Getting Press for Your Product

As a specialty food business owner, getting press is something that should always be on your mind. It doesn't even have to be good press. Any press is good press... Look around at your local magazines, newspapers, websites, etc. and get a sense of what they write about. Most likely, they all write about food, so you should try to get in the habit of reading all of the articles in these publications so you can get familiar with them. Remember, they need you as much as you need them, but its in your interest to make it easy for them to write about you. You've got to be proactive and contact them because rarely do they contact you first.

To get some press:

• Call the food editor of your local paper and tell them who you are and that you would like to send them some samples of your new product. Get their address and when you get ready to send your product to them, make sure it is looks as professionally done as possible. The right first impression is important here.
• Contact food editors of all the local publications and websites. It definitely helps if you send them product information about how to use your product, where it is sold, and interesting things about yourself. This information will help make it easy for them to do research when writing the article about your product.
• Donate your products to charities when they have auctions. Not only will the person who receives your product then know about you, but so will everyone attending the auction. Great press and its just good karma...
• If you sell your product at a local store, see if they have an in-house publication. If so, contact the staff and ask them to write something about your product. Maybe if you have a new product coming out, they will want to mention it to their own customers.

Once the ball is rolling with your product, you've always got to have a big yearly goal.