It’s a rare media outlet that will care about your new product, or sale, or internal promotion – unless you give them a good reason to. You need some kind of emotional hook that will make your story interesting to readers/listeners/viewers.

Can you tie your product or sale to a news event? Or better yet, can you create an event of your own? Staging an unusual event or charity benefit can get you lots of positive coverage.

Don't just stop at news releases. Write articles on some new development in your industry and submit them to publications your prospects read. Distribute ezine articles far and wide over internet. This establishes you as an expert and gives you exposure.

When you do have an article published or a story done on you, milk it for all it is worth. Make copies and use them in your marketing. Frame them and put them up in your store if you have one. At very least, tell people you were featured in such-and-such publication.

Publicity can be a great marketing tool. But bottom line is, you have to make it happen. And use it to your advantage when it does!

Show her shopping for a new wardrobe. Admiring heads turn as she walks down street, all because she took your nutritional supplement.

You want to make your prospect a promise. Identify a fear or desire, and then tell him what you're going to do for him -- what benefit you have for him -- that will eliminate this fear or fulfill this desire. Then make him "see" himself reaping benefits of your promise.

It goes without saying (but I'm going to say it anyway) that your promise had better be real. You may sell someone once on a false promise, but in long run you're hurting yourself.

But when you show your prospect honest-to-goodness benefit of doing business with you, he's that much more likely to want what you have to offer.