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Voice broadcasting (making a huge number of automated phone calls and playing a pre-recorded message) is a remarkably powerful and affordable way to get your message to large numbers of customers or prospects.

Despite its power, before you spend one thin dime on a phone broadcast, you must learn this secret. Because without it, you might just waste your money. So what could this terrible secret be? It’s really simple - Most folks hate getting telemarketing calls…

OK, OK, I know that’s really not a secret. If you’re thinking about using an automatic broadcasting system and you fail to consider this “secret” carefully, it can really hurt your campaign. Here’s why…

The vast majority (90% or more) of people who get a broadcast call simply hang up. The next biggest group (a few percent) of folks press “2″ (to be removed from the call list). The smallest group, around 1-2%, press “1″ (to speak to a live person, or listen to more, or leave a voicemail).

You’re probably thinking”OK, but I’m only paying for the “press 1’s, so what’s the problem?” Here’s the problem.

Just because someone presses “1″, it does’t mean they’re interested in your message. Some of them only want to tell you to not call them again. Those responses are worthless to you. But you still pay for them. So you should carefully consider how to maximize the positively interested, qualified responses.

Now, whether you’re selling merchant accounts to business prospects, or even selling raffle tickets for your charity event, you’ll hear some folks say “remove me from your list and don’t call again” (or worse)… No surprise there right? And I promise, even if you’re soliciting donations for sick children, even if you’re calling your own list of past donors, you will STILL receive some negative calls!

The inescapable fact is this - out of 1000 people, there are probably 2 or 3 who get so irritated when they receive a telemarketing call, they will “press 1″ to complain. To illustrate the effect of response rate on the number of negative calls received, consider two hypothetical broadcast campaigns.

Campaign #1 - selling merchant accounts to businesses - response rate is below average, at 0.6%. Campaign #2 - asking for donations for sick children - using a donor list - response rate is above average, at 1.5%.

Now, assume that 3 out of 1000 (0.3%) of the folks called are the type who will “press 1 for no good reason”… If you work through the numbers, the merchant processing campaign gets 50% negative calls, but even the sick children campaign gets 20%!

The fact is, if you are delivering your calls to live answered phones, and taking live transfers, you simply cannot escape negative calls, no matter what your message is about. And the main way to reduce them is to create a message with a higher response rate.

We’ve described how getting negative calls is a fact of life in this business, and how increasing the response rate will decrease the number of negative calls. Join me in future installments as we discuss how to handle or avoid negative calls, along with other voice broadcasting tips.

David Seldon operates LivePhoneLeads.com providing voice broadcasting services for businesses. Find more informative articles about voice broadcasting at Live Phone Leads.

Every business needs an effective marketing strategy and most business owners would admit this. However, they may not question whether or not their own strategy is, indeed, an effective one. Stop for a moment and just consider what would happen if your business had no decent advertising. The answer is quite simple, most businesses would fail very quickly without an effective marketing strategy.

The Importance of a Business Card

You may not consider a business card as a marketing tool, but it can be a very effective and versatile one. Your business card offers an introduction to your company to prospective clients while at the same time enhancing you as a professional. If you don’t already have a business card, you definitely need one.

Branding With Business Cards

A business marketing plan will usually incorporate a range of strategies including direct selling and branding. Direct selling focuses on increasing market share and profitability by selling your products and services. Branding is a way of differentiating your business from your competitors.

Most business are not selling a unique product, so in order to gain a competitive edge you need to have a unique selling point. In other words, you have to offer your customers something different that they want. Perhaps you can focus on exceptional customer service, offer a rewards program for customer loyalty, or provide an in-house extended warranty that beats your competitors hands down. By taking the time to build a strong brand, you will reap significant returns in the long run. A well designed business card which emphasizes your unique selling point can help you build your brand.

Be Creative and Humorous

Who are you and what is your business really about? Are you reliable and ethical and are your employees helpful? You may not think it’s possible, but a well designed business card can actually convey all this information at a glance.

