3 Ways to Get Free Publicity for Your Small Business

Earning free publicity for your small business can drive brand awareness and more importantly sales! What’s better than that, right?

The key to attracting free publicity is to understand it’s not really free in most cases.

The publicity itself is free – the newspaper or TV station won’t charge you any money – but you will have to do something newsworthy to attract their attention. This newsworthy act usually requires spending money up front.

Newspaper

If you would like to use publicity as part of your marketing strategy, we suggest the following three methods for attracting the attention of reporters!

While each of these methods require some budget from you to make them go, each one can not only earn you publicity but will also generate good will in your community. This is an important factor because people buy from companies they like and trust!

1. Make a Charitable Donation

Making a large charitable donation, especially if it’s to a nonprofit that helps the local community, will be of interest to the media outlets in your area.

When making the donation be sure to let reporters know by sending out a press release and by calling them up if you can. The nonprofit you partner with may already have contacts at the local news stations and papers if you do not.

Be sure to prepare a quote about why you selected this particular organization to donate to and how you hope the donation will make a positive impact in the community.

2. Run a Big Promotion/Host a Contest

You can make the news by running a big promotion or hosting a contest that is beneficial for your local community.

For example, many newspapers and TV stations run a segment on weekly deals. If you’ll be offering BOGO, big percentage off sales or similar you should let the news outlets know so they can include you in their roundup.

If you’re hosting a big contest or giveaway you can contact the news outlets and let them know about that as well. For example, if you’ll be giving away a car, free food for a year or something truly newsworthy, let the papers and TV stations know! That’s something that is of high value to their audience so they’ll likely want to talk about it.

3. Put On an Event for Your Community

One excellent way to earn free publicity is to throw a party for the community!

It could be something as simple as organizing a block party or street festival with your fellow small business owners, or you could put on a 5K race, cycling event or other gathering that gets the community out and moving.

Local media outlets will definitely cover an event that positively impacts the city, and they’ll want to interview you too!

The Bottom Line

If you want to start generating publicity for your small business just remember that you need to do something newsworthy and it helps if you reach out to reporters to let them know!

ARF Financial offers fast-approval bank loans to small businesses. If you’d like to learn more contact us today to speak with a rep!