Barnett on Marketing

Advice on Marketing a Natural/Alternative Cancer Clinic in Central America

2009-03-03T23:19:00.001-08:00

By Ned Barnett

I was asked by a colleague for advice on how to get publicity for a cancer treatment center in Central America that uses a natural/alternative form of therapy. This represents several challenges - the medical establishment, a lack of a specific news hook, and indifference from the mainstream consumer media. My recommendations are based on my significant experience in this market, and can be applied to any alternative therapy product or treatment.

Ana

You’re going up against the medical establishment, and that’s not easy. After more than two decades working for conventional medicine (hospitals, MDs, etc.) I branched out in ’94 and began working with natural and alternative healthcare providers (including the makers of supplements). I was PR director for Citizens for Health – among other things (in the last days before email), we put two million letters on Congressmen and Senators’ desks in two weeks – each individually written (these weren’t form letters) and got the Health Freedom Act of 1994 passed and signed – that’s the law that allows you to function today with alternative health treatment based on natural herbs. I also launched HealthWorld Online – then and now the largest natural and alternative healthcare site on the Internet. I’ve worked with a number of other natural and alternative health clients. I mention all that to mention this: my advice to you is based on more than 15 years of experience in this general marketplace.

First, the national mainstream media is predisposed to stand in opposition to you. They credit American-born (or at least American-trained) MD medical doctors (even osteopathic DOs are suspect, although they have the same license to practice as allopathic MDs) at the expense of all others. Central American cancer cures and cancer clinics are especially the butt of scorn and bad jokes – you may not remember Laetrile (made from apricot pits) that in the late 60s and early/mid 70s offered hope and early graves to thousands of late-stage terminal cancer patients, but the media remembers.

So understand going in that you’re fighting an up-hill battle; a guerilla battle to set yourself apart from other natural/alternative healthcare solutions (because yours works), and to do that, before you can even fight the battle, you have to create the weapons.

Try this:

First, get as much coverage as you possibly can from the natural and alternative healthcare publications, websites and other media (there are some natural/alterative healthcare and lifestyle radio stations or programs, too). In that coverage, do everything you can to emphasize the German tie-in and minimize the Central American tie-in. There will be a time (see below) when you can leverage these clips into coverage.

Network out with the Whole Life Expo crowd (speaking engagements and booths at shows) to gain further credibility; when you’re there, see if you can get LOCAL interviews on radio, local TV or in local newspapers – the “local” hook (and the fact that Whole Life Expos and similar events are also often advertisers) will get you the first clips from the mainstream. If you do radio or TV, capture those digitally so you can later use them in your client’s website press room – and get screen-captures of the clips, as the local media won’t keep them online forever, but you can.

Next, to begin to reach out to the mainstream media, create news. They don’t care that you claim an improbable (to them) cancer treatment – but they’ll cover newsworthy events (maybe).

To do this, stage events that bring together satisfied (survivor) clients with those suffering from or fearful of cancer – in a format where the satisfied former patients can give their personal testimonials (believe me, they’ll love to do that – this has changed their lives, and they can’t help it any more than a reformed smoker can help being a self-righteous PITA around still-smokers). You can have an “alter call” at the end, a time when those looking for hope, help and a change in their prognosis can come forward and sign up for appointments for pre-qualifying exams. Shoot straight – let them know what’s involved, and you’ll have people flocking to you. Example: For a dentist client who wanted to do nothing but dental implants, I created the Mid-Cumberland Dental Implant Society (the Nashville area is known as the Mid-Cumberland, having to do with the Cumberland River that flows through Nashville). Every patient he’d ever had was automatically a member-for-life, and many of them would show up at meetings for potential patients to give their personal testimony. There’d be nurses and the dentist there, too, and here’s what we’d tell those potential patients:

“Dental implants are not covered by health insurance – a full set will cost you about $22,000. Dental implant surgery is painful – you’re going to hurt, and there’s a limited amount that we can do to mitigate the pain while you’re healing. However, when you’re healed and the implants are in place, you’ll be able to eat anything you like – apples, steaks – anything at all.” Our approach was a cross between educational seminar and tent revival meeting. Our target was people with money and dentures, and after they’d heard the testimonials, after they’d been told several times that it was both expensive and painful (facts which created trust), we had an alter call, and we only needed one of these events each quarter to keep that dentist’s practice full. You couldn’t beat them away with a stick – the hope of being able to eat something other than soup, ice-cream and baby food was irresistible.

Now, think about how much more important being healed of cancer is than being able to eat apples or steaks. Then hold these seminars, and invite the press. Record them on video, so the press doesn’t have to show up, but can still see the testimonials from real people (who’ll consent to interviews). You may have to do these a while before you get someone to actually cover you – but since these are great marketing tools that will bring in paying clients, you can probably afford the wait.

One more thing. Get someone to ghost-write under your client’s byline a book – “New Hope for Cancer Sufferers …” or something like that (I ghost-wrote a book called “New Hope for Cancer … (something)” about 22 years ago for a cancer surgeon who’d been a professor in a major New Jersey teaching hospital before moving to South Florida to practice medicine and practice golf – it was very helpful for his practice, so I know this works). People with cancer are desperate for hope – in spite of all the medical advances, the Big C is still seen as a death-sentence, and who among us hasn’t had loved ones or close friends die from cancer after enduring the most humiliating and painful treatments – radical mastectomies (or other ectomies), radiation and chemo that leave them wasted and thin, bald and hurting, vulnerable to other infections (including nosocomial infections, the ones you get while you’re in the hospital – which kill about 9% of all the people who die in hospitals). So hope for something that’s holistic and WORKS, something that lets you heal while vacationing in a tropical paradise … it doesn’t get better than that. And of course, books and authors can be promoted and the media will pay attention in a different way than they do about the treatment itself. Stage book-signing events that will also draw press coverage.

OK – so you’ve got lots of natural/alternative healthcare coverage, and a fair amount of local media coverage, you’ve got book reviews and the credibility of a (hopefully) best-selling author, and finally, you’ve got newsworthy events. With all of this, you’ll be as well-positioned as possible for generating mainstream media coverage. Absent this (or FDA approval – and I wouldn’t hold my breath, no matter what your client hopes), there’s not much reason for the media to cover you. With this, you’ll be hard to ignore.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Penetrating the US Hispanic Business Market (tips that apply to penetrating any minority market

2008-02-09T16:48:00.000-08:00

I just received a vitally-important, strategic question from a Miami-based, Cuban-born American small business-owner client: "How can I best penetrate the U.S. Hispanic business market without having to make presentations in Spanish?"

