Good Publicity In Your Own Backyard Really Works!

Good publicity in your own backyard really works.  I know this from personal experience.  Earlier this month, the Bellevue Reporter wrote a feature about my company.  The story reached 47,000 people who live and work in my own backyard.  Here are just a few of the good things that have happened since then:

• When I attended my son's swim meet a few days after the story broke, dozens of neighbors congratulated me.  I felt like a celebrity in my own backyard.
• My Website visits have escalated.
• Dozens of new subscribers have signed up to receive the Media-Savvy-to-Go ezine.
• I've been invited to speak to three local professional groups as a result of this coverage.
• A client I worked with in 2001 read the story - Bellevue Reporter - called to extend congratulations, and invited me to lunch.  He hired me to update the copy on his Website and interview his best clients for testimonials to highlight his winning ways.
• My online shopping cart enjoyed a flurry of Media-Savvy-to-Go Publicity Toolkit orders from Medina, Clyde Hill, and other neighborhoods throughout Bellevue.
  

These are compelling results that flowed almost immediately from a simple pitch letter I composed quickly after reading a June issue of this hometown newspaper.

If benefits like these are just what your business needs to grow, what kind of story pitch can you send to your hometown newspaper, and when will you get started?  Consider how your product or service is making a difference in your own backyard, serving people in a new and distinctive way, or contributing to the greater good in a way that sets an example for others to follow.  Is your business riding on a new trend that is gathering speed?  Are you changing the lives of local people in ways that are worthy of note?  Are you celebrating a business anniversary and doing something fabulous to honor the neighbors who have made your success possible?