Send press releases out 3 months ahead to tie in with key dates for glossy magazines. Here are some upcoming dates for 2009 courtesy of Foresightnews, the UK’s foremost news & current affairs forward planning service. These include the dates of regular UK events, important sporting fixtures and some anniversaries that may be of interest. Foresightnews provides the media with advance information of thousands of important events over the next five years and beyond, together with event synopsis, weblinks and full press contacts. To find out more, please go to http://www.foresightnews.co.uk/

FEBRUARY 2009
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Sunday 01 February
Camelot launch Worldwide Lottery
Super Bowl XLIII, Tampa, Florida, USA
Evening Standard British Film Awards 2009

Monday 02 February
Buddy Holly died 50 years ago

Tuesday 03 February - Sunday 26 April
Buddy Holly Exhibition, Proud Galleries, London

Wednesday 04 February - Sunday 08 February
Cricket: W.Indies v England (1st Test) Kingston, Jamaica

Thursday 05 February
20 years ago: Launch of Sky Television

Friday 06 February
Queen’s Accession Gun Salute, Green Park & Tower of London (more…)

If you are running a small business, one of your aims for 2009 is likely to be to raise your business profile and reach more customers. PR is a great way to do this, and with budgets being tight this year you may want to do your own PR.

Writing a press release is straightforward: you can find a template to download at www.prbasics.co.uk. If you need an expert edit on what you have written, I offer a press release health check for £30. But, how do you get it to the journalists who can give you the coverage you need?

There are lots of press release distribution services, and journalism.co.uk have put together a summary of the cost of each of them, plus where they reach. Of course, they are doing this because they think you should use their service: I can’t tell you if it is better than the other services. I’ve tended to use Response Source myself which always gets me some coverage, usually from a publication I would not have expected to cover the release. I have also been trialling Beauty4Media for a client which has got sample requests from a range of publications. You should check out each site and see where they distribute to: Sourcewire, for example, is mainly for tech topics.

Read my guest post on the Womanwise Marketing blog about How Giveaways Can Make YOUR Business A Winner. It is full of tips on how I obtain great competition prizes and use them to generate sign-ups for my newsletter.

Do you want national media coverage for your business? A parenting magazine is looking for pregnant women and new mums who have been inspired by their pregnancy or baby to start a business or follow a new career path. Case studies should be free for a phone interview and to attend a photo shoot in central London (expenses paid). If you want to find out more, email antonia@acpr.co.uk 

As we say goodbye to 2008, here are some key dates for 2009 - courtesy of Foresightnews, the UK’s foremost news & current affairs forward planning service. These include the dates of regular UK events, important sporting fixtures and some anniversaries that may be of interest. Foresightnews provides the media with advance information of thousands of important events over the next five years and beyond, together with event synopsis, weblinks and full press contacts. To find out more, please go to http://www.foresightnews.co.uk/

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JANUARY 2009
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Thursday 01 January
New Year’s Honours
Bank Holiday

Friday 02 January
Bank Holiday: Scotland

Saturday 03 January
Football: England & Wales: FA Cup Third Round

Monday 05 January
Scottish Parliament returns from Christmas Recess
England & Wales: Start of Spring School Term
N. Ireland Assembly returns from Christmas Recess
(more…)

It can seem daunting when you are starting to learn about promoting your business. I’ve written a template to help you plan PR, marketing and advertising. On the same page, you can also find a template to help you write a press release. I hope these free tools make it easier for you to learn to promote your business, reach more customers and build sales.

I was just reading this story about a Brighton mum who made it to the finals of ITV This Morning’s Mumpreneur Competition. It reminded me of a good reason to enter awards. Helen Twigge Molecey and her Wondercube are still getting publicity, a couple of months after the award, and that is without even being the main winner. The Argus sums it up in their first sentance, “A mother has enjoyed lucrative television exposure for the innovative children’s toy she put on the market just a few weeks ago.”

Check out that word, lucrative. Promotion on ITV’s This Morning is worth thousands of pounds and can get your business exposure to millions of potential purchasers. Find some awards to enter in the new year - make it part of your PR plan for 2009.

Use the ACPR media contacts database: the quickest way to get in touch with editors and journalists on national and local parenting magazines. Up to the minute data for contactcs at 20 national parenting magazines, 90+ local parenting magazines and 50+ parenting websites, plus journalists with an interest in parenting from other media. Don’t miss out on the best way to promote your baby or child business and generate valuable free coverage.

Antonia Chitty struggled with post natal depression after the birth of her daughter. She thought returning to work might make her feel back in control, but she found she didn’t see enough of Daisy. After 9 months and a chat with a life coach she took the plunge and set up her own business, ACPR, helping mumpreneurs learn to promote their business. Antonia has now written a book which makes it even easier for every businessmum to get the word out about their enterprise.

A guide to Promoting Your Business is created with busy business parents in mind, and can be worked through in short sections when you have a few minutes - perfect if you are running a business round the kids. Clear explanations, examples and exercises make it easy to pick up the essentials skills to boost your business. (more…)

There are some great tips here on SiteProNews about improving your eBay marketing from Vickie Sayce. If you sell on eBay, check them out.