-Op Programs for more information on costs). But so-called “affordable” advertising in the wrong media is a gigantic waste of your dollars and your time. No matter how affordable the media is, if it doesn’t bring customers through your door, you aren’t really saving money. On the contrary, you’re draining your limited budget without being the least-bit effective.