How to promote an invention?

Can anyone suggest a good approach to promote a simple electronic invention
to mass-marketing appliance manufacturers?

I need to know how to find out who to contact to get an audience, pitfalls
to avoid, how to gain credibility, etc. I am not an experienced
entrepreneur, just an engineer with a novel idea.

I'm working on the patent, but I am not sure where to go from there. Thanks
in advance.


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