Whether you are planning to start a new business or are already running an established one, it is important to give the best possible impression of yourself and your organization. A business card that can impress a broad audience can be a great asset. Not only do you want to convey the impression that you are a quality person running a quality organization, you also want people to see you as a friendly and approachable person with a sense of humor. This is the kind of person most people feel they can relate to and you are likely to attract positive comments and word of mouth recommendations.

The Look and Feel of Your Business Card

The message you want your business card to convey needs to match the texture and material you have chosen to make your card from. The more unique the material you choose for your business card, the more you will differentiate your business. There are more business card options available today than ever before. Some people create their business cards from plastic, material and even polished metals. Even if you can’t afford some of the more expensive options, you can still make paper cards unique by engraving or indenting original designs onto them. For example, dentist may have an image of a set of teeth indented onto business card paper. This is far more effective than simply printing an image and is likely to get a lot of attention, which is the whole point.

There is no doubt that business cards are essential marketing tools for business success. A well designed business card can create a powerful and positive impression for both yourself and your business. The more effectively designed the business card, the higher your return on investment will be.

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of Be Successful News, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business.

You talk to a lot of people about your book, but do both men and women hear you in just the same way?
The answer is probably no.

It’s not a question of chauvinism, sexism, or any other “ism,” for that matter. We’re just geared differently. And the more you know about these key gender/marketing differences, the more books you’ll sell. It’s that simple.

So consider these differences the next time you do a radio, TV or print interview to promote your book.

“Just the Facts, Ma’am” Versus Telling the Whole Story

According to the great “Marketing to Women” book by Martha Barletta, a book I often refer to, men tend to strip propositions down to the “nuts and bolts,” to the bottom-line reasons for buying or not buying.

And the faster they can do that, the happier they are. Think of this as a sort of Dragnet, “just the facts, Ma’am,” buying philosophy.

Women, on the other hand, tend to be more information driven. You could say, the more information, the better, almost the opposite of men.

Martha Barletta says women are looking for “the Perfect Answer.” Now I realize this is a generalization, and there will always be loads of exceptions to any “rule”, but women tend to want more “surrounding” data than men do before acting.

You might try testing the above research in your next interview, talk about your book in “headlines,” outlines and shorthand if you’re selling to a predominantly male audience, but tell as much of the whole story as you can if you’re selling mostly to women.

And, as I wrote before, if you’re speaking to both genders, blend the two approaches. Decide ahead of time how to present the nuts and bolts case as well as the “inside scoop.”

Maybe begin a new interview direction by doing a quick outline that covers the basics, the facts, then launch into stories that flesh out the topic, and just repeat that formula until the interview is over.

There’s another thing you need to know about marketing your book to men and women.

The Value of Warm and Fuzzy

If you’ll forgive another seeming cliche, women tend to care about the things they buy. Here’s what Barletta wrote in her book:

“Remember that women’s gender culture is geared toward empathy rather than aspiration.” She goes on to write about a hypothetical SUV ad campaign that might have particular appeal to women, it wouldn’t talk in terms of “our 270 horsepower engine” but instead of our “4,000 pound guardian angel.”

Simply put, if you’re doing media interviews to promote your book, you will be talking to a split gender audience, so it’s vital you know how to tailor your message to both men and women for a successful campaign.

Also, despite these various appeals to women, don’t make the rather large mistake of “going pink.” That’s when companies make an obvious “women-only” appeal. It doesn’t work. Women will only consider it corporate patronizing and end up resenting you.

For 20 years Marsha Friedman has been a leading authority on public relations as CEO of EMSI. Go to http://www.publicitythatworks.com to claim your free “Power of Public Relations” video today!

Your presence at a trade show can have an impact on multiple-tier audiences. First and most logically are the attendees who are walking the aisles. While important, what about attendees who wanted to sign up for the event, but due to unforeseen reasons could not make it? And what of the segment who, due to location, budget constraints, et cetera, decided not to attend?

