Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Among your clients should be some students learning graphic design, etc. Also entertainers - musicians, DJs, radio personalities, even writers.

Is your product such that you can ask them to donate some expertise, referrals, ad design, copywriting, on-air time, etc. in exchange for a new Toy?

Send samples to magazines that are directly related to your business: magazines for tattoo artists, body jewelry aficionados, fashion mags, etc, and magazines that cater to people who are within your demographic for body piercings. Write a good press release to go with it, and talk up the features of your TummyToys.

You may want to start with a short press release with photos, and then send a follow-up release with a sample.

I agree with getting your 9000 clients buzzing. Do you have a website? Can you run a contest? Post photos of happy client belly buttons for a monthly vote?

Also, you may think about running a contest at local venues where your clients hang out, or donate samples of your wares to be given as door prizes. Ask your clients for the names of places they love to shop for unique accessories.

Find local shops where your clients buy clothing, etc, and partner with them. Contact the headquarters of the chain stores and find the name of the buyer for body jewelry, accessories, etc. Have your press release written into a letter that can be personalized and sent to the buyers.

Make sure you are ready to meet any jump in demand in a reasonable amount of time, and make sure your creation is patented.

It is pretty impossible to answer your question adequately in a forum. However, a few things I would recommend:

You will probably need a web presence. You can learn to do it yourself if you have time, or hire someone if you don't. In my community there are free Dreamweaver classes through adult ed. and that's pretty common. You will probably also want to get some search engine optimization.

The other stuff you can learn on your own. You'll need to find some great books on guerilla marketing, buzz marketing, PR. These will give you tons of ideas, and the real challenge will not be lack of ideas -- it will be prioritizing them so you can actually do the most important things.

You might start reading some marketing/PR blogs. I use a free tool called Pageflake to keep track of all my RSS feeds, and I check them once or twice a day.

Good luck!

If you're thinking of hiring a PR guru, ask them for proof of their goodness. You want to talk to people who've using them (ideally in a similar niche), and can clearly identify the $ value of hiring them.