Publicity is free. Advertising costs are expensive. If you are reading this, you are reading publicity. I wrote dozens of fun stories about our business and the products that we produce, sent those with photos to all major woodworking magazines and newspapers. Most responded positively and even before we opened our business, we had national publicity.
News releases are free.
If the news is of local interest and is well written, it will usually be used. Every time we created a new product or did something unusual, I submitted a news release. Sometimes we would end up with a product and no market. We even went so far as to start up woodworking clubs and help support them through our business. It was also helpful to send special notices to schools with woodworking shops, trim and cabinet shops, as well as general contractors.