This reflects a larger issue - how can any American business penetrate the huge - and fast-growing - Hispanic market in the U.S.? Setting aside the issue of legal vs. illegal immigrants, the undifferentiated Hispanic market in the US (made up of Cubans, Puerto Ricans and other Caribbean-area natives, as well as Mexicans, Central Americans, Latin Americans and Americans of direct Spanish descent) is now larger than the African-American market AND larger than the entire Canadian market - both in terms of raw population numbers and the size of the economy (i.e., there are more dollars in the U.S. Hispanic market than there are in the Canadian market). And this growth will continue to increase - at least through the year 2050 - because of births, legal immigration and other sources.

So the question my Hispanic-heritage (but fully American) client is: How do I penetrate this fast-growing market without sacrificing my strong foothold in the larger (i.e., "Anglo") American business market? This becomes more acute (and focused) a question for him because, while his heritage is Cuban and he does speak Spanish, his language-of-choice is English - having grown up in Miami, he's far more comfortable with his adopted nation's language than he is with the language his parents grew up with.

To address the language issue, the way to handle this is to consistently take the bold position:

“If you want to penetrate the larger U.S. market, you have to do business in English, which is the language of business in America.”

In this way, no matter who you’re speaking to, you’ll speak in English (except when you’re talking to Spanish-language American media, such as Univision, in which case - especially if this is a broadcast media outlet - you'll need to be fluent in Spanish). This came up some years ago when I was promoting a former Deputy Drug Czar from the Reagan/Bush administrations, a Puerto Rican/American named Diaz, who had to pass on a Univision interview because he literally didn't speak Spanish (as far as he was concerned, he was a New Yorker and an American).

Beyond that issue of language, to penetrate the American Hispanic market, you’ve got to make news among the business news media who reach into this market, and you've got to position yourself as an expert on an issue (or more than one issue, but let’s start with one) that matters both to the media and to your target audience.

This is a fact: Given a choice, people prefer to do business with people - and businesses - that they’ve heard of. And, given a choice among those they’ve already heard of, people prefer to do business with acknowledged experts. There is a bit of a “thrill” associated with doing business with someone who’s seen as an expert (even if that person is not an “expert” in what you hire them for) – especially if that “expertise” has been anointed by the media.

A very personal example, I’ve been featured in eight different History Channel programs since late 2000 (none about PR or marketing). Since these programs began to air, I’ve had clients “brag on me” – telling their friends, families, as well as their own clients, that they’re doing business with “that guy on History Channel.” I used to have one client – a night-owl/insomniac like me – who used to see me on the History Channel (and it's affiliated Military Channel) in late-night reruns … and he never failed to tell me about it via emails that were waiting for me when I got into the office the next morning. He (a CEO of a micro-cap public company) even introduced me to his board as “that guy on the History Channel.” This happens a lot – a lot more than I’d have ever dreamed possible – and it seems to really matter, in a positive way, to some clients that I’m “that guy on the History Channel.”

What that means for someone wanting to penetrate the U.S.-based Hispanic market is this: The more you can generate positive coverage in the U.S. Hispanic business media (even if you’re not talking about your core business), the more likely it is that you’ll be positively viewed by clients and, (in this case, more important), prospects. To succeed, you need to figure out hooks you can use to generate positive business coverage featuring you – even if it’s not about your business – that will position you as a role-model leader in the Hispanic market.

Another factor that’s common among all “minority” groups striving to assimilate into the U.S. business mainstream – success, by their members, in that mainstream is highly regarded by those who’ve not yet achieved a measure of mainstream-market success. Consistently - and common among all identifiable minority business groups - those who’ve already met this goal, who have successfully penetrated the mainstream U.S. business market, are respected - and they are sought out for advice and guidance by those who have not yet gotten out of their core market niche.

Yet a third factor is this: there’s an increasing awareness among members of the mainstream business market (and the mainstream business media that serves this market) who want to figure out how to penetrate what they correctly see as the fast-growing U.S. Hispanic market. They’re just starting to “get it” that the Hispanic market in the U.S., as noted above, is not only larger than the American Black market – but that the U.S. Hispanic market is larger than the entire Canadian market! That remarkable business fact has still not widely “sunk in,” but as awareness grows, demand grows for experts (and you could be one of those experts) who can coach and guide those in the mainstream U.S. business market to enter and cash in on the fast-growing U.S. Hispanic market.

One key to your success could come about by melding these three factors – by not only being seen as a U.S. Hispanic businessman who’s achieved significant success in the larger U.S. Business marketplace, you’ll be respected (and ultimately, sought out) by your target Hispanic-owned business market; and, by being seen as a gateway/guide into the Hispanic market, you’ll raise your reputation among mainstream businesses - and sought out by the mainstream business media.

In the mainstream, that three-in-one score is called a "hat trick" - but the last time I was in Hialeah, that success-times-three was called a “trifecta.”

To do this, you want to position yourself in several different ways.

1. Position yourself with the business media (both the Hispanic business media and the mainstream business media) as an expert in helping/coaching businesses to make the transition from the comfortably-safe (but limited) niche of the Hispanic business market and into the larger (and more challenging – but ultimately more rewarding) mainstream U.S. business market

2. ALSO position yourself with the mainstream business media as someone who can guide/coach mainstream businesses in cashing in on the fast-growing Hispanic market.

3. Position yourself with Hispanic businesses (the potential clients you want to reach) as an expert who’s made the transition from narrow-focus Hispanic Market to broad-focus (without leaving behind the core Hispanic market).

4. Finally, position yourself with Mainstream businesses (other potential clients you also want to reach) as an expert who can help/guide/coach them in penetrating the narrow-focused but fast-growing Hispanic market.

Getting in front of the media (points one and two, above) is relatively easy if you are a living example (i.e. a Hispanic business leader who's successfully penetrated the larger mainstream U.S. business market) of the messages you’d want to convey – you need to reach out to decision-makers in these media and position yourself as a “talking head” expert – a go-to guy they can consult whenever they need your specific angle. This can be done pro-actively – positioning yourself in advance; and it can be done responsively or retrospectively – positioning yourself as an expert when “breaking news” can be made to tie in with your media positions. It can also be done by “creating news” – by conducting online research surveys that can be used to generate press coverage (this approach is easy, and it always works).