Wide audiences are waiting to hear from you about the product and or services you are offering. Use the trade show function as a focal point to share the news from your company.

In research I conducted many years ago, an important fact emerges - the number one reason for attendance to a given show is due results from a personal invitation to see to see an exhibitor.

Communicating with the Show Attendees

Last week I had a meeting with an old and favored client who now has a new company and is going to a big show to represent it. In our conversation I was pointing out that he needs to have several messages targeting several audiences who attend. Each group has its own unique vantage point which a smart exhibitor should address.

Devote extra attention to identifying the specific needs of each target group within the whole. To maximize your company impact on all attendees you could:

- Create a hospitality suite type arrangement of your space, or have an off the show floor demonstration room for attending customers.
- Focus extra care on your current prospects - this group should be invited to your booth and if possible at certain times so that they can meet you and have special attention from you.
- Address the general trade show population for whom the show organizer has produced to the event. Offer a concise message of who you are and what you offer needs to be communicated to them.

The Non-Attendees

Typically, the target groups mentioned above are acknowledged and exhibitors have prepared for them. But what about one more and equally significant audience segment - all of the people who could NOT attend? When I mentioned this group to my client a light bulb went off. He saw the opportunity to use the show activity to send a message to his entire mailing list about what his company was trying to accomplish at the show. And he is now creating materials addressing just that point.

As an avid fan of direct mail he is creating a series of direct mail pieces that will go out to his entire client list. The first piece is a post card, followed up by a letter then another letter with a white paper offer. Each will build on one another and they have the appropriate call to action.

So I would ask you to consider all of these audiences and check to see how you are using this show to get maximum coverage and experience greater awareness from all of your audiences - which can lead to more sales.

Joyce McKee is the author of the new ebook, ‘The Secret to Achieving Brilliant Returns on Your Next Event: a Guide to Maximizing ROI and ROO’. Take a look at what others are saying about the Membership site and the eBook.

There are so many seemingly “small” details to setting up the perfect online presence for your business, but the problem is that all these “small” details are big enough to sink you if done improperly. One of the major points that many business people, or even advertising experts, don’t but enough thought into is how to set up their sign up form on their website.

If you offer any type of a product or service, you definitely want to build a sign in (also known as an “opt in”) form on your website. The only problem is deciding on the best way to do it. Many will swear by the “pop up” method, where a small box pops up asking for information whenever someone goes to your website. I’m not a big fan of this method for three reasons:

1. Pop ups are annoying no matter how they’re done, so you may turn off a lot of potential customers right from the start.
2. Even if they do sign up, if the box keeps coming back every time the log in, it becomes annoying, if not down right aggravating.
3. It looks like an amateurish hard sell.

The next most common mistake is a person goes too soft on the sale, having their sign up form on another page, connected by a simple underlined link that blends right into the rest of the page. The problems with this are obvious. An interested customer might just pass by without clicking. A lot of people want something as easy as possible and won’t click through to a sign up page.

The other obvious drawback is that the site of a large sign up page could turn people off even if they were interested customers. When you get so much advertising coming at you 24/7, even the ads on services and products you’re interested in can become annoying, if not straight out aggravating.

So what’s the best solution? Keeping in mind that the majority of people who “read” online actually scan the pages, you want your opt in form to be near the beginning and easy to see, but not so annoying or garish as to turn away potential customers. One excellent solution to getting maximum sign ups with minimal annoyance or frustration, then an early side bar is a great way to go.

By having an open opt in form on the top left of the page, you have an obvious box where anyone interested can sign in with their name and e-mail, but it’s not so obnoxious to chase away any potential customers. This is a great option, and works for the majority of website users since it’s easy to opt in, but not annoying like a recurring pop up. When you add a sign-up form, the best place for it is on the left, near the very top.

