Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

The Math of Marketing

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mathTara Hunt recently wrote an interesting blog post about influencers and it got me thinking about how many businesses approach marketing and publicity. Marketing is a numbers game, but are you looking at the right numbers?

We all want to get the attention of the bloggers who have huge followings, have feature stories written about us in major publications, and be on Oprah’s show. Some people and companies direct all of their efforts toward those goals.

The problem is that everyone is trying to get the attention of the biggest media. That means that it is hard to get their attention and even harder to get them to cover you. However, there are lots of other media that would love to have your story. Would you rather have 1000 people read about you on a few blogs, or 0 people see you on Oprah? [Read more…]

Creative Publicity Strategies

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star_glasses.jpgThe traditional way to get publicity was to send a press release to the media. Today, though, you can find many other opportunities to make yourself famous by going beyond the press release.

Here are some ideas that can help you get attention through new media, or by going around the media and directly to customers.

Go to the bloggers. If you can attract the interest of one or two prominent bloggers, your story can quickly spread. Get to know who the top bloggers are in your industry, and approach them when you have news.

You can find bloggers by searching for your topic or industry name along with “blog.” Try searching at http://www.Techorati.com/ and http://blogsearch.Google.com/. Get familiar with the top blogs by reading them regularly. Offer appropriate and useful comments to posts, and the bloggers will become aware of you. That is definitely a plus when you approach them with a story.

Find the reporters who want to find you. Wouldn’t it be great if you knew which reporters were working on stories about your topic? You could exponentially increase your chances of getting coverage for your story. Two paid services, http://www.prnewswire.com/profnet/ and http://www.PRLeads.com/, will let you know what stories reporters are working on and how to contact them. You can then target your pitch to the specific angle the reporter is working.

A free option is Help A Reporter Out. Peter Shankman sends three emails each business day, each containing up to 30 queries from journalists looking for stories. You can sign up at http://www.HelpAReporter.com/.

Can you digg it? Sites such as http://www.digg.com/ allow users to submit stories. Other users then vote and popular stories are elevated to the front page of the sites. Making the front page of digg can bring tens of thousands of people to your web site in a single day. To give this a try, you need to have a great story, write a catchy headline, post it and see what happens. You can encourage your friends and fans to vote for your story to get it moving, but if it isn’t good, the regulars will vote it down quickly.

There are other more specialized sites, too. Although you may not get tens of thousands of visitors from hitting the front page of those sites, it is easier to make it there and the traffic you get will be targeted. To find the sites in your niche, start by doing a search for your keyword (or a good, descriptive term for you niche) and “social bookmarking.”

Hook into breaking news. When you have a unique angle on a hot story, get in front of the media. And do it quickly, before someone else does. Do you have a local angle on a national or international story? Call local media and let them know. Ask for the assignment desk and tell them your take on the breaking story.

Are you ready for your close up? You may have noticed that online video is extremely popular. Make clever and entertaining videos and you can capture the viral magic of videos. To show off their powerful blender, the Blendtec folks created a series of Will it Blend? videos where they throw everything from a full Thanksgiving dinner to a video camera to a hockey puck into their blender and press start. You can view the videos at http://www.WillItBlend.com/.

Syndicate your articles. Publishing articles on your web site is a great way to demonstrate your expertise. You can get even more attention for your articles (and yourself) by using an article distribution service. One inexpensive service is http://www.iSnare.com/. Or you can submit your articles for free to directories such as http://www.EzineArticles.com/.

Go beyond the press release and get the attention of thousands–or millions–of new customers.

Get free publicity.

Make Yourself Famous

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fame.jpgMy tagline at IdeaLady.com is “Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous.” Those things go hand in hand, as becoming even a little famous in your niche will cause customers to seek you out.

It is not as hard as you might think to get a little famous and, no, the paparazzi will not begin stalking you. Of course, publicity is a great way to gain fame, but you are dependent on the whims of the media for that.

So, while you are waiting for The Oprah to call, here are some things you can do today to make yourself a little famous. Many of these techniques are free, and all can help to create awareness of you and build your expert reputation while making you (at least a little) famous.

Become a famous expert by submitting tips to http://www.Lifetips.com/ and http://www.Lifehack.org/ Lifehack will give a live link with your tip, Lifetips allows you to mention your web site in your profile.

Put up a profile and some of your articles at http://www.EzineArticles.com/ They refer more visitors to my site on a consistent basis than any sites other than the major search engines.

Put your profile on LinkedIn.com, then connect with your network, and their networks, and their networks…this is MySpace for grown-ups with jobs or who are looking for jobs. No garish backgrounds or bad music, just the opportunity to make mutually beneficial connections.

Set up a page at HubPages. Post articles, photos, links to your site and more.

Post thoughtful comments on leading blogs in your field. Not sure who they are? Browse the directory at http://www.BlogCatalog.com/. You can also add your blog to their directory.

Distribute an online press release. When it goes out to the news services you will see an increase in traffic to your site. And there will be links to your site, well, forever.

Put yourself on a t-shirt. Or a mug, a mouse pad, a necktie…at http://www.CafePress.com/ or http://www.Zazzle.com/.

Watch yourself get famous by setting up Google Alerts for your name, web site, etc. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts and tell Google what terms you want to watch for. When they run across a term you want to know about, they will send you an email with a link to the page.

None of these things have to take a long time. Just select a couple actions from the list and get started today. A little weekly maintenance will take your fame to greater heights.

Recycling Publicity

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magazines.jpgAfter sending several press releases, you finally got a nice article in your local newspaper, a trade journal or a national magazine. Or perhaps you were interviewed on radio or television. You got some of your 15 minutes of fame. Now what?You may think that once the show is over or the publication is no longer on the newsstands, the value of your appearance ends. However, there are many ways to keep your publicity working for you.

First of all, if there is a call to action in the story you will hear from people months or years after the story ran. Always ask the interviewer to include information on how their audience can get something free from you (e.g., download a free report from your Web site) or how they can order your product. I often receive orders from customers who saw an article that appeared more than a year earlier. Although there is no guarantee that your call to action will get in the story, ask.

Here are some additional ways to continue getting results from publicity successes, long after your moment of fame. [Read more…]