Logging on to Yahoo this morning I was caught by their feature article on "Texas Town For Sale".  It turns out that Albert, Texas is for sale and you could own it for $2.5 million or more. 

 

Why is this making headlines at Yahoo?  Obviously because a town for sale is a unique product, but the main reason is that Ebay.com is the selling agent.  The Yahoo article states the current bid was over $300k on the online auction website, but when I visited the Ebay listing just hours after this was on Yahoo the bid is over $6 Million, more than doubling the reserve price.  Looks like it’s a successful effort, but getting million dollar exposure for FREE even if it didn’t sell, that’s the point.

The owner, real estate agent Bobby Cave, is either a marketing and PR genius or happened into a wonderful accident.  How many things for sale make the front page of Yahoo, TV news clips and news wires everywhere (and the Prime blog!)?  Hardly any, but this one did because the way he was doing things are worth attention.  The front page news on Yahoo is exposure you just can’t buy, but he got it for free.  I bet you can do the same, maybe not to this scale … but you can get free PR and marketing.

Is there something you do or can do to gain exposure for free?
I talk with small business owners and management all the time that have unique stories, partnerships, community involvement, services or accomplishments.  It boils down to getting that information in front of the right people.  Have you explored who media contacts are in your local area or industry?  Have you submitted info, dropped an email, written a press release or called any of them with a story or angle they might be interested in?  If you do any type of planning for your marketing, start asking how you can garner some attention for free.

Check out these links for more on leveraging free PR and PR tips:

- Seven Tips to Get Free Press in Local Newspapers

- Take Advantage of Free PR - Feature in Entrepenuer Magazine

- 7 Principles for Small Businesses to Get Free TV Coverage

 

If you’ve had success with a little grass roots PR or free exposure, drop a comment and let me know about it.

Posted on November 1st, 2007 by Jeff Wagner
Filed under: marketing, promotion, resources, small business

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