Remember the way customers read a web page: they scan the top from left to right to the bottom of the screen, and usually if you can’t offer something by then, the web surfer moves on. By having good information early on and an easy opt in, you are far more likely to grow that all critical e-mail list and be on the way to having your business generating leads at full steam.

We’re so sure that you’re going to love aweber sign-up tools, you can try it for free. The only risk is not taking action today, and letting more of your website visitors leave without registering for your email updates. Start creating loyal customers today!

Thomas Boston is principal of marketfromyouroffice.com.

If you host teleseminars, you are loosing money if you don’t have the recordings transcribed and repurposed into marketing materials and products.

Transcription is the conversion to text format. This is a very important step in an online marketing strategy. It is a way to take what you’ve recorded and brought it into a completely different medium.

I do not suggest doing this yourself. You can have an assistant do it if they’re familiar with this work. I suggest hiring a professional. It may seem pricey at first, but they can have it done in a couple days.

The main thing is that you want to find a transcriptionist who is familiar with teleseminars and can edit out your speech blemishes.

Another thing to look for is someone who can convert your teleseminar into an ebook. That’s something you can sell or give away on your site. It adds value. An ebook is a book in PDF format. If you deliver an hour-long teleseminar, it will be quite a few pages. If they format it right, it will be very flashy. It will add a lot of value to that recorded element you’re selling or giving away.

Here’s the most important thing. This doesn’t need to be something that your transcriptionist does. It’s something that someone on your team can do or you can do, if you have the time. You can harvest articles from your transcribed teleseminar.

Each teleseminar you record will be several pages long. You can find larger topics for each of those. You selected five to seven big ideas. Each one of those can usually be an article. There may be a little formatting you’ll need to do because you were just talking. You want to implement. You don’t need to necessarily make it perfect.

Each of those articles can be submitted to article portals online. This is one of the best ways to draw traffic to your site. Each of the big ideas is one article.

Here’s another tip if you’re using someone to edit your audio. It isn’t always necessary, but sometimes it is if you want to create an information product. You’ll want to have the audio transcribed first then highlight the portions you want deleted and send it to your audio editor.

The transcription can then be presented as a standalone or episodic element that you will re-purpose. When you submit articles they can be episodic. They can refer to Step 1 or Step 2.

It’s not always bad if it seems incomplete to have one article. You can refer people back to your site to find the others. You can say, “This is Step 1 of 5 in this series. Go to this site for the total.” You’re driving traffic to yourself. You’re teasing them with information.

As long as your information is good, even if it doesn’t make sense completely to give them one tip at a time, it will drive them back to the site. That is called “cognitive dissidence.” You’re giving them a little information, but not enough for them to be satisfied. You give them the solution by going back to your site.

Another important thing is to have your URL in the resource box. Most of the article portals do not allow you to have the URL in the actual text of the article. You need to make sure you have it formatted correctly in the resource box.

The URL you send them to should not necessarily be your branding site. It should be a squeeze or opt-in page where they can subscribe. The bait for the squeeze page can just be the entire audio and ebook of the same presentation.

The great thing about that is you give them a little piece of information. If they read it and went to your site, you already know they’re interested. If you give them the full article or the fully transcribed audio and the audio itself, you know that they will be interested. They will not feel cheated because they will get the whole thing.

The articles are usually 200 to 600 words long. The article portal sites are basically archived articles. People can republish those articles as long as they include the resource link.

It is really important that you allow people to do this. These people could be bloggers, publishers of ezines or print newsletters, or just doing research.

It’s a huge place where people can select free or cheap content to put on their website or ezine. A lot of people look for this because they don’t necessarily want to be the ones creating the content.

It’s also a great way to increase your search engine optimization because there is so much more content out there that’s getting spidered with your name and keywords in it. It’s an inexpensive way to gain web traffic and credibility.

Most of the sites are free. Obviously, you have to pay for labor to do that. It usually takes a couple of hours to submit to most of the important ones. You can do it yourself, but your time is valuable, so you don’t necessarily want to do that.

