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Ideas/Section-8
Back in the beginning
days of my business, I didn't have the money to pay for advertising.
Although I would read and absorb the words on every page of every
single mail order publication I could get my hands on -- I only
dreamed of advertising in them. My only income was a $156 per week
unemployment check. The most I might have been able to afford was
$5 or $10 a week -- if that.
But I knew if I didn't
advertise, I wouldn't make any money and my business would fail.
Besides, how could anyone place an order for anything I sold if
I didn't tell them it was for sale? There simply was no two ways
about it -- I had to advertise or give up my business and go back
to working for someone else. Those were my only two choices.
So I would sit and think about ways that I could advertise WITHOUT
spending money. And here are some I tried and put into action:
* Since no one knew me, I wrote to publishers
and offered to typeset free ads for them if they would run my advertisement
free. Some declined this offer but many accepted. I would send samples
of my typesetting style with my letter of request and not only did
I get free advertising, but I also gained new, repeat customers
in the process because they liked my work.
* Also, I would create and design new
products and services, write a press release about it and send it
to the publishers who already knew me. Most of them would run the
press release and generate orders for my company.
* Then, I began suggesting to some of
my customers to start an adsheet. I worked out a deal with them
where I would design their adsheet masthead totally free of charge
if they provided me with free advertising space in every issue.
This concept helped to give my company continuous monthly ad exposure
totally free of cost.
I want to stop and explain this for a
moment. Do you see how invaluable cash and money are by applying
this concept? Compare $25 or $50 or even $100 for typesetting the
original masthead to the amount of free advertising space I received
every month. The payment of money to do the job is far less than
the free advertising.
* After writing press releases, I moved
to the field of writing articles. This again provided me with free
advertising because I included a "resource box" at the
top of every article I submitted to a publisher. A "resource
box" is actually a free ad space that publishers print with
your article to compensate you as a writer. Some writers take advantage
of this space and submit a resource box that's longer than the article
itself. A word of advice to writers: keep your "resource box"
no more than 1/10th the size of the article you write.
* As you become more well known in business
and become popular and respected, many people will see your advertisement
in a publication, cut it out and run it free for you in their publication.
Beginning publishers do this to add creditability to their adsheet
or publication. They feel that if someone notices that a well known
company is advertising with them, the customer will be influenced
to advertise with them also. There are literally 100s of beginning
publishers who do this for Graphico and we are sincerely grateful
that they consider us popular and respected. Thank you!
So you see -- you can really get free
advertising. It just takes a little time and patience. But in the
meantime, contact some of the publishers and offer to do them a
free service in exchange for some ad space. And don't expect them
to give you an 8-1/2" x 11" space right of the bat. Instead,
be humble and satisfied with a 1" or 2" space. This doesn't
hurt the publisher to provide and you'll get more positive reactions
to your trade.