Beyond that, you’ll need to have some programs or activities that will generate news – these will give the media yet one more reason to bring you into their discussions – and, in the process, positioning you with your two target audiences. These programs or activities can include (but not be limited to):

a. FIRST – understand this: In each of the ideas below, you will use examples and illustrations from your own business (to subtly remind target audiences of what you do that made you an expert to begin with) – including your clients. While the ideas below aren’t about your business, they’re all based on the lessons you learned while making your business a success – which is what gives you the credibility to be an expert

b. Write articles for both Hispanic and mainstream business media markets (publications, e-zines, etc.) about your core issues - in this case, how Hispanics can penetrate the mainstream business market, and/or how mainstream businesses can cash in on the growth and profit potential inherent in the Hispanic business market)

c. Create a blog or web-zine to be used as a platform for presenting these views. For example, see my blogs on marketing http://barnettonmarketing.blogspot.com/, on PR http://barnettmarcom.blogspot.com/ and on book/author promotion http://barnettonpublishing.blogspot.com/) – I use these to put forth positioning ideas and find them useful in creating new business, and you can, too.

d. Begin the development of a book (for your purposes here, you don’t even have to finish it – though finishing and publishing one would be very useful), “(Your Name's) Guide to Going from the Hispanic Market to Mainstream Success (and vice-versa)” – a book that would position you as an expert. (HINT: I’ve ghost-written two of my nine business books – if you’re really interested in this, I can help)

e. Solicit “positioning” speaking engagements with – at least initially – Hispanic business organizations (Hispanic chambers of commerce, seminar producers, etc.) on the topic noted above (the book title)

f. Develop a for-profit seminar, in conjunction, perhaps, with a local college or university - or on your own, or with some other group – to present this “guide” to prospective clients who want to emulate your success

g. Videotape that seminar – or create a made-for DVD/video around a 30-60-90-minute presentation (with audio-only version for those who listen in cars)

h. Develop a subscription-based e-newsletter on the topic noted above – this gives you ongoing visibility and credibility with prospects (and members of the media) and keeps you fresh and top-of-mind

i. With all of these under your belt, begin to solicit “paid” speaking engagements (keynote addresses at business conventions, etc.) – these should be paid gigs that will also help you promote your business (subtly, by weaving your business through your talks as examples of how to succeed). I had one client who literally made 43% of his revenue from paid speaking engagements – and, after a year, he wound up generating roughly 72% of his new clients from among those who’d seen him speak – and you can do this, too.

j. Promote each of these heavily to the targeted media noted above – each of these not only gives them yet one more reason to write about you, but each of these also positions you as a “go-to-guy” expert they can call on to comment on and “position” the news that’s breaking as it relates to cross-cultural business development

Once the media understands what you have to offer, they’ll want to cover you (and to use you as an “expert” when they cover cross-cultural business news). Through them – and directly (there are other ways of reaching out) – once the markets see what you can deliver, they’ll want to do business with you – EVEN (and this is surprising, but true) if you never really focus on the core elements of your own business. It’s enough that you are seen as an expert, one worth emulating – and people will come to you, if only to have the “bragging rights” (or because they think you’re better at what you do) that comes from working with a media-acknowledged expert.

There are a lot of other strategies and tactics that can be done – totally different approaches, as well as refinements of the “initial thoughts” I’ve shared here. However, this is a strong, we'll-proven place to start.

Hobby Shop Marketing Ideas

2008-01-23T20:05:00.000-08:00

Ned Barnett (c) 2008

Here are a number of ideas that I believe will work to build traffic and volume for a hobby store in Nevada (this blog is based on an actual plan for a real bricks-and-mortar store). These are based on my 35-plus years of experience in PR and marketing, as well as my (somewhat more limited) experience in promoting hobby shops.

1. Have after-hours (after hobby club meeting) open-houses for the IPMS and other local hobby clubs (car club, model railroad club, RC club, etc.)

a. Invite them over after their regular club-meeting sessions

i. Offer them some soft-drink hospitality

ii. Offer them the chance to buy the latest kits (or rare old kits) and other modeling supplies at even bigger-than-normal discounts.

o Hold out some “just released” kits for sale-debut at these events – so members can be “the first on their block” to get the latest new release from Eduard or whatever

o Set aside some kits (old kits you bought cheap, that are rare and out-of-production) for extra-discount sales

o Invite members to bring by their own “old kits” they want to sell or swap (it’s not money in your pocket, but it will bring them out)

o Invite members to bring display kits, and offer an award or trophy for the best built model to show up at each event – then offer these winners a “pride of place” special display in the store, until next month (or longer).

b. Do this for all hobby clubs – not just IPMS – and include railroad modelers, RC car and plane clubs, auto modelers, etc.

c. Invite human-interest-story reporters to come by and see the “real story”

2. More effectively promote your club-member discount (to all clubs, not just IPMS)

a. Ask for their member lists so you can promote directly, or …

b. Offer to pay postage etc. to them to do the promotions directly to their members on your behalf (make a contribution to the club – maybe a kit to raffle off, instead of hard cash)

3. Set up an additional club-member discount for large purchases; for instance:

a. Purchases retailing at over $100

b. Purchases retailing at more than $250

c. Purchases retailing at more than $500

This will encourage high-ticket purchases from your most likely high-volume local customers

4. Set up a store-specific website for recognition

a. Find a local modeler who’s a web-geek to set it up and keep it up for you (barter?)

b. Keep the website current on all the events listed here and other store activities

c. List details of special sales and deals

d. Announce the arrival of new and hard-to-find items that will bring people into the store

e. Invite local modelers to submit photos of models (or even articles on how they created those models) and post these online

f. Link to the local and national IPMS sites, and to other non-commercial (i.e., non-competing) websites – make your site a portal to other modeling sites

g. Create a “blog” linked to the site where you can (and where your customers can) talk about important elements of the hobby

h. Create an online bulletin board where visitors can ask questions or offer answers, or just “talk” about modeling

i. See the SMML list, which is similar and sponsored by a hobby shop in Australia

ii. Be sure to moderate the list (i.e., approve posts before they go online) to avoid harsh/nasty comments or promotion of competitors

5. Create a sign-up sheet for customers – capture their emails for use in very low-cost direct marketing

a. Use the email lists to announce new items in the store – create a quick pitch in the email, then provide details via a link to your website for details

b. Use the email lists to announce special events (items in this plan) – include a quick pitch and a link back to the website

c. Ask the local clubs to provide you their member lists and contact information (including emails) to beef up this email contact list

