Take a minute to think about your daily encounters with the media: you wake up to your alarm clock that is tuned into a popular radio station, catch a glimpse of the morning news while you brush your teeth, and it only gets worse from there.

The average person is surrounded by thousands of messages each day, and those are only counting the ones they aren't looking for. In a world where logging onto the Internet anytime someone needs a quick answer for anything is the norm, it's hard to deny that free information is everywhere.

So what does this mean for you, for business? It means, unfortunately, that your public relations and advertising attempts have less impact as the days go by.

Don't get me wrong, targeted public relations campaigns are still effective. But even with consistent PR attempts, it's not guaranteed that the same people will read every exposure.

Getting your name out there is the first step in standing out amidst the crowd. Writing a promotional newsletter is a great way to do this. First of all, you're not selling anything, so the customer doesn't feel that immediate sense of pressure and unease involved with most sales pitches. However, with the repeated exposure to your name involved, the client will remember you when the time does come to send out other forms of sales communication, such as print ads or sales letters.

If you run a mid to small business, a newsletter should be published with a frequency of about one every three months. This creates a good balance, because it's not too frequent, nor infrequent enough that the client forgets he subscribes to the newsletter.

So where do you find people to send these newsletters to? Current clients, past clients, and people that have previously inquired about your business should be at the top of the list. Other contacts include colleagues, prominent members of your industry, and trade publication editors.

A promotional newsletter should not be charged a subscription fee. After all, this is a part of your PR campaigning, an effort to get your name established and recognized out in the crowd. Content should be a mixture of company information, production news, and sales talk. The information should be interesting and helpful, but remember that the purpose of your newsletter is to educate customers about YOUR company and to get them to buy YOUR products.

If you should choose to send out your newsletter by snail mail, it will be a bit more costly considering you have to pay for paper, printing costs, and postage. Frequently, though, email newsletters have become very popular. It's much easier to type and send directly from your computer, and best of all-- it's free.

It might take a few issues for people to remember your name, but you will have so much more impact the next time you decide to send a sales letter or brochure to that company. Even with all the access to free information out there, there are ways to promote your yourself and your business.

About the author: Ana Ventura specializes in helping businesses, organizations, and individuals get media coverage. She is a PR expert at DrNunley's http://FullServicePR.com , a site specializing in affordable publicity services. Reach Ana at mailto:ana@fullservicepr.com or 801-328-9006.