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| Shel Horowitz’s Clean and Green Marketing Tip, December 2017 |
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Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine, and You
In October, I attended a concert by The Nields, who always put on a great show (they are local to me and I’ve heard them many times). Near the end of the show, they sang “Tyrants Always Fall,” a song that so blew me away that I went up to Nerissa Nields (the song’s author) after the show and told her it needed to get in front of someone who could bring it to audiences numbering into the seven or eight digits. Someone like the people I named in the headline. She answered that finding such a person “is your job.”
I take that seriously. So…if you know anyone with that kind of star power—or if you know someone who does—can you help me by getting the song in front of him or her? Listen to it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubWQHdHTLRI (and #westernma folks, you’ll recognize downtown Northampton).
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Is Anyone REALLY Reading Your Sustainability or CSR Report?
Repurpose that expensive content, without using any staff time. I will extract the key items and turn them into marketing points that you can use immediately: https://goingbeyondsustainability.com/turn-that-nobody-reads-it-csr-report-into-a-marketing-win/ |
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| The Perfect Gift for the Socially/Environmentally Aware Business Person in Your Life (maybe that’s you) |
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The old ways of doing business—polluting without a care, externalizing the social costs of your company onto taxpayers or workers or neighbors, not worrying about how much energy or other resources you waste—don‘t work anymore. Did you really want to sink all your spare time and money into combatting lawsuits or bad press? I didn’t think so.
The good news: better ways are available AND profitable. The award-winning book Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World, which I co-authored with the legendary Jay Conrad Levinson (known as the “Father of Guerrilla Marketing”), is the road map to profit without compromising principles—for you, or for anyone you know who runs a business or nonprofit.
Special Holiday Offer: Order at https://shelhorowitz.com/product/guerrilla-marketing-to-heal-the-world/ by Wednesday, December 20 (just five days from now) and we’ll pick up the cost of Priority Mail shipping within the US, plus I will personally autograph it to your loved one(s) and get it into the mail within one business day. How cool is that? Use the code, HolidayShipping
Written in the clear, accessible style you’ve come to love as a newsletter subscriber, it’s endorsed by Chicken Soup for the Soul co-creator Jack Canfield, visionary blogger Seth Godin, Jacquelyn Ottman of GreenMarketing.com, Joel Makower (founder of GreenBiz.com), social media rock stars Chris Brogan and Brian Solis, Alicia Bay Laurel (author of the 1970s classic Living on the Earth), and many others. It also has four guest essays, by Cynthia Kersey (Unstoppable/Unstoppable Women), Frances Moore Lappé (about a dozen books on food and democracy including Diet for a Small Planet), Yanik Silver (Evolved Enterprise) and Ken McArthur (The Impact Factor). And it was even named a Top Content Marketing Book of the Year! |
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| This Month’s Tip: Practical Visionaries, Part 1: Biological Marketing |
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Practical Visionaries, Part 1: Biological Marketing (an excerpt from my 10th book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World)
I’ll share with you every other month through June want to share with you some of the amazing people—I call them “practical visionaries—profiled in my award-winning 10th book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World. These folks are doing incredibly exciting work in bringing about a regenerative, thriving world. By the time this series is over, I can safely guarantee that you’ll be glad you’ve “met” a few of them. After each excerpt, you’ll find a brief comment from me, adding more context since you haven’t read the whole book yet.
John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books and one of the foremost authorities on book marketing in the US, says marketing is making friends and creating a “word-of-mouth army” that will sing your praises.
Kremer suggests turning your customer into a participant, letting that customer become emotionally attached. So, for example, let your customers vote among different packaging alternatives or product names. Or package the same information in a free report with several different titles. A clear reader preference helps you pick the right name.
He’s developed a new paradigm called biological marketing, and with his permission, we’ll share it with you:
Farmers have incredible ROI [return on investment]. They plant one seed of corn and get back 900. Nature does not follow physics. Instead of an equal and opposite reaction, there’s an incredible multifold giving back. It follows biological laws, and when you give and share, it comes back to you in abundance. Physics says that the ultimate end of the universe is entropy. Biology says the opposite, that everything multiplies and becomes incredibly rich and diverse. That’s the law of life. Physics is the law of non-life. And it’s the laws of life that determine marketing.