6. Put an ad in directory in the back Fine Scale Modeler

a. The ad won’t help all that much with the locals – though it will reach modelers among Las Vegas’ never-ending stream of newcomers

b. The ad will help a whole lot with out-of-town visitors

c. Offer special discounts to out-of-town visitors and new residents (put that in the FSM ad listing if you can, as well as on your website) to encourage first-time visits

7. Compete with the direct-order hobby suppliers

a. Prominently offer to direct-order items, including hard-to-find items (after-market parts, for instance, or relatively rare kits and such)

b. Offer a big discount – 20% or 25% – off retail for pre-paid direct orders

8. Encourage experienced local modelers to "hang out" at the store

a. Put some chairs in a corner, with a coffeepot and a small coke machine – every successful shop I know has such a group

b. Have an interesting video playing on one of those self-contained TV/DVD/VHS machines

9. Before Christmas (i.e.., as soon as possible) create a one-day 25% off sale day for club members only

a. Have people from the clubs there, on hand, to sign up new members so interested walk-ins can also get that 25% discount.

b. Alternatively, offer that special discount (maybe only 20%, but maybe 25%) from now until Christmas –

c. Have sign-up materials there so YOU can sign people up for the clubs (making the clubs grateful) and give any interested customer the discount.

10. You have a tremendous potential asset in your attached “storage space” – you can use at least some of this space for a variety of business-building purposes, which could include:

a. Provide a layout space for one or more local model railroad clubs

i. They used to have space at A local competitor – which I arranged for –

ii. However, A local competitor is moving locations right now and might not have space in the new location (I just don’t know)

b. Create a well-lit, well-ventilated “work bench” space, where modelers (railroad, radio control, plastic) could come and build kits, individually or in groups on scheduled “work nights” or “work Saturdays”

i. This would prove helpful, as more modelers than ever before are living in apartments or small homes that don’t afford them the space to work – or where they can’t work with modeling chemicals – from resin to CA or model airplane glue

ii. This would also allow “master modelers” to hold, on their own, self-sponsored informal how-to workshops for their less skilled brethren

c. Create and promote store-sponsored “master modeler” training/demo sessions –

i. Invite local master modelers to stage these store-sponsored events

ii. Invite hobby manufacturers and distributors to do “master modeler” product demos

iii. Invite out-of-town master modelers (who’ll be in Vegas for other reasons – hey, everybody wants to come to Vegas, eh?) to do skills/techniques demos while they’re in town

iv. Promote these through the appropriate local model clubs

v. Get a local modeler who’s also a web geek to set up a web-cam to conduct these master modeler demos online as webinars (there is very little cost to this)

vi. Promote these master-modeler webinars/seminars nationally through member-societies (IPMS, NMRA, etc.)

vii. List these demo programs (especially, but not limited to, webinars) in hobby publication coming events calendars

viii. Invite the local media to “cover” one of these master modeler training sessions as a “human interest” story

ix. Arrange with local TV to do brief on-camera master modeler demos of models or modeling techniques (or radio control car models) with the demonstrators representing your store

d. Create a “safe” airbrush spray booth, vented to the outside with a spark-free vent fan (and hood) where modelers who don’t have spray-areas in their homes could come and spray.

i. Sell disposable breathing masks, and require all who use this to either buy from you or bring their own.

ii. You might even charge a nominal hourly rental fee for this, though that’s a judgment call – is it better to attract more people or better to increase revenue

iii. You could set up a compressor/air tank with standard fittings and people could bring their own airbrush … or you could rent them an airbrush the way The Gun Store will – for those who want to use their range – rent shooters a gun (or they can bring their own)

iv. This should increase your sales – people could buy their paint and supplies as they need them

e. Work with local kids’ charities (St. Jude’s Ranch) and scouts, etc. – and with local hobby clubs – to have hands-on basic modeling (or other hobby) guided construction demos

i. Promote these via the local media as well as through the hobby clubs and the charities.

ii. This works! I used to do training/building sessions at a local orphanage, with the backing of my local IPMS club

iii. A local hobby store provided basic, low-cost (Matchbox 1/72^nd in those days) kits for the kids to build

iv. You can offer all your customers the chance to contribute to the charity –

1. Tell your customers that X% percentage of each sale

2. You can offer to customers the opportunity to contribute an extra amount ($1, $5, $20, etc.) toward buying – at cost – models and supplies (some people would prefer to actually contribute)

v. We got some nice local TV coverage and press play)

Barnett Quoted: HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR BLOG: 5 TIPS

2008-01-20T15:41:00.000-08:00

The following is excerpted from an article from a Nigerian-based e-zine (which explains some of the word-choices) that, among other things, quoted Ned Barnett as an expert in making money from your blogs.

1. Sell advertising
This is probable the most ordinary effectuation of investment a book to create income. If yours happens to embellish a well-known blog, or digit that is well-received in a portion niche, it’s ever doable to delude ad expanse on your own. For lesser-known blogs, services much as Google’s AdSense or BlogAds enable bloggers to found ad programs. AdSense’s — which lets you superior individual ads that are conformable with the noesis of your book — pays you based
on how whatever readers utter on the ads for boost information. Even better, it’s free. BlogAds, on the added hand, many bloggers up with would-be advertisers and levies a authorization in convey for whatever ad placements that result. "The pleasant thing, too, is that the ads are relatively unobtrusive," says historian Allen, co-author of "The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online."

2. Help delude others’ products
Here is added click-through opportunity. Affiliate programs enable your book to support as a conduit between readers and online sites substance different artifact and services. One favorite pick is Amazon.com. If, for instance, you substance aggregation reviews or modify meet name a aggregation in expiration in your blog, an affiliate aggregation provides a effectuation for
your readers to utter direct from your book to Amazon to obtain boost aggregation most the book. If they fortuity discover the record or calculate card, you intend stipendiary as well

3. Solicit contributions
Not every blog-related income potential involves hawking artifacts or services. As Blanche DuBois did in "A Streetcar Named Desire," study relying on the mercy of strangers. Ask for contributions. If, for instance, your small-business book supports a drive or supply in whatever style — feature you repeatedly name set reform, upbeat tending or whatever added matter — you crapper ever transmit for reverend support. Even if you’ve attracted a assemble of lawful mass who exclusive savor datum what you hit to say, they haw be selection to undertake their loyalty with a lowercase playing help. Programs much as PayPal attain it cushy to found a ultimate on-site effort assemblage button. "There are lots of commendable ’cause’ blogs that would remember for donations from glad members of the book community," says Las Vegas marketing and fund-raising consultant Ned Barnett.

