It’s not because they actually know more than you. It’s because they know how to get media exposure. It’s not actually that hard and you can skyrocket your small business by marketing this way and it isn’t actually going to cost you a dime!

If you don’t have anyone doing this in your industry, then this is even better as you don’t really have any competition to make this work.

Here are a few steps to get you started on your own media exposure that is easy to do and quick to get rolling.

Publish basic tips and tricks in your industry
Newspapers are always looking for good content for their newspapers. People are tired of the doom and gloom and want to hear from someone that has good solid information to share with them. You already know your industry. What can you share with the masses that will give them great tips, tricks or resources that will benefit them?

Most of the time, articles like this are fairly short so it’s actually not that hard to write them. Usually 500 words is about the right size.

Make sure that you are giving great educational information. Not pitching the audience to buy your products or services. This is critical. Your article is to gain exposure and build your credibility, not pitch your wares.

At the end of your article, you should write up a small resource box of information about you. Keep it simple, 2-3 sentences with information on how the reader can contact you if they want more information. This can be a phone number, email address or the best option is a link to your website with a sign-up form for them to receive more tips and information about your products and services. This should be the only part where you sell yourself. Keep it simple with a straight forward call to action. That’s it.

Next you need to contact your local newspapers and publications and ask how to submit your articles for publication. Be polite and ask if they have any specific requirements. They might ask for a photo to also be attached with the article. Be sure to follow their instructions to the letter. The chances of getting your article published will be greater that way.

If you call someone and they say that they aren’t interested or you do submit your article and it ends up not getting published, don’t worry about it. There are a ton of reasons it might not get published. Just keep submitting more articles. Never get discouraged if they don’t publish something you sent them. Just blow it off and move on to the next one. Also remember that there are several publications out there so don’t limit yourself to just one. You might get better results with someone else.

The next step, once you get published once or twice, is to ask if there would be a chance of making your article a regular column in the publication. If they are looking to grow and have found your first couple of articles as good information that the readers like, they might be very eager to bring you on board for a regular column.

Remember, you aren’t going to get paid for this. It’s a tool to use as a way to market your business and yourself better. You are providing great content to the publication and are getting free publicity in exchange.

Once you have established your presence on print publications, you’ll get more comfortable with your topics and can look in to radio and TV for additional spots they might have. What shows are on that might be a good fit that also have guest experts you could be part of? Just Google the show’s website and you should be able to find contact information to ask if you could be a guest on their shows.

Next thing you know, you’ll be the guy that everyone sees in your local area as the expert in your industry.

Remember that the media is always looking for experts to help them with good content for their publications, whether it’s print, radio or TV. Just be sure to always be polite and educational with them and you will build great relationships with the media contacts and you’ll be someone they will remember and like to work with.

Good publicity like this should be part of any business’ marketing mix. It is one of the most cost effective ways to market your business and get the extra exposure you need to take the lead in your industry.

• Yes, you provide a great service.
• Yes, you provide great products.
• Yes, you have exceptional Customer Service.

But, what do you do to actually create Buzz around your business?

Word of mouth isn’t just about doing a great job and expecting you customers to tell someone else about the job you did.

Word of mouth can become much more than that. It should become Viral. Let’s take your basic Word of Mouth marketing and boost it in to a full on conscious Viral Marketing piece of your entire Marketing Mix.

What makes you stand out?
Providing exceptional services and products should be a given. Enough said there!

What you need to do is find the thing that makes you stand out from everyone else in your industry and create buzz about your business.

What can you do that will become viral?

Can you give away something that everyone that gets one will want to tell all of their friends about?

We have a business course that we give way for free to create buzz about our business. We’re helping small business owners with their marketing and at the same time it helps promote our business. We encourage anyone that registers for the course to forward the email to their friends to download too.

Since we are business to business, this really helps as many small business have good networks of other small business owners that they know. Most of the time, they all want to help each other out when they can, and this is a way for them to help out their friends.

This has become viral in just a matter of weeks because people have been excited about the free course that they get and they keep telling others about it because of the great information they get out of it.

Can you give something like this away for your business?

Have you ever seen a retail store that has an anniversary sale with big ticket items like TVs or DVD players for $10 for the first XX number of people? This is the same type of viral marketing. People will tell their friends about these types of sales. They even make it an event and groups of people will come together to make sure they all get to take advantage of the sale.

You might be thinking that you can’t afford to do something like this but you need to think about the long term value of a customer. Once they come in and buy something from you the first time, how much will they spend with you in the future? Even on the day of the sale, will they come in and JUST buy the sale item. Most likely not. Many times, they spend so much more on additional products that they more than pay the cost of the sale item before they even leave.

But now you’ve added a new customer to your list that you can build a long term relationship with resulting in future sales for maybe years down the road. It’s 10 times easier to sell to an existing customer than to find a new customer. Take advantage of your new relationship and nurture it just getting a new customer to building a raving fan.

Word of Mouth or Viral Marketing should be more than a passing thought. If your business relies on Word of Mouth Marketing to keep you going strong like so many other businesses, you need to bring it to the forefront of your marketing mix and actually devise a plan around what you do to make it more effective. Spending a little time planning this in your marketing plan will boost your sales and marketing efforts allowing you to spend less of your hard earned cash on other more expensive advertising and marketing ideas.

Your existing customers are your best asset and with a little work you can turn them from the occasional word of mouth fan to a full on raving fan and create your own mini sales force. Encourage them to talk about you. Stand out from the crowd and keep on top of their minds.

With the proper Word of Mouth marketing planning added to your marketing mix, you can see an exponential explosion in your customers and sales for your business.