Set to be released in a few weeks, a new book about online marketing heroes follows a simple, yet highly-successful format: gather a group of experts, talk to them and publish a book. To get an inside look, download Steve Rubel’s Online Marketing Heroes chapter.
Allowing Steve to promote the book on his blog, Micro Persuasion, with a giveaway chapter download is great publicity – that’s how I found out about it.
What I’m confused about is why people who aren’t in the book are in the promos.
Patrick Duparcq of Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Liana Evans of KeyRelevance
David Fischer of Google
Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group
Jeffrey Glueck of Travelocity
Jordan Gold of Freedom
Greg Hartnett of Best of the Web, Hotel Hotline
Jacob Hawkins of Overstock.com
Joan Holman of Joan Holman Productions
Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR
Kevin Lee of Didit
Heather Lloyd-Martin of SuccessWorks
Brian Lusk of Southwest Airlines
Perry Marshall of Perry S. Marshall & Associates
Paul O’Brien of Zvents
Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing
Mark Oldani of Circuit City Direct
Steve Rubel of Edelman
Ed Shull of NetResults
Phil Terry of Creative Good
Eric Ward of Link Marketing Consultant
Jill Whalen of High Rankings
Who’s Missing From Your List?
Who decides who’s in and who’s out? What, in your opinion, does it take to be an online marketing hero? Money, book sales, list size, products, readership, influence?
It’s easy to tell when there’s a push to propel a book to a number one spot on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Your email in box floods with free offers from any marketer who’s participating.
To spike high rise sales, the formula calls for participation from dozens of marketers who agree to promote the book to their email list or blog audience on a certain day.
In order to be featured as one of the promotion partners each marketer submits an image, a link to the product and a description. This in itself is a great way to get free visibility.
After you buy the book, you can collect all of the “freebies.” But, in exchange for the free item – usually a .pdf or mp3 download - you often have to enter your name and email address. That puts you on the giver’s emailing marketing list. Seems fair, doesn’t it? An email for a report or how-to audio.
As a marketer, the prospect of being on a list that goes out to 2 million or more people is alluring. When I had the chance to participate in one of these book promos, I jumped on it. Dreaming about adding hundreds of names to a list overnight is heady.
But, it’s just that – a dream. Almost every “lead” that came in unsubscribed. Immediately. These people have no interest in a relationship, only collecting products. And that’s okay. Why send out emails to people who will never, ever open them?
Today I updated a page from one of these offers. Noticing that I’d “attracted” a few more grab and runners, I changed the offer page to redirect them to my site and my blog. Now, if they’re really interested they can still reach me and isn’t the prospect of 300 free articles better than one report? I think so.
I asked for it . . .Yesterday I did a live question and answer session for public relations students. On the call I asked for questions that I could answer on my blog. Here’s one of them that came in today:
On Fox TV this week, author Cooper Lawrence commented on virtual nudity in video games in a story about Mass Effect, which set off a massive PR explosion.
According to Game Daily‘s post mentioned above, on Thursday negative reviews for Lawrence’s book, The Cult of Perfection, numbered 565, 502 [1-star] and 48 [2-stars]. Now that Amazon.com is reviewing and censoring negative ratings for The Cult of Perfection, the book’s amazon.com forum is buzzing with 45 discussions about the book and this practice.
I could stop here and answer, “No, this kind of bad publicity is NOT good for book sales.” But, the surrounding media attention is good for name recognition.
And, because one question always leads to another, I’ll add in: How far can you go with gamers -from a PR perspective?
First, let’s take a look at Cooper Lawrence.
With a radio show, The Love Doctor! – a dating and advice column – in CosmoGirl, mega media clips and several books, Lawrence appears to have mastered marketing.
COOPER LAWRENCE is a relationship and psychology expert with a master’s degree in developmental psychology. She is currently finishing her doctorate in applied developmental psychology. She is the host of her own nationally syndicated radio show aptly named The Cooper Lawrence Show.
Key phrases from Lawrence’s book “Been There, Done That, Kept the Jewelry: Find True Love–Turn Your Tarnished Dating Past into a Brilliant Romantic Future” on Amazon.com suggest she’s a relationship or dating expert.
Back to question one: Might this bad publicity ultimately be GOOD for her book sales?
The biggest problem here is a mismatch. Lawrence’s new book is about overachieving; her column is about dating. Will commenting on virtual nudity in any video game sell more books about women’s self-esteem or dating? What does calling a video gaming expert “darling” on the air say about respect in a relationship? Do her readers date guys who play video games? What, exactly, is her niche?