4. Market your services in your blog
Many grouping assort blogs exclusive with a cyberspace-based soapbox — a locate to yell your opinions and lowercase more than that. Granted, blogs are an saint scene to deal your thoughts with others, but don’t lie their power to create newborn playing as well. When appropriate, impact in references to what you do and, in turn, what you haw be healthy to substance whatever would-be computer or computer who haw be datum your blog. That crapper distribute your instrument and your playing moxie at the aforementioned time."Instead of brief commentaries that begin a talking with readers, as whatever blogs do, I indite the equal of book articles that shew my abilities, strategies and perspectives on restricted issues," Barnett says. "When it resonates, it effectuation money. Since play this approach, I hit generated threesome newborn stipendiary clients and brought in most $10,000 on income — direct imputable to restricted blogs."

5. Use a book to increase your existing computer relationships
Nor does whatever marketing touchable inserted in book noesis hit to be restricted to transfer in completely newborn business. By using a book to regularly transmit with existing clients as substantially as added readers, you crapper verify plus of the possibleness to flooded inform them most everything your playing does. That haw modify your readers’ discernment of the flooded orbit of your products or services."My book has helped existing clients watch the arrange of my skills and services," says Ted Demopoulos of Demopoulos Associates, a Durham, N.H. consulting and upbringing concern. "One computer who had exclusive utilised me for upbringing in the time was astonied at my arrange of skillfulness and is today using me for a consulting project. Another who exclusive utilised me on theoretical projects is today considering me for a more business-oriented project."

Referral Development - The Low Cost/High Return Way to Build Business

2004-12-24T21:15:00.000-08:00

Ned Barnett

Referral Development is the art and science of turning others – including current, former and prospective clients – into defacto marketing agents for you and your business. These individuals I’ve come to call Referral Development Sources (RDSs), and they can be a vital element of your overall success. Turning individuals into RDSs is a skill that many businesses need, but few businesses master.

Creating and supporting a successful referral development program, one that delivers productive RDSs, is not hard. However, it does require focus, consistency and a real understanding of the human motives that turn disinterested strangers into active and aggressive, motivated and productive referral sources.

Experience shows that the two essential keys to successful referral development programs are motivation and communications.

Motivation can be recognition (either real or manufactured), as well as financial remuneration or something else the individual values, but isn’t likely to be able to obtain on their own. Real recognition can come through a peer-to-peer group, an association or other organization already respected by potential RDSs; “manufactured recognition” is anything that you create that will influence those hungry for recognition (think Who’s Who). For those individuals who crave recognition, a plaque on the wall and an “appreciation” dinner can be more motivating than a five-percent commission. Volunteers for charitable non-profits often put in endless productive hours for a walnut-and-etched-brass plaque and a “grip-and-grin” photo in the local newspaper.

However, not everybody hungers after a plaque on the wall (or the equivalent). For them, you’ve got to provide something more specific – generally something with a monetary value.

For example, while working with wealthy physicians (and trying to turn them into productive RDSs), I found that run-of-the-mill recognition doesn’t work – they’ve got an MD framed and hanging on their wall, and frankly, that’s a hard act to follow. Just as important, for individuals earning upward of a half-million dollars a year, a motivating level of remuneration was usually financially out of the question.

I had one successful surgeon laugh in my face over an offer of $20,000 a year to participate in a referral development-related marketing program. “Son,” he said, “I can make that anytime I want to, just by keeping my office open an extra half hour a day.” Which told me he brought in $10,000 for every fifteen-minutes-a-day he stayed open, and also told me that I wasn’t even close to playing ball in his league. At least not of the game was “bucks for bodies.”

So I had to come up with motivators that worked for doctors – and what I learned can easily be applied to other referral development groups.

One motivator for that physician group (or others who are relatively immune to manufactured recognition) was peer-to-peer recognition. This is something fairly easy to create if you have the resources of a major hospital behind you (as I did at that time), or if you are able to use a professional society to provide the recognition. However, this approach can be rather difficult to create if you don’t have influence of control over a peer-group body.

This same principle applies to other businesses: If you can control or influence a group of peers to which the RDSs belong – or if your RDSs are individuals who might respond to more direct recognition, you can go with recognition without remuneration. However, if you don’t have such a group to work with (and through), or if your potential RDSs are relatively immune to manufactured recognition, you’ll need to find a more material form of motivator.

However, over time, I discovered that doctors respond to entertainment-related gift certificates (fancy dinners, for instance) or activities such as day-cruises. The important element of these incentives seemed to be that they were something they could share with their wife or husband – a “reward” for their long hours away from home, and perhaps also something to “prove” that the doctors are VIPs.

Motivation will differ from group to group (and from individual to individual); however, referral development motivators generally do not deal in “deferred gratification” – to get people to act as defacto marketing agents, you’ve got to quickly and memorably deliver on the motivator.

The other essential element of a successful referral development program is communications – specifically, an ongoing communications program designed to keep individuals’ roles as potential (rewarded) referral sources “top of mind.”

Because these individuals are, by definition, not intimately involved with the product or service, “out of sight, out of mind” is a daily reality for referral development programs. These communications programs will have to be tailored three ways:

To you and your product or service

To the target audience

To the motivator incentives that you’ll be providing

However, every company’s (and often every product’s) referral development program will require a very specific, carefully designed set of rewards, recognitions … and communications.

Nonetheless, there are some commonalties to keep in mind – including what I call:

Barnett Marketing Communications’
“Top Ten” Elements of a Successful Referral Development Program

1. Identify Your Ideal Referred-to-You Client: To generate qualified, high-value referral leads, you have got to be able to swiftly, clearly and effectively communicate to prospective Referral Development Sources the specific the nature of persons or businesses you’re looking for in the way of referrals. In sales, this is often called the “elevator pitch” – a brief, concise statement you can deliver between floors in a crowded elevator. To have an effective elevator pitch describing your target referral, you have to take the time to boil down your laundry-list of prospect identifiers into a simple, short one-paragraph statement you can give in your sleep – when you’re there, you’ve got the message you need.<>

2. Identify Your Specific Target Market of Potential Referral Development Sources: To succeed with a referral development program, you’ll need to craft a very focused target list of companies and individuals who can be motivated to consistently make high-value referrals. These can be clients (current, former or even prospects). They can be trade association execs. They can be independent business contractors in an allied business. All of this depends on the nature of your business, your product and your service mix. Tailor your list of referral prospects to those people (or companies) best positioned to make referrals. Be creative, and be open to odd-but-effective approaches. For example, in Las Vegas, I once ran a referral program that had casino hotel concierges and taxi drivers referring Vegas visitors to my hospital’s chest pain center – it’s not the kind of program that would work everywhere, but it was remarkably successful in this 24-hour town.