Another thing to consider is a press release. Sometimes when you are speaking, you might not actually have something that you’re able to publish to a press release, but they’re great for attaining media attention as well as traffic. Some of these articles will be able to be formatted and repurposed as a press release.

Another thing is an ezine, which is an episodic monthly, bi-weekly or weekly publication that is sent out via email. It’s a great place to repurpose the articles that you’ve already written. You can include a personal note, resource or link, but that article can be the content that you include in the ezine. You don’t necessarily have to be creating more content each time.

Caleb Scoville helps consultants, trainers, coaches and service professionals, multiply their impact with information products and audio and video online marketing strategies.

Find out the 5 simple steps to turn one hour into a successful marketing plan at www.northbankaudio.com/teleclass

The best way to boost traffic to your site, even better than pay-per-click, is backlinks. Backlinks are links to your site from other web sites all over the internet.

How do you build thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of backlinks? You do it by writing articles, and distributing them to web sites related to your industry.

Backlinks are the Fuel that Drives Traffic

Backlinks drive traffic to your site in two ways. First, you’ll always have a link back to your site in the resource box of your articles. A reader interested in visiting your site can click this link to go right to your site, or any page within your site you want to drive them to.

Second, one of the major factors Google looks at when ranking pages is the relevancy of the site. If you have thousands of links to your site Google will deem your site highly relevant. That will rank your site higher, and mean more people will find your site when searching your keywords.

Backlinks are FREE

The beauty of backlinks is that they don’t cost you a thing. How much would pay-per-click cost you for highly relevant keywords? They’d cost you a fortune.

To build thousands of backlinks all you have to do is write articles, and distribute them to web sites related to your industry.

Backlinks are Organic

Companies pay millions of dollars for pay-per-click advertising that show their ads at the top of search pages for their keywords. At first, this was brilliant because the average web surfer thought that top ad was really just the most relevant return on their search.

These days the secret is pretty much out. Most people now know those top results are really ads. Most people now look directly to the true, or organic search results.

Backlinks build your relevancy, which in turn raises your page rank. The higher your site ranks, the higher your site appears in actual search results. A top 10 ranking, or PR10, puts your site on the first results page. You’re easy to find.

Backlinks from articles are the right kind of backlinks.

You could build lots of backlinks by doing a link exchange, but that’s a bad idea. A link exchange is you putting a link to another site on your site in exchange for the other site linking back to you. That’s no good because you want thousands of link coming in to your site. If your outgoing links equal or exceed the number of links coming in your relevancy is lost.

Link exchange sites are often not considered credible, and Google and other search engines do not consider them as relevant as an industry web site or blog. Link exchanges will do far more damage to your backlink program than good.

So, you can see just how powerful backlinks really are. Don’t be fooled by pay-per-click, SEO, etc. If you want qualified sales leads, write articles, distribute them, and build as many backlinks as possible.

Your buyers will come to you in droves.

Ted Hebert is an Article Marketing Specialist helping companies of all sizes grow their business through article marketing. He can be reached at Ted@Atunga.com or visit www.Atunga.com.

Let me tell you the story of two companies who make very similar products, and sell to the same customer base. Both make excellent products that provide a huge benefit to their customers. One of them is incredibly successful at lead generation, and closing the sale, while the other is sailing without a sail. Which do you think is the more respected leader in their industry?

Both the companies I’m talking about make tool vending machines and inventory management software to drive the machines and keep track of inventory. They both sell to manufacturers in the aerospace, automotive, medical, and general machining industries. Both companies’ products offer huge cost savings to their customers through better control of tooling inventory. In many cases each companies’ products save up to 30-40% in annual spend on tooling.

Shouldn’t they both be doing bang up business, especially in a down economy?

I won’t mention the companies’ names because I have worked with one of them. Guess which one?

Well, one of the companies does well enough, and has grown sales about 2-3% per year in the last 3 years. Not bad.

