In a financial climate where every penny of marketing spend counts, I am always surprised at how many small businesses fail to utilise one of their cheapest forms of advertising – editorial coverage or PR, especially in local media.

Now I am not a PR expert and have always deferred to specialist PR agencies and consultants when working on national brands and large businesses. They have the contacts and knowledge about what is newsworthy and what the editors are looking for.

But getting your business in your local paper, local business pages, e-publication or trade magazine is something that is worth spending some time and effort on and doesn’t necessarily need PR specialists. And, if done correctly, this is effort that can pay off exponentially as you build relationships with editors, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Let's start at the beginning and debunk a few myths ...