3. Create Your Referral Development Lead Offer: The referral development lead offer is the heart and soul of an effective, productive referral development program. This offer has to communicate a number of important messages to prospective RDSs, including:

What does an effective, qualified referral prospect look like;

What, specifically, is “in it” for the RDSs in exchange for providing effective referral prospect, as well as how (and when) that incentive will be delivered;

How the RDSs should to about making their referrals; and,

What steps you are likely to take when following up on their referral if an effective, qualified prospect (who is likely to be persons of some significance to the RDSs – they have a stake in what you do with the referral)

To create a referral development lead offer that works, you have to try to get inside the minds of your target referral sources – then create a series of offers that will motivate those specific people to want to refer you. Ideally, your motivating incentive should work, not once, but again and again. While each product or service’s incentives will be different (and there may be additional differences among the various RDSs), my experience suggests that it is very nearly absolutely essential that you provide an immediate (or timely) incentive, rather than some long-term “points” system or other deferred (i.e., “annual”) incentive. These are too easy to ignore, and offer too little in the way of action-motivating inducements to be – in most cases – truly effective.

4. Test Your Referral Development Lead Offer: Once you have a message you think will work, you’ve got to test it. In concept, this is no different than testing direct marketing or advertising messages. You can even use the same approaches – for instance, focus groups can work quite well. The means of testing are less important than the fact that you’re actually testing messages, refining them until you have ones that work.

5. Create and Test Your Core Referral Development Message: This is another elevator pitch. It has to clearly explain the value you offer to RDSs for their referrals. The message must be brief, succinct and strong enough to capture and hold your prospective RDSs attention. It will be very distinctive to your offer, and – as with the offer itself – you should test this, too, on representative members of your target market audience.

6. Communicate Your Core Referral Development Message: Develop a system whereby you can get in front of potential referral sources – and while in front of them, present your core message. The second part of this system is follow-up – once you’ve got them interested in the bait, you’ve got to be able to hook them, reel them in and land them – the RDS fish who get away are of no use to you.

7. Design and Implement Your RDSs “Education” System: When you finally land a RDS who has the potential to increase the number and quality of referrals you receive, you still have to educate them. With the proper information about your product or service, they can improve their performance. They have to understand the product or service – and especially the benefits offered – sufficiently well that they can communicate these to their targets. If they are clients, this education will also help to reinforce them in their decision (and very likely enable them to make better use of your product or service). But that’s a side-benefit – the real benefit comes through more and better qualified referral leads.

8. Identify and Implement A Referral Follow-Up Plan of Action: To bring your referral system full circle you need to devise two follow-up steps.

A way to continue to market to your referral leads that don’t immediately turn into clients; and,

A way to systematically communicate the progress of a referral back to your referral sources to keep them motivated.

9. Create An Effective Referral Development Lead Conversion Strategy: Referrals have little value if they don’t become clients. To be sure that referrals don’t fall through the cracks of day-to-day operations, develop, test and implement a specific set of internal steps (probably involving marketing and sales departments and staffs) that will convert leads into new clients. Your staff needs to know what they need to do when the phone rings or emails arrive from your RDSs – they need priority, consistent treatment.

10. Develop a Method of Measuring Your Referral Development Program Success: This will, of course, be specific to your referral development program – but it is an essential component of ultimate success. Only by measuring and evaluating performance can you fine-tune and improve your referral development program.

Conclusion: Create a referral development program that is suited to your organization, to your product or service, to the nature of your RDSs and to the nature of your ideal prospects. Support that program actively, make sure your incentives are sufficiently motivating – then measure your success and let the program evolve. Done properly, an effective referral development program becomes a valuable, low-cost/high-return adjunct to your other marketing programs, adding value to your bottom line while helping to build buzz – word-of-mouth that has a value all out of proportion to your effort.

A Warning Note: There is one thing that you do not want to do – and that is trying to tell your RDSs how to go about pitching their own network of friends, colleagues – and even competitors (you’d be surprised how often business competitors will make referrals). This is highly personal to them, and you need to leave it up to their own best judgment. If you try to coach or direct them, they’ll feel like underpaid commission sales force members – more likely than not, they’ll resent this and become ineffective or even counter-productive.

Credits: I’ve been creating and managing referral development programs for more than 20 years; still, I know that I’m learning new information and ideas every day, and so it has been with the development of this material. Specifically, I’d like to recognize John Jantsch, a marketing coach and the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System (http://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com), whose web-published ideas on building a referral marketing program added some useful insights as I developed this material.

Media "Vapors" Over Bogus Bellwether Economic News

2004-11-28T22:59:00.000-08:00

The business media seems to once again be suffering from a near- critical case of the "vapors" - this time over the warning signs projected by early-return Christmas holiday sales. Their apparent need to predict the near-term future has all but outweighed their ability to interpret the real news available to them.

This just-completed first-of-the-season holiday shopping weekend has been a classic example of this media compulsion. First, I heard an ebullient holiday sales prediction based on an estimated $8 billion in one-day retail sales on "Black Friday" (an ill-named date if there ever was one). Then, just a day later, I read in The Financial Times that doom was the order of the day.

Why?

Because Wal-Mart's sales growth figures were relatively flat. Not down - just not up as high as Wal-Mart's investors might have wanted. That was all it took for even the most respected business media to begin questioning not only the nation's holiday sales, but the country's entire multi-year economic recovery.'

Incredible.

When Wal-Mart's projected November/December sales were reported as relatively flat, all of the other "positive" trends just seemed to go up in smoke. For instance, the National Retail Federation confidently projects an industry-wide 4.5 percent growth - to a phenomenal $220 billion in non-Internet retail - for the entire 2004 holiday shopping period. Visa USA reported a massive 15.5 percent spike in Visa card sales, up to $4.1 billion. Internet industry analysts are tracking - and reporting - an incredible surge in Internet sales, up by more than 20 percent from last year. Getting more focused on the "right now," Shoppertrak reported that "Black Friday" sales grew 10.8 percent from a year ago, to a record $8 billion in retail industry-wide first-day sales.

