Promotional Tools for Your Tool Box Part Tiga

To survive in today’s competitive marketplace, organizations must work to make customers aware of their products or services. Some promotional tools cost money (known as marketing), and we examined those in our last blog post. Today in part tiga (three) we provide 25 low- and no-cost promotional tools (known as public relations).


Our tip for entrepreneurs today is: to compete in today’s competitive marketplace, you should employ many different Marketing and Public Relations Tools. If you can’t afford to employ a marketing staff or use an advertising agency, use the following list, which is in no particular order.

(We’ve included “Uploading Videos to YouTube” in this list because it will only require your time if you already own a decent video camera and a computer with video editing software.)

Public Relations Tools

1. E-mail Blasts
2. Internet Blog
3. Online Bulletin Board/Discussion Posts
4. Twitter Posts
5. LinkedIn Account
6. Uploading Videos to YouTube (product demonstrations, customer testimonials, humor)
7. Internet Podcasts
8. Pinterest Account
9. Instagram Account
10. Exhibit Booths (such as State Fairs, Job Fairs and College Campus Fairs)
11. Product Demonstrations
12. Develop cordial relationships with the business reporters at local media outlets

13. News Releases

14. Press Kits
15. News Conferences (only for major announcements or crisis situations)
16. Opinion-Editorials (taking a stance on issues and writing about it for your local newspaper)
17. Write Articles on Topics in which you are an expert for newspapers and magazines
18. Offer Your Expertise on those topics to Local TV News Departments
19. Publish Compelling Photographs
20. Magazines and Newsletters
21. Annual Reports
22. On-Hold and Answering Machine Messages
23. Create an association for your industry or offer a better organization than currently exists.
24. Host Ceremonies and Special Events (such as Ribbon Cuttings, Open Houses, Parties, Anniversary Celebrations, New Product Introductions, Contests and Chamber of Commerce Mixers)
25. Barter (one of the oldest tools in the world)

That's David and Diamond in the Rough at our nearby Chick-fil-a in North Little Rock last Christmas season. This may hurt our chances of raising money to build our business dream, the Arkansas Diamond Mine Adventure, but we thought it was important to voice our support for our favorite fast-food restaurant back home.

The recent flap over Chick-fil-a's president saying he supported the biblical definition of marriage is a reminder of the potential danger you may face when you use tool number 16--taking a stand on issues of the day and writing about it for your local newspaper--and one more tool we will offer in our next post.

You should seek to encourage as much word-of-mouth publicity as possible. Nothing is more persuasive than a satisfied customer telling other people about your product or service, so be sure to include testimonials in your promotions, and send a thank you note when you read a testimonial published in a magazine or online.

In part empat (that's four in Balinese) we will present six more tools for generating and encouraging word-of-mouth publicity. Please add your comments if you have other low- and no-cost tools you would share that you've found effective.