I have to wonder why Ms. Lawrence was asked to step in to take this stand. With her level of media exposure and influence, it’s surprising that her publicist would agree to this assignment.
To be credible [and sell books], subject matter experts must match their interviews to their exact topic. And, they have to be sure there’s something to talk about before they take the interview. In this case, there was no real controversy to debate, only misinformation to contest afterwards.
A brief interview brought down book sales and opened up a new levels of criticism. Lawrence already apologized, but is that enough?
What do gamers think? I decided to find out. Going straight to the source, I interviewed a gamer about sex in video games, Mass Effect and whether or not gamers cared about what a psychologist has to say: listen to an audio interview with a gamer.
Gamers sound a lot like bloggers: frequently misunderstood, often perceived as misfits, passionate about our games/subjects, willing to communicate and create virtually, always ready to get to the next level, don’t mind spending hours or days in front of a screen and we enjoy meeting up with each other – both virtually and offline.
Studying the video game culture is smart marketing. Watch the launch campaigns, study the game sites, see how communities relate and check out the titles for ideas on how to attract an audience of raving fans. Playing the games will give you a feel for how to build up a challenge, develop characters and lay out storylines. From a PR perspective, know that gamers are ready to respond, react, defend and defeat en masse. So, be careful when you comment, especially when you haven’t played the game and you’re on national TV.
Helping out gamers can bring you good attention, though. I know from personal experience. In November 2007, I wrote about how we got the Nintendo Wii in eight minutes. But, wait a minute, this IS a PR blog – right? Well, yeah, but . . . after telling the story to everyone I knew, I just had to retell it here. So I did. At last count over 800 people have read it and hopefully our tips paid off for a few other families.
Parting Shots
Know what you’re talking about before your criticize – anything. Controversy polarizes audiences and can get you mega attention: both good and bad. Before you go there, consider how you’ll feel when the swarm against you stings all at once. When you make a mistake, apologize immediately. Be true to yourself and your audience. And if you want to sell more books? Make sure your publicity – good or bad – attracts attention from a supportive audience.
Instant Replay PR: Get Multiple Uses Out of One Release
by Barbara Rozgonyi, founder of CoryWest Media
To request permission to reproduce or republish this article, contact connect AT corywestmedia DOT com.
Why write one release when you can take the same story and re-release it over and over again?
Here’s how to take a standard evergreen release and repackage it multiple times for major impact. Using a basic PR pattern allows you to reinvent your news and keep it fresh.
Tell an Evergreen Story
Once you write out who, what, when, where, why for each audience, go back and highlight the most important feature for them. Look for timeless stories that can be easily tied into today’s news. Use this chart to get started.
Audience
Who
What
When
Where
Why
Benefits
Channel
Journalists
Prospects
Clients
Search Engines
Bloggers
Choose Categories
How do you categorize your message? Knowing where to put your news helps you be in the right place every time. It’s okay to be in more than one category, but probably not in the same release or article. Set up interchangeable components to personalize your message for each category.
Track Results
After testing out your system, you’ll be able to see which audience in which categories works best. Stick with these and keep going.
About the author . . .
An in-demand publicist, professional speaker and marketing communications consultant since 1990, Barbara Rozgonyi is grounded, edgy and prophetic. “Panoramic PR,” Barbara’s latest project, compresses everything she knows into an affordable, manageable course that teaches small business owners, entrepreneurs, authors, experts, coaches and anyone else who wants more free publicity how to get completely covered by being fully exposed. Claim a free report and get automatic articles like this one at http://www.powerprsecrets.com.
For the last few days I’ve been answering calls for a literary agent. Each time the caller left a message saying they found my listing in the Yellow Pages online. So, I checked it out and yes, indeed, CoryWest is listed in the Literary Agent category – along with Marketing Consultants, Marketing Programs & Services, Public Relations Counselors and Writers. Hmm. . . how did we wind up with the literary agents?
Of course, I promptly return every message to let the aspiring novelists know that although my company does many things, I am not a literary agent. And then I say, “I’m curious. What’s your book about?”At that point, the real story begins. Passion for their project radiates right through the phone.
Sometimes I have to set them straight. While writing for a living is certainly doable – I created a class called “Write from the Start: Running a Succesful Freelance Business” that empowered more than a few successful writers, selling one book won’t support your family or maybe even your cat.
Even so, there is omnipotent power in passion. Before we hang up, I give them this list of resources. Until I can figure out how to change my listing, I can tell them to check this post. I will miss the stories, though. Have a resource to add? Leave the link in the comment section or email connectATcorywestmediaDOTcom.