However, these positive reports seem to have all been ignored in the media rush to make this venerable bellwether - Wal-Mart - "dictate" not only Christmas holiday sales, but to make it a marker predicting the fate of the entire ongoing economic recovery. It seems that the business media has gone overboard - again - in trying to predict the future while ignoring the present.

In this, the business media's experts seem to be following the recent pattern of the political media, which was seemingly desperate to predict the outcome of the US presidential election - even just a few hours before the polls closed. The political media used such esoteric bellwethers as the Washington Redskins loss the last home-game Sunday before the election, the previous infallibility of the Zogby last-day poll, the apparent relationship between Presidential job-approval (as defined by Gallup)and the actual vote - and most importantly, the results of exit polls, polls that were never intended to predict outcomes (but only to explain why different demographic groups voted as they did), to predict the final vote tally.

I'm not sure why it is so important for the big-foot media to use unrelated "markers" to predict the future. However, it is nonetheless clear that at least this bellwether's predictive quality IS important - vitally important - to the business media, in the way that Ben Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac" used wooly caterpillars to reliably predict the severity of an upcoming winter.

But when it comes to predicting our economic future, Wal-Mart is no longer a reliable wooly caterpillar.

Here's what I think is really happening.

The U.S. national economy - and America's retail economy - both continue to be strong. The overall recovery continues to move forward in solid, if not spectacular, fashion. As a result, there's a new business bottom line - Wal-Mart is no longer a reliable bellwether of Christmas Holiday sales success. This is true for a variety of very good reasons.

First, Yogi Berra's observation about crowded restaurants apparently now applies equally well to Wal-Mart: "Nobody goes there anymore because it's so crowded." Last year, Wal-Mart scored another record year - just as the entire Christmas-season retail sales scored a record year, up roughly 4.5 percent (estimates of growth range from 4.0 to 5.1 percent for last year's holiday shopping season, depending on how you define the "season") over the previous year, as well as scoring their highest sales level in history. Which meant that last year, Wal-Mart did better than ever before - and perhaps, just perhaps - Wal-Mart had maxed out on their ability to pack in people who are tolerant of both huge crowds and excessive waits at cash registers. This year, Wal-Mart is as filled-to-the-rafters with customers as they were last year, but maybe (again, just maybe) they've reached a point of diminishing returns. Maybe their discounts, range of goods and "convenience" have ceased to outweigh the crowds in the aisles and the crowds in front of the cash registers. I do know this - crowding and congestion has gotten so bad at Wal-Mart that radio talk show programs normally devoted to politics or current events have hosted call-in segments on how to "beat the system" at Wal-Mart. Suggestions have included using the registers in the Jewelry or Sporting Goods departments, which have shorter lines.

Next, whenever a company gets as big and successful and powerful as Wal-Mart has become, competition moves in. It has surely done so this year, especially because, at least for the start of the 2004 holiday season, Wal-Mart seems to have decided to coast on its reputation rather than aggressively compete for business. In doing so, they seem to be forgetting that they originally succeeded against the nation's established retailers by out-competing not only the local mom-and-pop stores, but also by overwhelming an early generation of mega-retailers. Instead, this season, Wal-Mart has chosen to eschew deep-discounts - at least at the start - and that opened the door for others to capture customers and steal market-share. The result? On "Black Friday," those more-competitive retailers succeeded in pulling away sales from Wal-Mart - seasonal sales that, in this zero-sum market, that mega-retailer will never be able to recapture. On a day when sales set records, Wal-Mart was busy, but not busier than they were on the same day in 2003. Logically, those customers had to be spending their holiday dollars somewhere else.

Here's how the competition did it. Super-Target now competes with the Wal-Mart super-stores, and their ads proclaiming variety and deep discounts are everywhere. K-Mart just merged with Sears, and now they're both playing hardball. K-Mart was open on Thanksgiving, stealing start-of-the-holiday "Black Friday" sales - and market share - from Wal-Mart by creating a new shopping day. Then Sears opened at 5:30 a.m. on "Black Friday" - and offered huge deep-discount sales running only from 5:30 to 11:00 a.m. - again effectively "stealing" market share and sales from Wal-Mart.

In addition to playing the new-store-hours game, all the competitors - K-Mart, Target, Sears, as well as J.C. Penney, Best Buy, Circuit City and a host of others - have gone out of their way to offer huge and impressive deep-discounts. K-Mart, for instance. had a 50-percent-off sale right before Thanksgiving. Sears offered discounts up to 50% - and their pre-dawn sale on "Black Friday" offered an additional 10 percent discount. That doesn't even begin to cover the advertising, promotion and deep-discounting efforts of America's shopping malls, all designed to attract shoppers to their welcoming womb - and since Wal-Mart isn't in these malls, they're all working to steal shoppers and market share away from Wal-Mart.

In the face of that competition, Wal-Mart offered a relatively few "targeted" discounts (the $19.95 DVD player was indeed impressive) and no special store hours. Even without the extra competitive oomph, they held their own - but, unlike their competitors, they failed to capture their share of the market's 10% same-day growth over last year.

Finally, the retail Internet is booming as never before. Saturday, FoxNews aired a prediction that the Internet will really boom this holiday season, and AP published a similar report: "In the online world, holiday sales, excluding travel and auction sites, are expected to increase 23 to 26 percent to $15.1 billion, from $12.3 billion a year ago, according to comScore Networks Inc., an Internet research firm." Every dollar spent on Internet gift-shopping takes that dollar away from Wal-Mart (and other bricks-and-mortar retailers), yet retail analysts predict yet another banner year for these retailers, and even without the competitive spirit shown by other retailers, Wal-Mart is still predicting modest growth.

All of which suggests that the economy is healthy, that this holiday retail sales season will be better than ever before - and, perhaps just as important (at least to the business media) that Wal-Mart is no longer a reliable bellwether for holiday sales (or the economy as a whole). Which means that reporters and analysts will have to once again look at a variety of different information sources for specific trend-indicating data points - then think through what those data points, taken together, actually mean.

And one final note. "Black Friday," although it evokes memories of Wall Street's "Black Monday (1987)" and "Black Thursday (1929)" crashes, actually refers to the day that retailers "enter the black" - begin making a profit for the year - because of the huge impact of holiday sales. That's got to be the dumbest media buzz-name for a memorable day that I've ever heard - but from now on, when you hear "Black Friday," think of "in the black" instead of "massive market crash."

