Get Slightly Famous

Thinking About Writing A Book? A New Study Shows Why...

If you have every considered writing a book to promote your business, here's an interesting study that might move you in that direction. It comes from RainToday.com, an online content site focused on marketing and selling for professional services firms.

I was recently visiting your blog and came across the post you wrote, “The Slightly Famous Media Plan.” In this post you outline various methods to get the media interested in your company. One particularly good way of doing this is by positioning yourself as an industry expert.

In a recent survey, we found that writing a business book is an incredibly effective way of establishing oneself as an industry expert. We surveyed the author’s of over 590 business books and published the results in the report, The Business Impact of Writing a Book: Data, Analysis, and Lessons from Professional Service Providers Who’ve Done It (http://www.raintoday.com/writeabook.cfm). Some interesting results we found include:

98% of authors reported at least some brand improvement as a result of publishing their book
74% of those same authors reported a ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’ influence on publicity and PR for their practice
95% of authors said that writing a book had at least some influence on their ability to generate more speaking engagements

And from the authors themselves:

“It established me as a guru in my field” – Bob Bly, The Whitepaper Marketing Handbook

“Just do it! The spin-off business makes (writing a book) one of the most productive things you can do to build you practice” – C.J. Hayden, Get Clients Now!

Getting Started with Cause-Related Marketing

Cause-related marketing yields mutual benefit. Look for partners with a similar agenda whose goals can be better achieved by partnering with your business. Take inventory of the assets that make you an appealing partner in a cause-related venture.

Peggy Linial, author of Marketing From the Heart: A Guide to Cause Related Marketing for the Small Business, offers this formula for choosing partnerships:

Mission statement + personal passion + customer demographics
= successful partner

"Know what your product is, what tugs at your heart strings, and who your customers are. Then, choose accordingly," Linial says.

Embrace a cause. There are many types of mutually beneficial relationships you can form with your cause-related partner, including special events, sales promotions and collection plans. An easy way to embrace a cause is to team up with a charity.

Whenever Johnny "Love" Metheny, a slightly famous nightclub owner in San Francisco, opens a new club, he shares the limelight with a local charity. "I have a history of including the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in my grand openings," says Metheny, who was voted the society’s Man of the Year in 1991. "It's not only something I feel good about, but it helps us market our businesses to the community and media at the same time."

Volunteer. Another strategy is to volunteer with an organization or cause. When Eunice Azzani, an executive recruiter, volunteered to serve on the board of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, or SFAF, she didn’t anticipate that it would connect her with executives from Mervyn’s, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo Bank, all of whom eventually hired her to work for them.

"People don’t hire a piece of paper or a process. They hire people they trust," Azzani says. "Volunteering for a position at a local organization makes you very trustworthy.” She advises business owners to target causes they believe in. "If you're helping with a cause you believe in, people will see that you care. And they'll realize you will probably care as much about your work."

Cross-Promote. As your partnership takes shape, look for ways to become ambassadors for each other. Whenever you can, talk about the charitable organization. If you own a business that’s open to the public, have flyers available. Promote the organization (and your partnership) on your website and in your newsletters. Ask your partner to extend the same courtesies to you.

Never lose the marketing focus of your community partnership efforts. Even though the work is philanthropy, your cause should generate interest in your company and motivate people to buy from it. Select a cause that is important to your target market, and make sure your target market sees that connection.

Cause-related community partnerships help you meet people, grow your business, and help your community. The strategies boost a company's prestige while gaining visibility through association with the cause. Tremendous goodwill can be generated, and media attention can be its side-effect.

Cause-Related Marketing

Altruism. Corporate responsibility. Philanthropy. These are often used to describe cause-related marketing, an activity in which businesses join with charities or causes to market an image, product, or service for mutual benefit.

Embracing a cause makes good business sense. Nothing builds brand loyalty among today's increasingly hard-to-please consumers like a company’s proven commitment to a worthy cause. Other things being equal, many consumers would rather do business with a company that stands for something beyond profits.

According to a Cone/Roper Benchmark Survey, 78% of respondents said they are more likely to buy a product that’s associated with a cause they care about, and 54% said they would pay more for it. One-third of respondents said that after price and quality, a company's responsible business practices are the most important factor in deciding whether to buy its product.

The phrase "cause-related marketing" was first used by American Express in 1983 to describe its fund-raising campaign for the Statue of Liberty restoration. American Express donated one penny to the fund each time someone used its charge card; the number of new cardholders grew by 45%, and card usage increased by 28%.

You don't have to run a major corporation to embrace cause-related marketing. The strategy can become a cornerstone of your slightly famous marketing plan. You benefit by letting your market know that you’re socially active, by actively identifying with a cause you are passionate about. It's also a way to merge your profit center with your "passion center" and build a business that mirrors your personal values, beliefs and integrity.

Visibility + Competence + Word of Mouth = REPUTATION

There is only one physical you—and you can only be so many places at once. No matter how much you network, get around, or attend meetings, YOU can only go so far. Getting slightly famous in print media is a way to reach a larger audience than relying entirely on human contact.

Appearing in the media is the equivalent of expanded networking: you reach a targeted audience of people who might buy from you, you build a relationship with your target market and become viewed as an expert, establishing a bond of trust upon which future sales are possible.

Print media exposure can help you expand your business--even a small, local business can establish a regional or national presence. There may be a limit to your physical availability, but publishing enables you to reach thousands of valuable contacts without leaving your desk.

The more times someone runs across your name, the more predisposed they are to buy from you—an effect that grows when your name appears in contexts that imply you are competent. And because of the media’s indirect indication of ability, prospects who hear about you through published articles are largely pre-sold on your abilities. The impact widens if you publish consistently and word-of-mouth takes on a life of its own.