Here's a really great example of how you can use what's happening around you to market your business. The boss of independent record store Banquet Records in Kingston-upon-Thames has offered a 50 per cent discount to customers who bring in their HMV vouchers.

Music retailer HMV went into administration earlier this week, and is no longer accepting vouchers.

Banquet Records has already had lots of coverage for its idea on Facebook and has had nearly 500 RTs on Twitter in less than two hours.

Let's hope they don't get more customers than they bargained for though!

I do! If it's clever and it works well, even the lowest budget

campaign can reach lots of people. Here's my favourite

recent viral video (more than 2.6 million views on YouTube

so far) - and links to just some of the media coverage it received.

Enjoy!

The Guardian

How the Fiat ad captures the essence of modern motherhood

Huffington Post

'The Motherhood' Fiat Rap Commercial Explains How Parents Roll

Digital Spy

Mother raps about being a parent in new Fiat advert

You've got some great news - hooray! But how are you going to tell everyone?

It's easy to think that writing a fabulous press release and sending it to the right journalist is all you need to do. But journalists get so many press releases - what makes yours stand out above all the rest?

Building good relationships with your key journalists really helps. If they know you, know your business is relevant to their readers and that you consistently give them good stories, they're much more likely to open an email from you.

That's your challenge.

Work out which publications your potential customers will be reading, find the journalists who'll be writing about businesses like yours and look at their articles. Comment on and link to their stories, make contact with them through social networking sites, and tell them when you have something newsworthy.

Look out for them at business events and make sure you introduce yourself. Someone you've met face-to-face is always more memorable than an email in your inbox.

And remember that a press release isn't always the best way to tell people your news. Think about offering a key journalist an exclusive before you send out your press release more widely. (This'll help them to remember you too!)

Here’s something for you to think about . . . key messages. Not key words (everyone’s going key word crazy on their websites and rightly so) – key messages.

You know, what you want to tell your customers.

Whenever you’re starting publicity work – whether it’s a press notice about a new product, rewriting your website or contacting old (and new!) clients – it’s really important to have a think about what you want to say. What you want people to come away with and what you want them do afterwards.

It’s really easy to think your key messages are so obvious you don’t need to spend too much time on them.

But they’re one of the most crucial parts of any campaign, big or small.

They help keep your publicity consistent (so easy to flit from one good thing about your company to another!). They help you to stay focused when you’re talking to clients and the media. And they show people what you and your organisation stand for.

So it’s all good. In fact, having key messages to work from should make your campaigns run much more smoothly.

Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but I’m quite an ace at developing them. So if you need a hand or simply want to talk through your ideas, just get in touch.