Freelance Home-Based Small Business Attract clients and customers with Free Media Placement

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Attract clients and customers with Free Media Placement

by Marisa D'Vari

Looking to boost your business?

As a busy professional, you probably spend a great deal of time, energy and money advertising in various newspapers.

While an attractive, eye-catching advertisement can bring in new customers and create awareness of your business, consider pocketing that advertising cash and seeking fresh, innovative ways to motivate the media to write about you. What? I hear you say. How’s that?

Every day, hundreds of newspapers are looking for people and business to profile on a local and national level. Radio stations have lots of airtime to fill. Even television stations are eager to interview trailblazers and other professionals who can enlighten their audience. Perhaps you’ve heard about media opportunities, but don’t know how to get started.

It all starts with what is called a “press release” or “media release.”

In the old days – before the advent of faxes and emails – reporters might actually read a media release from top to bottom. Now, reporters and editors are deluged with faxed and emailed media releases that shoot at them from every possible direction.

Email Press Release

With an email release, reporters and editors may give a subject line a quick half-second skim before deleting.

Fax Press Release

With a Fax release, the headline gets a quick quarter-second skim before being crumbled into a ball.

So, what’s the secret of getting your release noticed by the media?

Pairing an irresistible subject line (headline) with an innovative “style” of release.

Mastering the eye-catching subject line

According to advertising guru David Ogilvy, your headline is the most important part of any document. It is the only thing 97 percent of people read when flipping through a magazine or newspaper and seeing headlines.

Best Press Release Headlines

The best headlines use specific words that appeal to the reader’s emotions and reflect their area of interest.

You know your business best.

Begin the process of preparing an eye-catching subject line by thinking of the problems your target audience faces, and try to reflect how you will help them solve that problem in your headline.

Then, keep honing that headline until it is short, succinct, and irresistible.

Choosing a “style” for your Press release

Sure, you will load your release with substance, but remember, even though the media release is an “official” document, you are selling “sizzle” as well as “steak.”

Below are four types of media Press Releases with a high sizzle quotient. Try it out and see yourself make the news!

The Quiz Press Release

This is a release designed as a true/false quiz.

People love quizzes, and producers and print editors are no different! Everyone from real estate agents to attorneys create attention by creating a quiz that challenges the reader and motivates him to test his knowledge.

The Tip Sheet Press Release

This is a release designed as a tip sheet.

List five tips relating to your business and watch editors and producers respond! A tip sheet is well suited to both print and radio because editors and radio hosts can simply cut and paste the tips (giving you attribution) to their publication or speak the tips on their show.

The Holiday Press Release

No need to wait for a Christmas tie-in. Create your own holiday.

Accountants can create “Be Kind to Accountants Day” and create awareness for their practice. Holidays you create (sign up with Chase’s Directory of Events) or John Kremer’s (Celebrate today!) are “official” holidays as public as Valentine’s Day and often are actually printed in Hallmark calendars.

The Current Event Press Release

Did you read something in the newspaper headlines today that relate to your business? Media folks love to tie in a local business with a national trend of current interest. Find the tie-in and write a release.

Read more free articles about how to build buzz for your business at http://www.BuildingBuzz.com where you can also, access a free 79 page Special Report on how to Attract Clients and Customers with the free media.