When you understand that, you know it’s OK to give. The authors [or business owners] who are generous with their time get it back, they build legions of fans. That kind of relationship makes marketing fun and successful. You cannot replace it with mechanical rules, but once you learn it and take it to heart, that becomes the basis for success in anything you do. If you treat people right, it comes back over and over again. If you build a network of relationships, it’s only three degrees of separation [versus the classic six to reach anyone in the world]. Another part of the law of nature is that you have to break out of your shell, just as birds and reptiles do. You can do it one person to one person. [End of excerpt]
I absolutely love this concept of nonlinear, exponential success based on biological principles. How can you apply this in your own business?
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| Hear & Meet Shel
Interview with Brian Basilico on the Building Authentic Connections Online Networking podcast. Interestingly enough, Brian did not have the link to my media center ahead of time, so this was a freewheeling, off-the-cuff interview with neither of us knowing ahead where the conversation would flow. We managed to cover quite a bit of ground:
https://www.baconpodcast.com/episode-315-guerrilla-marketing-heal-world-shel-horowitz/
- My journey from file clerk and park ranger to running a business that changes the world
- The life-changing shock at age 12 that committed me to activism
- A definition of cause marketing—and why it isn’t enough
- Three ordinary people—a seamstress, a shipyard electrician, and a writer: two of them changed the world and the third is working on it
- The big problems with the terms “global warming” and “sustainability”
- How to find out if YOU’RE ready to start a profitable social entrepreneurship product
Interview on Blue Collar Proud with Taylor Hill and Carter Harkins (segment starts at 24:23)
- How small-scale businesses in the trades can lower costs and boost revenues doing things to help the world
- What if the climate change deniers are right—and what if they’re not?
- The impact of going green on healthcare
- Why making big, sweeping improvements in sustainability can be much more cost-effective than tiny changes
- How switching to greener lighting can save certain types of businesses millions of dollars
- Does green make a real difference in customer loyalty?
- The shocking fact that could end hunger in the US
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Friends Who Want to Help
A note from my business coach, who has helped me enormously as I’ve shifted the direction of my own business: December is one of the best times to plan for 2018. You can begin the New Year with new ideas, clear goals and a plan. Offering a Complimentary Holiday Coaching Session to assist you to begin the New Year in a way which helps you achieve your goals successfully. Call Oshana Himot, MBA, at 602-463-6797 or email oshanaben@yahoo.com.
Getting your book into the hands of those who love it forever can be daunting.
Before shifting into holiday mode, see what my longtime friend and colleague, Paulette Ensign, created. She simplifies the process, based on her successful approach of less bringing more of what we want.
https://www.kickstartcart.com/app/?af=889945&u=www.tipsbooklets.com/tipsoffer.html
You’ll want to take action now.
Looking for a Job? I’ve Just Added a Job-Finding Widget
If you’re looking for a job in marketing, visit the home page of https://frugalmarketing.com. If you’re looking for a job in some other field, try the widget on the home page of https://accuratewriting.com
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Order your copy of Shel’s newest book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World
Learn how the business world can profit while solving hunger, poverty, war, and catastrophic climate change (hint: they’re all based in resource conflicts). Endorsed by Chicken Soup’s Jack Canfield, business blogger and bestselling author Seth Godin, and many others. Find out more and order from several major booksellers (or get autographed and inscribed copies directly from me). https://goingbeyondsustainability.com/guerrilla-marketing-to-heal-the-world/
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| Another Recommended Book—Blue Collar Proud |
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Blue Collar Proud: 10 Principles for Building a Kickass Business You Love by Taylor K. Hill and Carter Harkins
I didn’t plan to review this book when I picked it up. Frankly, I grabbed it because the authors do a podcast and I wanted to be interviewed. I was expecting a book about how great it is to run a blue collar business and isn’t it a shame that those types of businesses “don’t get no respect.”