The other company has increased sales an average of 20% each year over the last 3 years, and just had to move to a new 80,000 square foot facility to handle their amazing growth.

In fact, the more successful company sells a tool dispensing machine made by the other company, and does a better job marketing the machine. They sell the machine for 10% more than the company that makes it, and they blow the actual maker of the machine out of the water. How do you explain it?

Simple. The more successful company utilizes an ongoing article marketing strategy that keeps them in front of their current, and more importantly their prospective customers. By using articles published in trade magazines, and industry web sites the successful company has built their credibility and positioned themselves as the hands-down leader in their industry.

The less successful company has relied on distribution, and paid advertising to generate quality sales leads. By relying on distributors they have essentially placed their marketing efforts in the hands of other companies who also have 100+ other product lines to sell to their customers. That strategy insures they will only get about 1/100th of their distributors’ marketing effort. That’s a pretty poor ratio, and doesn’t lead to massive sales growth. Plus, who knows if the distributors have any clue how to effectively market their product?

There is nothing wrong with paid advertising, but it costs the less successful company a fortune, and the results don’t really justify the expense. The very successful company puts the emphasis on article marketing, and uses sporadic paid advertising as an accent to their article marketing strategy.

In addition, the very successful company has a web site that entices their prospective customers even more with an easy to navigate design, and lots of free information. They even offer a free trial of their software via instant download. All you have to do is enter your email address, and you get a free trial for 60 days. The company also gets an opt-in sales lead they can follow up with a few days later, and in email newsletters forever. The articles bring prospects to the web site, and the web site continues the sales process.

The less successful company has a bulky web site design with little information, and no free downloads, in fact no free anything. There is nothing to really entice their prospects to want to learn more, and eventually buy.

So, the moral of the story is to build credibility, and grow sales by leaps and bounds you must have a consistent article marketing campaign.

Ted Hebert is an Article Marketing Specialist helping companies of all sizes grow their business through article marketing. He can be reached at Ted@Atunga.com or visit www.Atunga.com.

Do you sell a product or service best suited for use by other businesses? Are you having a hard time building your clientele? Then we have a suggestion for you. Try selling to chain stores. You’d be surprised how easy it can actually be.

The first thing you need to do is pick a suitable chain to sell to. My own experience is in selling to restaurant chains. I’ve sold my service to many national chains over the years but on a local level. You’d be surprised about how uncoordinated they are in spending their money collectively. Many of them are free to order items and services specifically for themselves ever though each store in the chain may need that same item or service.

This brings me to the first part of the problem. Say you identify a chain with ten stores located locally. The first thing you need to do is identify if they are considered corporate stores, that is owned by one parent company or are they franchised stores controlled by one or more seperate owners. One of my larger restaurant clients has over twenty local stores but half of them are franchises owned by another company. So I have to deal with two different companies.

The next thing you need to do is to figure out how to get in. Now assuming you have been selling your product or service to other customers successfully then you should be able to use the same approach you’ve been using. If you are able try to identify the store most in need of what you have to offer.

The real key to selling to certain chains is taking advantage of the fact that they don’t necessarily use a system of centralized buying for their products or services. Some of the restaurant chains that I’ve done business with at one time had half a dozen vendors each with different pricing offering exactly the same service. Your job is to replace them.

So to do that you need to find a crack in the system. You need to find one store manager willing to give you a chance. If you can find that person and satisfy them then you have a chance to grab all the stores in that chain at least locally.

How are you going to do that? Well that’s the easy part. You’re going to leverage that relationship of course. Don’t do it right away of course. Allow some time for your new customer to get to know you. But remember store managers all know each other at least to some degree. They meet with each other probably once a month or more. Your job is to develop that first relationship as thoroughly and quickly as possible. Don’t over do it though, you wouldn’t want them to think you’re being pushy. But keeping long term customers is all about relationships so become an expert at them.

