Generating Positive Publicity

Generating positive publicity for your business is an area of marketing that is often forgotten or not even considered. Yet using the media to tell people about your business can be a very effective way of spreading the word, enhancing your credibility and generating sales. What’s more, other than the time you spend arranging your publicity… it’s free!

Being published in the press or featuring in an industry magazine can add weight to all your other marketing and shouldn’t be seen as something only the big companies go after. New Zealand is a nation of small business owners like you, and people are interested in your story.

Generating free publicity for your business is easier than you think especially if you know how to look for opportunities and make the most of them when they arise.

The thing to remember is that good press is more about what your business does than what it says.

Here are three examples of ways you can generate positive publicity for you business:

1. A media release is simply written ‘newsworthy’ information sent to the media. It informs the media of something new, exciting, interesting, or shocking that is happening. A media release needs to be information that is interesting to the public, and that affects the media outlets’ readers.
2. An editorial is essentially an article you write for the media, where you often have a little more freedom to say what you want and to promote your company. Usually longer than a media release, an editorial can be offered in conjunction with advertising.
3. An advertorial is basically a long winded advert. It combines the ‘advert’ with the ‘editorial’. Advertorials use paid advertising space. If you have more of a story to tell, and a great picture, then advertorials can be very effective.

Find out more in our Marketing Handbook: Generating Free Publicity for Your Business.