The Clean and Green Club

Here’s a Frugal Marketing extra: HP is offering a new design service that ” brings professional brand marketing services – usually reserved for the big guys – into the reach of small businesses.” This is through a program called MarketSplash. And a s a launch special, 100 free business cards, not even a shipping and handling charge.

Well, I’m always one to take advangtage of a good free offer, and I actually need new cards for two new sites I’m creating, painlessgreenbook.com and recessionbusterbooks.com (nothing up yet at either site). We’ll see how it goes.

(Disclosure: by posting this, I get entered in a drawing to win some t-shirts).

Ok, you read last month’s Frugal Marketing Tip and you’ve identified reporters who’ll be receptive to your pitch. What next? It’ll take two months to answer, because there are two different situations.

If you’re responding to a reporter query on HARO or PR Leads/Profnet

First of all, speed is essential. HARO has gone from zero to over 55,000 subscribers in its first year, and will continue to grow rapidly. Profnet and PR Leads have thousands of subscribers, and many of them are PR agencies with lots of clients to pitch. That means the reporter will pay much more attention to the first 20 or so queries that hit the mailbox. If you’re number 200, unless you manage to get opened and then just blow the reporter out of the water, the chances are, that reporter already has plenty of sources. Most reporters are on short deadlines, although if they’re working on a book, they may still open a late mail. HARO typically mails around 5:45 a.m., 12:45 p.m., and 5:45 p.m. every weekday, and Profnet comes out roughly once an hour between about 9:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. You should check your mail as soon as possible after these are mailed. (With such large lists, it may take a while to reach you–just keep checking until it shows up.) Remember also that both services post their most urgent queries on Twitter: follow @Skydiver (HARO) and @ProfNet.Scan them immediately, and answer the ones where you could be a source. DON’T pitch off-topic; on HARO, that will get you instantly banned.

Next, use a subject line that immediately tells the reporter you’re answering the query. I use one that starts Profnet or HARO, then a colon ( : ), then–unless the reporter specifies something else in the query–the exact subject line the query used. I also set up filters so that anything that comes back with haro or profnet (lower case OR capitalized) in the subject line gets marked as priority, because reporters want quick responses if they get back to you.

Third, answer the question–right there. This is a huge advantage we have as individuals over PR agencies. The agency will say some variation on “I have a client who can help”–while we can just get in there and actually give the reporter a pity, on-target quote.

Keep it short. Usually a couple of paragraphs and/or a few bullet points is plenty.

Fourth, give your credentials. There are two things you accomplish by this: first, you convince the reporter you know what you’re talking about, and second, you provide the identifier that the journalist will use in the story (so make sure it includes your website–and your book title, if you have one).

Fifth: This is optional, but I always paste the reporter’s query at the bottom, so when I get a response, I can easily find the original query even if the reporter has stripped out the context. If you get a reporter writing back saying “tell me more about that,” and you’ve tossed the original query, it’s not going to be pretty.

Here’s an actual example of a recent successful query: the reporter asked:

“I’m currently working on a book and whitepaper series on the topic
of Thought Leadership Marketing. I’m now in need of examples of
individuals and companies that currently employ
thought leadership in their marketing (speaking, whitepapers,
social media, giving info away to help the market, etc.).
Interviews will all be conducted via email or telephone. Please
reply with your name, title and brief description of how and why
you or your company are using thought leadership in your marketing

And I responded:

Subject:
HARO (Peter Shankman): Need Co.’s Practicing ‘Thought Leadership Marketing

Body:

Hi, Dana,

As a copywriter, marketing consultant, and publishing consultant, I use these techniques almost exclusively, and have used them for over 20 years. (There is one side of my business that draws largely from Yellow Pages, but it’s a very small piece.)

Some of the strategies I use:
* Writing award-winning books that establish my expertise (I think I got the first client from a book I’d written around 1987 or 1988)
* One you didn’t mention: getting interviewed as an expert by the media (I’ve been quoted several times in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Woman’s Day, Entrepreneur, etc., etc., as well as numerous radio stations and blogs and a bit of TV)
* Public speaking (I especially like this one because I get paid to do my own marketing)
* Seeding articles all over the Internet
* Creating content-rich websites in my key subject areas
* Participating actively in both e-mail and social-media-based discussion groups

Note: Please keep “Shankman” in the subject line so that my email program will mark it as Priority.

