Small Business Tax Center
Small Business Ideas, Grants &
Plans to Start & Run a Business:

Small Business Grants
CyberSchmooz
Network in Cyberschmooz Community Ask Questions Questions and Answers Share Tips Small Business Ideas List Your Business Business Advice from Idea Cafe Experts Coffee Talk with Experts Starting A Business Business Plan Biz Planning | Sample Plans Small Business Ideas Idea Name Your Biz Name Plan Your Biz Plan Financing $ Starting a Business Do It! Running your Business Marketing Tips Promotional Merchandise Marketing Tips Marketing | Sales | Customers Human Resources HR | Employees | Contractors Legal Forms & Tax Information Legal | Biz Forms Managing a Business Managing | Operations
Financing Resources Financing Your Business E Commerce & Webhosting eCommerce Take Out Info Trade Publications FREE Trade Publications Business Books Biz Books Your Own Business Small Business News Small Biz News Gen X Biz Gen X Biz Work at Home Work @ Home Business Information The Fridge - Biz Info on Ice Destress Send Awards Send Awards & Greetings Yoga At Your Desk Yoga @ Your Desk Fun Guide Guide to Find FUN Online About Idea Cafe Press Idea Cafe has received Idea Cafe in the News Idea Cafe's Kudos Kudos for Idea Cafe Advertise on Idea Cafe Advertise on Idea Cafe Privacy Policy Privacy Policy Contact Idea Cafe Contact Idea Cafe Link to Idea Cafe Link to/from Idea Cafe Join Idea Cafe
Search Idea Cafe Site Directory Site Map Online directory to business resources Biz Web Guide



Expert Answers to Biz Questions

Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz.

color business bar

How Small Businesses Can Leverage Print for Lead Gen

 

How does a small business compete with the big corporations? Simple: with a bit of resourcefulness, some pep, and a lot of thinking outside the box!

Thanks to the web and a host of online tools, small companies can now access the same huge audience as bigger businesses – they just need to be a bit more creative in order to stand out against those huge budgets.

Print offers one very effective avenue to this end. Here are just some of the ways that you can leverage

Get Into a Magazine

One strategy then is to go the old-fashioned route and to try getting coverage in print. Print magazines still have circulations in the tens of thousands in many cases and those readers are all much more likely to pay close attention to the articles and adverts they read in there. As a physical product these can potentially have much more impact, and this can also sometimes give them more 'authority' in that 'not just anyone' can set up their own magazine.

The first tip is to start small. Approach Wired today and you'll likely find that you don't get much of a response (Wired has a total circulation of 851,823 thousand). They get approached by thousands of companies with press releases just like yours every day and that's going to be tough to compete with. Instead then look for a magazine that's very niche or even one that's local and you'll be in with a much better chance of getting covered. If you manage to generate some buzz around your product, blog or service you may find that other magazines start covering the same story.

Another tip is to forget the e-mail for a bit and to try picking up the phone instead. This way you can make much more of an impact and you'll have a much better chance of getting listened to. Get the work number for a journalist or an editor and call them in the start/middle of the month – they'll be looking for stories and if you have something compelling they can write about and sound friendly they'll usually be grateful for the tipoff.

Remember that these magazines don't just want to give you free coverage – they want to write stories that will be interesting to their readers or better yet useful. Try to look for an angle that will appeal to their audience and read a few articles in their magazine to identify the best way to phrase your pitch. If your product isn't inherently different or interesting, then how about you? Have you overcome trials and tribulations to set up your business? Would a magazine aimed at entrepreneurs like to hear your story? If you can't turn this into an engaging story for their audience, then you can always throw a competition or introduce a discount that their readers will want to hear about.

Print Ads

Of course, one other way to get exposure in print media is simply to pay for advertising space. This is a primary source of income for many magazines, so they'll be more than happy to sell you a banner ad or a listing at the back – you just need to call up the sales department. This is worth experimenting with, but as it doesn't take any particular skill we're going to focus on how to get free coverage in this article…

Create Your Own Print Materials

Of course, another option is to simply create your own print materials. This will have all the same benefits as getting coverage in a magazine or other publication: the physical nature of print gives you more authority and clout and also makes your content more memorable, by forcing a physical interaction.

You don’t have to create an entire magazine! You can do, though if your business is large enough to have its own newsroom and access to the necessary tools for publishing, then chances are it’s not really a ‘small business’.

Better is to create fliers, leaflets and portfolios. You can create these using an agency, then hand them out, post them through letter boxes or send them via direct mail. Sometimes the old classics are the best!

Google      

Small Business Tax CenterIdea Cafe HomeSign UpBiz Grant CenterCyberSchmoozCoffee Talk with ExpertsPeople in Biz ProfilesStarting Your BizBiz PlanningRunning Your BizFREE Trade PublicationsMarketingFinancing Your BizHuman ResourcesLegal & Biz FormsManaging Your BizeCommerceYou and Your BizGen XWork@HomeThe FridgeDe-StressSend an AwardSend an eGreetingYoga @ Your DeskWeb GuideIdea Cafe in the NewsAbout Idea CafeAdvertise on Idea CafeContact UsPrivacy PolicySite MapSmall Biz News

Copyright 1995-2024, Idea Cafe Inc. Downloads are for personal use only, not for resale to others, and may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from Idea Cafe Inc.

DISCLAIMER: We hope whatever you find on this site is helpful, but be cautioned that it may not apply to your own situation, or be totally current at any given time. Idea Cafe Inc. and all of its current and past experts, sponsors, advertisers, agents, contractors and advisors disclaim all warranties with regard to anything found anywhere on this family of websites, quoted from, or sent from Idea Cafe. and its related sites, publications and companies. We also take no responsibility for comments published by others on these pages.

TRADEMARKS: The following are Registered Trademarks or Servicemarks of DevStart, Inc.: Idea Cafe®, Online Coffee Break®, The Small Business Gathering Place®, Take out Info®, Biz Bar & Grill®, Complaint-O-Meter®, A Fun Approach to Serious Business™, CyberSchmooz™, and BizCafe™.