SmallBusinessNewz

A lot of marketing material has three parts: the main claim, a statement from an employee or exec, and a corroborating testimonial from some outside source.  And now, UK small businesses are being given the opportunity to become Microsoft's outside source.

A post on the Small Business Blog from Microsoft asked this morning, "Have you got an Office 2007 success story you'd like to share? . . . .  We're looking for examples we can use in our marketing literature - around 50 words on how Office 2007 is proving to be of benefit in your everyday work life.  Whether it's time saving, integration between Office applications, managing customers and quotes with Business Contact Manager or something different - please let us know."

Here's the payoff: "You and your company will be credited, giving you some great PR and market presence.

Indeed, if any media sources happen to write Office 2007-related stories, it's very possible that they'll reprint the small business's quote.  Plus, since Microsoft is such a huge corporation, the quote is liable to wind up in front of a lot of people, regardless.

So just email a couple of lines to the UK Small Business team at sbcuk at Microsoft dot com if you'd like to get involved.  This offer represents a big payoff for very little work.