Marketer and author Al Ries wrote a book titled \”The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR\”. This is not a book that teaches you how to get publicity. Rather, the basic idea of Al\’s book is that the power of traditional advertising is dying as the power of publicity is rapidly increasing.

If your business is based on traditional advertising like sales letters, display and classified ads, coupons, radio and TV commercials, etc., you are in serious trouble, according to Ries. And if you don\’t know the basics of publicity, you are, in plain language, screwed. I wholeheartedly agree.

Why is advertising in such serious trouble? Simple. There\’s so doggone much of it. Plus, the advertising that\’s out there has made such preposterous claims that people just don\’t believe it any more.

Everywhere you go you\’re bombarded with advertising with much of it making claims that can\’t be supported. How much of the advertising that you\’re exposed to do you believe? If you\’re like most people, you believe very little of what you see or hear. And if you\’re like most business owners, you\’ve seen the effectiveness of your advertising going down…and your advertising bills going up. The grim reaper is looming heavy over traditional advertising.

Does that mean you should stop advertising? Certainly not. What it does mean is that you\’re going to have to be more cunning, creative and aware of your ads. The people who do this will still enjoy good sales. But for 99% of all business owners, their sales will suffer. They\’ll be spending more and more money for fewer and fewer sales.

What\’s the solution? You already know it – publicity is the way to go. 99% of all business owners depend on traditional advertising to maintain and grow their businesses. Fewer than 1% of business owners use publicity. As the power of traditional advertising dwindles, people who know how to use publicity will continue to reap the rewards. People who rely on traditional advertising will be sucked into the rapidly increasing swirl down the drain.

Will the effectiveness of publicity ever go down? I\’m sure it will, but that won\’t happen in our lifetimes. Why not? So few people have taken the minimal time and effort needed to learn how to use it correctly and so few people are actually using publicity that we\’re decades off from being saturated. If you\’re using publicity your competition is virtually non-existent! How many of your competitors are successfully using publicity? My guess is – NONE!

Why is publicity so powerful? Very simply, when a story appears about you in newspapers and magazines and on radio and TV, people *instantly* believe you. Publicity gives you instant credibility. The reason they instantly believe you is that when you are in the media, you\’re not advertising, YOU ARE NEWS! That\’s all the difference in the world.

People constantly tell me that they don\’t have the time to learn how to use publicity. Then they continue to waste time and money sending out sales letters, writing ads, designing coupons, etc. that are bringing in less and less business.

For over 20 years I\’ve been baffled by that. People will waste enormous amounts of time and money on traditional advertising, only to see dwindling results. But they won\’t take the minimal amount of time needed to learn basic publicity. For $20 you can do a serious publicity campaign all across the country. How much advertising can you get for $20? Yeah, right. But the lemmings continue to march to the sea…and drown. So, what\’s the moral to the story? You certainly should keep advertising but keep in mind that you\’re going to have to sharpen your advertising skills. Beyond advertising, though, you won\’t have any option but to learn how to use publicity. In just a few hours you\’ll develop a skill that will serve you powerfully for the rest of your life. Your only other option is to join the growing ranks of the advertising dinosaurs.

Paul Hartunian is respected around the world as a leading expert on how business owners can get publicity both online and offline. His website – http://www.hartunian.com – is a resource center for reliable publicity advice.

Paul Hartunian is respected around the world as a leading expert on how business owners can get publicity both online and offline. His website – http://www.hartunian.com – is a resource center for reliable publicity advice.

Author Bio: Paul Hartunian is respected around the world as a leading expert on how business owners can get publicity both online and offline. His website – http://www.hartunian.com – is a resource center for reliable publicity advice.

Category: Marketing
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