In the Music industry, whenever most independent musicians release a new recording today, a certain aspect of their promotion entails their distribution and giveaway of FREE samples of their music on a separate promotional compact disc. This serves as a



'teaser' in enticing prospects to then go to record stores to buy the full-length recording.

As 'writable' promo discs can be purchased inexpensively at stores such as Wal-Mart, after which the music samples are copied from the hard drive to the CD, or by using what is known as a CD burner

(high-speed duplicator), it should come as no surprise that even the most financially challenged musicians are now embracing this invaluable and well proven promotional aspect for bringing immediate attention to their music.

And, as this method has proven unanimously beneficial in terms of ease of finance, promotion and time, there is absolutely no reason that a similar process cannot also work for your own business, albeit, a few elements properly customized (be sure your computer's

compact disc is a "writeable" type, and not simply a "readable" one).

As such, I am providing a "from start to finish" outline that you should find very effective, almost immediately, whether you wish to reach out to your prospects locally, regionally or nationally.

Hypothetically, let's say you are in the field of Cosmetology, and own and operate a hair salon. Though your industry has a ready-made market, with women repeatedly visiting on a regular basis, naturally,

there is also a fair degree of competition from other salons in your area as well.

Moreover, as such, you've noticed that your business sales and clients, have either begun to level off, stagnate or, possibly, even diminish. What can you quickly do to maintain and increase your clientele and, the income of accordingly, your salon?

1. Why not take all of the elements of your business, such as your weekly specials, information about your salon such as its history, your web site address, email address, regular prices, business hours, contact information, along with the various products and services you offer, then format them into attractive files and place them on compact discs for distribution?

Your prospects are certain to be pleasantly surprised with this new out-of-the-norm promotion method and anxious to see what surprise awaits them on the CD.

2. Next, consider all the businesses women might patronize, such as women's shoe stores, women's clothing stores, jewelry stores, supermarkets, mall stores, cosmetic stores, etc. Your goal is to consider businesses that are complementary to your own services, yet, are not in competition in any way.

3. Now, contact the store managers and/or owners, informing them that you are a fellow local business owner, and request to know if they will consider handing out your CD of information to their customers and/or clients who have computers and, hopefully, have

Internet service. You might even request to enter a barter agreement with these businesses, whereby, you distribute their sales information as well.

While all contacts you make might not be receptive to this idea, undeniably, you will acquire more than a few who will be interested, if for no other reason than the opportunities to offer their customers a little something extra and/or to get their own business information into the hands of new prospects (your customers) as well.

4. Also, be sure to not only consider distributing your CDs hand-to-hand on your own, always having them available on your person ready to hand out, but also having them available at your salon to give to your existing and new customers.

5. Another avenue, is to consider doing a local or regional mail-out campaign. You could simply contact prospects via telephone and attempt to qualify them by simply asking if they own a computer and, if so, that you would like to send them a CD of info regarding

your hair salon and its services.

6. If your budget allows, yet, another method is to contact an area print publication that specifically targets women and request if you can pay to have your CD attached to one of their issues, or included as an insert.

7. To backtrack for a moment, be sure that your web site contains a form readily viewable on it so that when prospects with online service access your site, your form can readily capture their email address, as well as their mailing address.

In the upcoming Part 2 of this article, we will discuss further, why this information is so vital, as well as list several other industry examples whereby this particular promotional aspect is feasible.