By now most businesses, with the exception of Exxon Mobil, are experiencing the negative effects of the economic turndown. While it may seem counter-intuitive, now is the time to put more to put more effort into promoting your business. Cuts in your advertising budget may be appropriate, but you can gain valuable promotion through the use of free publicity. Here are some tips to help you get free publicity for your business.

Relevant information is always welcome. Newspapers and trade publications can always use articles and story material. And it's rare that a trade magazine will turn down a good story or refuse to use a new-product release just because you don't advertise.

Gathering story material. Here's an idea. Create and mail a questionnaire to your customers asking what they like about your product or service and how they rate it. The answers can provide the basis for relevant information. Here are two suggestions for getting better responses from a questionnaire.

1. Keep the questionnaire short and simple. You're likely to discourage responses on the part of customers if you ask too much. And make the questions you do ask specific enough to be answered briefly. If your product is tailored for each customer, tailor your questionnaire to each customer's particular situation.

2. Remember the customer. Tell the customer what will be done with the information. If possible, let the customer see a copy before it goes to the publication. (This way you avoid any customer backlash.) Explain, however, that the editor has the right to edit any copy, and it may not appear as your final draft indicates.

Press release contents. A good press release must offer information that other businesses and/or consumers want to read about. Such facts come from answering the questions: who, what, where, why, and how? The "how" question is the one editors look for most carefully. How does your product meet a need, satisfy a desire or solve a problem? Here are some tips to help get your release in print:

1. Make sure your story has something new. Publications are always interested in something new and innovative: a new product, new benefits or a new way a product is used.

2. Keep advertising out of the story. If a story is loaded with obvious puff and unsubstantiated claims it'll end up in the wastebasket.

3. Tell about your customers. You'll have a better story as far as the editors are concerned, if the article deals with your customers and how they benefit from your products or services.

4. Give the writing job to a writer. Look for someone with writing ability. If you have a public relations or advertising agency writing your releases, carefully check what they turn out. Often, these agencies assign their most inexperienced people to new product releases. Only if the product seems of great interest will they rewrite or check back with the company for additional facts.

5. Start off right to the point. Editors like to know at once what you're talking about. If they don't get the main point right away, they're apt to discard the release.

6. Stress the "how and why." Have your release emphasize not what the product does, but rather, how it does it, and how the user will benefit (save time, money, etc.)

7. Include a photograph. You can help "sell" the release by including a photo showing how the product is used in an actual situation. Include people, not as personalities, but to put the product in proper scale and show its usefulness.

8. Aim at the right publication. Sending your release to a magazine with the right readership is the best way to get it published. Check directories in the trade for profiles of readership.

9. Be careful. Don't imply that you will advertise in a magazine on the condition that the release is published. Many publications will automatically discard your press release.

Once you've written a feature article or press release, what results can you expect from placing it in newspapers, online and in trade publications?

1. Interested customers and inquiries. The press release deals that with a specific fact will appeal to a specific audience. When you get a response, you can feel pretty sure that the respondent is interested in doing business.

2. Name-building value. If readers see your company identified with a particular product or service chances are that your company name will sink in. The readers will remember this next time they need the product or service that your company provides.

3. Increased effectiveness of your advertising. One article on your product or service is probably as strong as three or four ads, because editorial copy offers the extremely effective third-party endorsement.

So don't let the bad economy slow you down. Be aggressive and promote your business using free publicity. It's a free business builder.