__________________________
Shel Horowitz, Author, 7 books. <MY EMAIL ADDRESS>
413-586-2388 (Hadley, MA)  https://www.frugalmarketing.com, https://www.frugalfun.com
Covered in Bottom Line * Cleveland Plain Dealer * Home Office Computing * Christian Science Monitor * NY Times * Boston Globe * Fortune Small Business * L.A. Times * Woman’s Day * over 200 radio stations…

Talking Points (Low-Cost/Ethical/Cooperative Marketing): Flame-proof Internet marketing, Zero-Cost Websites, free media exposure, slash your ad costs while building results, why market share doesn’t matter, how your competitors can become your sales force… Books: Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First; Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World; Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers

Sign the Business Ethics Pledge – Help Change the World
https://www.business-ethics-pledge.org

Blog on Corporate/Government/Marketing Ethics:
https://www.principledprofit.com/good-business-blog/
__________________________

Next month: How to pitch when the reporter hasn’t asked for sources.

What kinds of organizations are we talking about? The possibilities are limitless; here are a few ideas:

• Nonprofit or not-for-profit charities (the difference is in their tax structure and doesn’t affect you, except that registered nonprofits have more clout) involved with medical or social issues
• Social service agencies
• Government agencies (federal, state, county, local)
• Public or private schools
• Other educational organizations
• Museums
• Trade and professional organizations within one profession
• Trade and professional organizations spanning many professions (e.g., Chambers of Commerce, BNI groups, organizers of business trade fairs
• Meeting planners and conference/convention organizers

Find them through your own networks, their websites and newsletters, trade or professional associations and directories, Chambers of Commerce, tourist information kiosks, Yellow Pages, and a thousand other ways.

Part 3 of this series will look at ways organizations might use your books, part 4 on the types of books that can work (you may be pleasantly surprised), and part 5, how to approach the organizations. And as a bonus, part 6 will apply what you’ve learned to bulk purchases in the corporate sector.

If you don’t want to wait 5 months for all this information, you can buy copies of my award-winning books, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, and Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers. Use this link to get the paperback editions at the discounted price of $41.95, combined (plus shipping), or this link for the e-book editions at just $34.95 (no shipping charge). Between those two books, you’ll get lots of ideas on how to form win-win partnerships that move quantities of your book.

This month’s recommended book is all about how to find and fill a niche that not only matches your skills and talents, but your interest in bettering the world. Here’s an innovative company that does just that.

Reteez.com is a purveyor of handmade craft items–belts, jewelry, purses and totes, accessories–made from old t-shirts. Using the original t-shirt art as well as crocheting and other methods, the company creates one-of-a-kind objects, using t-shirts that were either donated, bought at thrift shops, or seconds purchased from fashion industry sources. Using a North American workforce, the company keeps an estimated 10,000 shirts per year out of landfills (or textile dumps in developing countries).

Certainly not the cheapest place to buy a unique gift, but remember that these are labor-intensive, made by hand by skilled laborers, and not made in sweatshops.

I learned about Reteez because the company sponsored an issue of HARO, a service that matches reporters and sources (and one that I’ll be profiling here, eventually). If you want a continuous stream of queries from reporters seeking story sources, at no cost, visit HARO and sign up.

Another Recommended Book: Finding the Sweet Spot: The Natural Entrepreneur’s guide to Responsible, Sustainable, Joyful Work (Chelsea Green, 2008)

This is a book aimed largely at those who are unhappy in a job that doesn’t advance their life’s purpose, looking for something in greater alignment with their core values–and their skills and talents and interests.

Part 1 focuses on finding the right pursuit, and also on finding the right partners to work with. Late in the first chapter, you’ll find a number of excellent processes to go through in finding work that is not only meaningful to you and to the world, but that fills a crucial need. That chapter contains some excellent advice.

Chapter 2 expresses Pollard’s strong belief that heart-centered enterprises and solpreneurship don’t mix. As a successful solopeneur, I take this with a grain of salt. Of course, I don’t try to do everything in my business, and I outsource those tasks that others can do better than me, or seek their guidance in setting up systems for myself. But that doesn’t mean I have to take them on as business partners. Still, if you <i>are</i> seeking partners, you’ll find great advice.

