While most small business marketers think press releases are the best way to pass along information to the media, they are unaware of more sophisticated ways to make their information more usable. Did you know that a newspaper feature could lead to a placement on "Oprah" or "Rachel Ray," the syndicated TV shows that all marketers covet; or that the producer looking for show ideas scans her local newspaper as well as the big guns like The New York Times or Wall Street Journal?

One idea that small businesses can afford is to hire a mat feature service to convert information into a newsworthy brief feature on a topic that the public is interested in reading about. Large corporations have been using this type of service for years and pay PR firms big bucks to include these columns in their corporate PR programs. Intended to reach consumers in the wealthy suburbs, these features are distributed to the thousands of newspapers nationwide including smaller publications, and receive regular pickup. Best of all, these columns are often printed exactly as written.

These newspaper features used to go out in mat form, bundling multiple features together by snail mail, hence the name mat features. Further, the older services mostly handled corporate clients who already had brand recognition and could afford to pay for this type of service. Now there is a firm that caters to the small business company, using faster, less costly means of distribution to make this service accessible to those on limited budgets who want to place themselves on the map. By incorporating mentions of a product or service into a captioned graphic and a brief feature that newspapers find more informational than promotional, this firm gives clients two opportunities to put their product or service center stage -- and the features are preformatted so clients approve what they say.

Newspaper features can be linked to your own web site, can be included in brochures, are picked up by web site article directories and can achieve endless publicity mileage when used correctly. For a small investment, you get large public relations exposure...and potential TV placement.hile these feature services used to handle only corporations, now there is a firm that caters to the small business company to make this service accessible to those on limited budgets. By incorporating mentions of your product or service into a captioned graphic and a brief feature that newspapers find informational rather than promotional, you have two opportunities to put your product or service center stage – and the features are preformatted so clients approve what they say. Further, they are priced at half of what the other mat feature services charge.

These columns can be linked to your own web site, can be included in brochures, are picked up by web site article directories and can achieve endless publicity mileage when used correctly. For a small investment, you get large public relations exposure.