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After speaking recently with a successful corporate trainer I was reminded of a way to get free publicity, or public relations, for your business. It is part of a concept called Focus Marketing.
There are magazines for literally thousands of associations across the country and around the world. There are associations for apartment building owners, plumbers, dentists, attorneys, restaurant supply vendors, commercial painters, human resource professionals, and thousands more. What do these associations all have in common? They use newsletters and magazines to stay in touch with their members.
Here is where the Free Public Relations come in that you can take advantage of. These associations want, need, and beg for articles to put in their publications to educate and inform their members, and YOU can provide those articles to grow your credibility and your business.
Many, many years ago when I was doing personal financial planning I thought it would be fun to work with psychologists and therapists as clients. I noticed that almost all of them had gone through extensive training and personal work to become more emotionally grounded, and these were the folks I wanted to work with.
In using the concept of Focus Marketing (see the post from last week), I joined a local Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA). These are the people that counsel employees in corporations who are having drug or alcohol problems, financial stresses like credit card debt, and other issues that reduce their workplace performance. I provided articles for the EAPA newsletter in my field of expertise, which was financial planning.
As the only person in the group with a financial background, I was quickly elected as the treasurer of their local chapter and within three years I was on their national board and helping to select their new Chief Operation Officer.
In three short years, I went from joining a local group to having a national presence in an association that had about 10,000 members. And it all started by writing articles for a newsletter.
You can do the same thing to grow your business, and it costs you nothing. Plus as the author of an article, you have more credibility than paying for an advertisement.
Use your expertise to write articles for any group or association to which you have a connection or want to have a connection. Later you can use your articles for a book, to get media interviews and piles more free publicity.
To your prosperity,
Rennie