Parts 2 and 3 cover setting up your “Natural Enterprise” as a viable and sustainable operation that offers innovative solutions to real problems, and draws on the power of commuity collaboration to create something resilient and powerful. His section on identifying needs is excellent, and he discusses using biomimicry and other enormously powerful methods to turn those needs into products and markets. He offers 22 attributes of Natural Enterprises, six steps to building a viral marketing buzz, and four keys to successful collaboration.

Two insights I found particularly cogent, both on the same page (178): Relationships are more important than credentials. And because partnerships are based on an equal relationship grounded in mutual trust, when you form partnerships, you predispose others outside the partnership to trust you more, because they understand that’s how you work. These insights reinforce the relationship-based marketing approaches I discuss in my own award-winning book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First.

In today’s instant world, the faster you can get attention when a story breaks, the better your chance of being covered. If you can get a pitch letter or press release in when the ink is still drying on the new develiopment, you’re very likely to be quoted.

A few ways to get into position:

• Sign up for free alerts at HARO – you’ll get three alerts per weekday, each with about 40 leads from journalists actively looking for story sources. Also the occasional speaking lead and on Fridays, opportunities to get your swag into gift bags.
• Also sign up for PR Leads. This is a similar service, but because it costs $99 per month, there’s far less competition in answering the queries (HARO now has over 50,000 members, so reporters tend to get deluged. PR Leads and its big sister Profnet reach only a fraction of that number.) Note that there is a fair amount of overlap, but there are still quite a few reporters who prefer to use the less crowded service.
• Follow Skydiver (HARO) and ProfNet (PR Leads) on Twitter for last-minute journo requests that don’t make it into the feeds.
• Set up automatic Twitter searches at one of the many 3rd-party Twitter utilities such as TweetDeck or Twellow for your name, your product and company names, and your key topics.
  Create similar searches in Google Alerts and Yahoo Alerts (categories: breaking news, daily news, keyword news). Note that there may be significant time lag, so don’t rely on these services as your main source of breaking news. I find my Google alerts are usually about a day after the story is released.
• Check in for a quick headline crawl several times a day on any of the major news services.

Next month: What to do with the leads when you find them.

When an organization buys your book, in quantity, there are many advantages to you beyond the dollars in your pocket. Not that those dollars aren’t a good thing; they most certainly are. But the cash in your pocket may not be worth as much as the massive marketing benefit you can get from it:

• Third-party validation. When an organization buys your book, it’s the highest kind of endorsement. The movers and shakers of that organization are telling their members that your work contributes valuable knowledge in the field where they’re the recognized experts. Is that cool or what?
• Access to the organization’s members. Depending on how the group plans to use your book (we’ll talk about some of the possibilities next month), it may tell its members about you through newsletters, web sites, member events that feature you as a speaker, presenter, consultant, or visiting celebrity. The group could even bring you in as a paid spokesperson!
• Ability to mention this relationship in your other marketing. If, for example, you’re approaching a journalist to pitch your heart-disease recovery book, or talking to a medical book club about carrying your title, don’t you think you’ll get more attention if you can say honestly that you’re partnering with the American Heart Association?
• Potentially, you could even get access to the organization’s other partners, including for-profit businesses that might also buy your book in quantity, sponsor appearances, etc.
• If the arrangement is made before you go to print, you can lower your print costs by increasing volume to supply the organization’s purchase.

For all these reasons, it’s worth coming to a deal. Unless it’s a very small purchase, don’t be afraid to discount. If you can do better than break even, that’s terrific. But if you at least cover your costs, the deal still works in your favor, long-term.
Part 2 of this series suggests several types of organizations that might work for you. Part 3 will look at ways organizations might use your books, part 4 on the types of books that can work (you may be pleasantly surprised), and part 5, how to approach the organizations. And as a bonus, part 6 will apply what you’ve learned to bulk purchases in the corporate sector.

If you don’t want to wait 6 months for all this information, you can buy copies of my award-winning books, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, and Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers. Use this link to get the paperback editions at the discounted price of $41.95, combined (plus shipping), or this link for the e-book editions at just $34.95 (no shipping charge). Between those two books, you’ll get lots of ideas on how to form win-win partnerships that move quantities of your book.