Once you’re confident that your new customer is happy with you and you feel safe then you take the straight forward approach about the other stores. You ask about them. See what your customer knows. Are they using another product or service, are they happy with it. Wouldn’t it be better if their chain only used one vendor? Ask them if they mind if you contact other stores. Can you use them as a reference? Could they mention you to the other managers in their meetings? You’d be surprised how much help existing customers can be with other stores if you have a good relationship and you take the time to ask.

Once you’ve landed that first store things can actually move pretty quickly as long as you’re up to the task. Unless their current vendor is really good at what they do most managers will be willing to give you a shot. Even if you don’t get it at first stay in contact with them. Many chain stores change managers more often than you would think. When that happens you get a new manager that has no reason to be loyal to a certain vendor. And often they don’t even know who the vendor was for a particular product or service.

The simple fact is that landing one chain store can produce for you numerous leads and much easier sales compared to individual store sales that can take much more time and money to sell to. If you need a good bump in your sales efforts chain stores can be a great place to start.

Cash Miller is an experienced entrepreneur and speaker who has spent over a decade as a small business owner. His years of experience in small business cover a variety of topics. If you are looking for more small business help please check out http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com

You may have recently published a book. I would venture to guess that you have put a lot of time and passion in order to create a piece of literature to be read by people all over the nation!

Getting the attention of consumers though, can be really tough. In this crowded marketplace (there were nearly 300,000 books published in 2007 alone) you MUST take an active approach to let book buyers know that your book exists, on both a national and a local level!

While national media exposure for you and your book is ideal, there is great power in local media exposure as well.

By focusing on your hometown media outlets you will be able to build a solid base of fame and recognition from which to grow on. Creating as much “buzz” as you can locally will compliment your national campaign to no end and it also gives you invaluable media experience when the national media starts to knock on your door.

Fortunately many local journalists and on-air personalities enjoy interviewing local authors and experts like you. As a local resident, you have a jump on the competition as the local media loves local success stories!

So If you want to create solid book “buzz” in your hometown read on:

*Book Signings: This is your “secret weapon” in your local media assault. So what good are they? Well take a look at these facts: Books will be stocked on their shelves after you leave, unless of course you have a sell-out You’ll receive free advertising and promotion in the book store’s customer mailings.

Highly visible placement of your books in store a week before your signing. Employees of the book store will give you valuable third-party endorsements Book signings are a goldmine for local publicity. I strongly suggest doing as many as you possibly can, including all stores that are located within a 100 mile radius. Heck, even get your family and friends to set up signings in their local book stores.” The name of this game is not only to create the local “buzz”, but it is also “let’s sell some books!”

* Talk Radio Interviews and Television Appearances: Generally speaking, every city has radio and television programs that have a format for guests. Do your research on the web to find the main stations that broadcast in your hometown. Then go to their website where you will find information about the shows they broadcast. Marsha Friedman says, “Look for those with a format for guests and find the contact information for the producer.” Then call and pitch yourself as a guest. Aim to get as many interviews on TV and radio as possible.

* Local Newspapers and Magazines: Marsha Friedman says, “My firm finds that how-to or tips-type articles really interest the print media. So if your book offers a solution to a problem, then go ahead and work on a tips-type article.” Write an article that gives 5-7 helpful, quality solutions (or “Tips”) to a problem that many people face. Next, identify the newspapers and magazines in your local market, go to their website and find the right “beat” your topic falls in - for example - religious, business, health, lifestyle, etc - and send your article to the journalist that covers that “beat.”

No one relevant listed? Gun for the editor-in-chief. Write it so that it would be ready for publication!because if it is there is slight chance that they may print the piece “as-is.” But since you’re a writer, this should not be a problem.

Aim to get as many as humanly possible.

For 20 years Marsha Friedman has been a leading authority on public relations as CEO of EMSI. Go to http://www.publicitythatworks.com to claim your free “Power of Public Relations” video today!