And yes, there’s some of that, especially at the beginning. But this book is actually a stealth-weapon to shape those types of firms toward much more holistic business practices: creating a culture of pride, integrity, workmanship, and “operational excellence” (which gets all of Chapter 9)—by establishing a workplace that values its employees (even more than it values its customers) and treats them as partners in helping customers. The authors even point out that “the customer is always right” can translate, dangerously, into throwing employees under the bus (p. 66).
The book emphasizes many points that I’ve been teaching in my speaking and writing for years:
- Establish and stick to your core values; this frees up the business owner because the ship will run itself much more smoothly and you’re not always putting out fires (pp. 38-39)
- Find ways to increase customers’ perception of your value (pp. 71-72)—upsell not to meet sales goals or push a product but because your next offer anticipates and meets your customers’ needs (pp. 93-94)
- Treat every interaction point, every part of the customer’s experience, as part of your marketing, and every employee as a member of your marketing team (pp. 92-93)—thus, superior service is your best marketing method—and failure to provide good service will get you trashed on the Internet anyway, so you may as well do it right (p. 91)
- Environmental awareness can become a selling point that not only distinguishes you from all the commoditizers but adds tolerance for more profitable pricing (of course, I go way beyond this in my own latest book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World—which talks about building a business with profitable approaches to solving things like hunger, poverty, war, and catastrophic climate change)
- Say no to the wrong customers—it’s better not to take them on than to wreck your business accommodating people who don’t share your values and won’t treat you fairly (p. 70)
The final chapter, “Will You Commit to Change,” offers this wonderful statement: “Things happen to victims, but leaders happen to things. Leaders embrace change because they see that it brings opportunity…Those who play the victim, on the other hand, spend their time fighting that reality right into stagnancy and irrelevance. The choice is yours. It takes just as much time and effort to build a business you can be proud of as I does to build one you aren’t proud of.” (pp. 96-97)
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Recent Interviews & Guest Articles:
Shel’s done 27 podcasts recently, ranging from 5 minutes to a full hour. Click here to see descriptions and replay links.
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Accurate Writing & More
14 Barstow Lane
Hadley, MA 01035 USA
https://goingbeyondsustainability.com/contact/
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About Shel & This Newsletter
As a green and social change business profitability/marketing consultant and copywriter…award-winning author of ten books…international speaker and trainer, blogger, syndicated columnist – Shel Horowitz shows how green, ethical, and socially conscious businesses can actually be *more* profitable than your less-green, less-socially-aware competitors. His award-winning 8th book Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet was a category bestseller for at least 34 months (and is now available exclusively through Shel), his newest book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World, has already won two awards and is endorsed by Jack Canfield and Seth Godin. Shel also helps authors/ publishers, small businesses, and organizations to market effectively, and turns unpublished writers into well-published authors.
Shel Horowitz’s consulting firm, Going Beyond Sustainability, is the first business ever to earn Green America’s rigorous Gold Certification as a leading green company. He’s an International Platform Association Certified Speaker and was inducted into the National Environmental Hall of Fame in 2011.He began publishing his monthly newsletter all the way back in 1997, making it one of the oldest marketing e-zines (it’s changed names a few times along the way).
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| “As always, some of the links in this newsletter earn commissions—because I believe in the products and services enough to promote them (I get asked to endorse lots of other programs I don’t share with you, because I don’t find them worthy).” |
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| Privacy Policy: We Respect Your Privacy
We collect your information solely to let our mailing service send you the information you request. We do not share it with any outside party not involved in mailing our information to you. Of course, you may unsubscribe at any time—but we hope you’ll stick around to keep up with cool developments at the intersections of sustainability, social transformation, and keeping the planet in balance. Each issue of Shel Horowitz’s Clean and Green Newsletter has a how-to or thought-leadership article and a review of a recommended book. We’ve been doing an e-newsletter all the way back to 1997, and some of our readers have been with us the whole time. |
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