One of the better websites I’ve seen for Green products is https://www.greenhome.com

As its CEO describes it, this cheerful and well-laid out site features “the most hand-made products from small green businesses, making us a bit like a Farmers Market for green products.”

And we’re talking some very cool stuff: compostable cups and even tote bags” smart surge protectors (I learned about these in this month’s book; they shut off power to peripherals when the main unit is turned off–great, for example, if you have a printer with no on/off switch), solar and energy-efficient lights, natural-fiber
clothing and bedding, vegan shoes (HARD to find!), and lots more.

Even better, the site has a gazillion helpful articles: how to go Green, news. sustainable gardening, and all sorts of other stuff. Warning: you could spend quite a bit of time exploring it all. I know I’ll be back to look again.

Greening Your Business: The Hands-on Guide to Crdating a Successful and Sustainable Business, by Daniel Sitarz (Carbondale, IL: Earthpress, 2008)

For all those who think being more Green means spending a ton of money, go out and get this book. The larger your enterprise, the more money you’ll save. Managers at a large manufacturing facility might save millions of dollars per year–particularly if you haven’t gone after the low-hanging fruit already. The owner of a small retail store might save several thousand, and a home-based solopreneurs will likely save a few hundred. And it should be required reading before building a new facility or retrofitting an old one. No matter what kind of business or nonprofit you run, follow the advice in this book and you’ll be Greener, and you’ll save money.

Want examples? Sitarz documents that General Electric slashed its energy consumption by nine percent, saving $100 million (p. 56). Wal-Mart retrofitted its truck cabs with heating and cooling units, so the big diesels didn’t need to run just to keep the cab comfortable at a truck stop, saving $22 million in the first 16 months (p. 156).

It’s full of specific tools and resources to lower the cost and the environmental impact of energy, transportation, construction, water use (though it leaves out some obvious stuff–see this article I wrote a few years ago for those tips), office equipment and appliances, supply chain issues, and more. And to my pleasant surprise, even though the book covers some pretty technical material, it’s written in a very accessible style. There are also many weblinks, spreadsheets, and checklists, conveniently included in both an enclosed CD and in the actual text.

And while this book doesn’t discuss the marketing benefits of a Greener approach, you’ll be well-placed to take advantage of that (for how to harness the full benefits of your Green investments in your marketing, I recommend my own book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First).

This is my entry for Eban Pagan’s how-to-use social-media contest. Even though I’ve covered social media within the year, I think this nice succinct summary stands well as a Frugal Marketing Tip–and is maybe easier to deal with than the four-part series I ran last spring.

Besides, repurposing content is a great marketing strategy, so you get to see me put that into action too. 🙂

The key to success with social media–and I’ve built my business on it since 1995–is to interact with others the way you’d like to be interacted with. Call it the Golden Rule of Cyberspace–it’s not so different from the Golden Rule of every major religion.

This means…
* Provide lots of helpful and useful information, especially if you expect to ask questions
* Say thank-you when people help you (but DON’T fill your public profiles with endless thank-you notes, especially on Twitter)
* Look for opportunities to connect others who should know each other, even if you don’t directly benefit
* Remember that it’s a conversation, not an e-blast
* Pitch subtly and relevantly (is that a word? It is now)
* It’s about relationships, not about numbers

As for which social media to participate on… Four musts would be Twitter, Facebook, your own blog, and (gasp! how retro!) Yahoogroups. Yeah, Yahoogroups lacks all the interface niceties of Facebook, Plaxo, etc., but it has hundreds of thousands of tightly niched communities, and I’m living proof that it’s quite possible to market there.

For myself, I also have benefited from participating on CollectiveX, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Ning–mostly by joining groups.

I have been using social media marketing for over a decade, and writing about it all the way back to 1991. Most of my books cover the basic concepts, and I recently completed an e-book specifically covering the Web 2.0 sites–which I throw in as a bonus with either of my Grassroots Marketing books. And relationship marketing can exist outside of social media, or even the Web–I write about that in detail in my award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First.

Shel Horowitz, marketing strategist and copywriter
https://www.frugalmarketing.com