About Ned Barnett:

Ned Barnett, the owner of Barnett Marketing Communications (http://www.barnettmarcom.com), is a 32-year veteran of high-stakes crisis-management public relations, and is a frequent “source” for print and broadcast journalists. Barnett has advised many corporate and personal clients on effective crisis relations – often stopping a crisis in its tracks, even before it gets started.

As a political consultant and speechwriter, Barnett has worked for candidates and officials from both parties, as well as for public interest advocacy groups in areas involving the economy, the environment and healthcare. As a historian, Barnett is widely published in military history magazines, and has appeared a number of times on the History Channel, discussing military technology.

Barnett has taught PR at two state universities, and has written nine published books on public relations, marketing and advertising. He’s earned PRSA’s coveted Silver Anvil, two ADDYs and four consecutive MacEacherns; in 1978, he was the youngest (to that time) person to earn accreditation from PRSA, and in 1984, he became the first person to earn a Fellowship in PR from the American Hospital Association. But mostly, Barnett provides PR counsel to a range of corporations, authors and advocacy groups.

Jump-Starting Loyalty and Affinity-Group Programs

2004-08-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

Ned Barnett

This article was originally published in The Wise Marketer, an excellent online marketing 'zine (with a free e-mail-feed subscription - available on application ...) published out of the UK - Wise Marketer can be found at: - my thanks to editors Peter and Robin Clark for inviting me to discuss loyalty programs, and what makes them work.

I've left the article intact-as-published, including the UK-variant on spelling ...

What kind of consumer buy-in can triple loyalty results?

By Ned Barnett
Published by The Wise Marketer in July 2004.

Successful corporate loyalty programmes try to create in the consumer a kind of self-generated identification with the company, eventually leading to loyalty. So why do some fail, and what can be done to help them succeed?

Successful corporate loyalty marketing programmes - from airlines' frequent flyer programmes, to retail loyalty points schemes, to credit card rewards programmes - are a kind of marketing Nirvana. Their intent is to create a kind of self-generated identification, by the consumer, with the sponsoring corporation. This identification, in turn, is supposed to lead to greater purchase loyalty, more frequent spontaneous referrals, and - ultimately - more business generated at less cost.

That's the goal. The reality is often far different. Frequent flyer and point programmes too readily become an added cost that generates little offsetting revenue - a defensive strategy to retain existing volume from current clients, rather than an offensive strategy that attracts new clients and increased business from existing clients. There are a few reasons for this but they tend to boil down to a combination of incentive and emotion.

Alumni successes
Some classic success stories include college/university alumni associations. Four years at a college or university 'imprints' a person, creating an emotional bond that will shape actions, often for their entire life. For decades, this loyalty was mostly manifest during university fund-raising drives (along with, on a small scale, the sale of university-branded products). However, the sale of branded products - from t-shirts to coffee mugs - faced stiff purely-commercial competition and seldom produced significant revenue for the alumni associations.

That formula for limited success changed with the advent of what's come to be called cause marketing, through which consumers can elect to make use of services (e.g. credit cards or long distance phone services) that provide their alumni associations (and later, their favoured charities or causes) with per-transaction revenue. Academic researchers have found that consumers are willing to pay slightly higher prices, and to acquire or use products and services preferentially, when they know that a portion of the proceeds will benefit their favoured cause.

Charities followed
Cause marketing was quickly adopted by charitable organisations, which had long paralleled alumni associations, capitalising on similar emotional ties. It was no surprise that the main donors to the cancer society were people who had experienced a cancer-related loss among their immediate family or circle of friends. So, once universities began experiencing real success with cause marketing affiliations, it was inevitable that charitable non-profit groups quickly adapted the concept to their own benefit - and savvy commercial organizations hopped on the same bandwagon.

American Express, more than a decade ago, proved to itself (and to other businesses after extensive coverage in the Harvard Business Review) that cause marketing could increase sales. Several years in a row, the company fielded Christmas-season promotions promising consumers that their designated charity (each consumer could choose between two or three) would benefit from each transaction. These promotions significantly increased the company's market share during the peak consumer-buying season of the year.

Using emotional ties
The lessons from these activities was simple: if you could follow the long-standing charity/alumni approach and capitalise on pre-existing emotional ties, you could generate additional commercial sales from consumers who would preferentially use your products or services in order to support their favoured causes. A 1996 Harvard study found that 54% of consumers would even pay over the going rate cost for a given retail product or service simply to benefit a chosen cause.

However, most commercial loyalty programmes have tried to succeed not with emotional ties but with often-vague promises of consumer self-interest, frequently manifested in miles or points that can be traded later for benefits or goods (which are sometimes also not very clearly defined). Looking back, many of these have failed to greatly benefit the sponsor organisation. The reason may be that those commercial loyalty programmes failed to create an emotional link. Without that, they failed to require consumers 'buy in' in some way. With no emotional ties, and with nothing of value at stake, too many consumers just don't care enough about the points to actively participate.

Differentiation needed
For example, when all airlines had adopted similar frequent flyer programmes, truly frequent travellers joined all of them, slowly accumulating reward miles that they might eventually be able to trade for extra trips. Even without the limits and conditions that made such miles seem less valuable, extra travel proved to be a remarkably de-motivating incentive for those business travellers who already seemed to live in airports, taxis, and hotels! What had been intended as a way of attracting new customers - and additional business from existing ones - had become an added marketing cost spent to defend existing market share.

Similarly, some points programmes from hotels, car rental firms, credit cards and other high-volume businesses proved equally de-motivating. Having joined casually without any personal motivation, customers were often only marginally aware that they were even members of these programmes, and felt no particular incentive to try to capitalise on them. There are two possible reasons for such failure: First, the consumers had no emotional ties to the corporations; The incentive that works so well for alumni associations and charitable or cause organizations was absent from these programmes. Second, the members had no commitment; They had no motivational buy-in, and therefore no particular reason to care about the programme. Without some believable and motivating incentives, consumers disengage from such loyalty programmes.

Consumer buy-in
Yet, handled properly, commercial loyalty programmes can be effective marketing tools. As already noted, cause marketing efforts that link corporations to favoured charitable causes or fraternal organisations have a long track-record of success. However, there is an even better approach - one that not only motivates consumers but becomes (at least partly) self-liquidating. This approach is a programme that requires consumers to invest in it, and offer some true commitment.

In working with a client which provided effective loyalty programmes for 'white tablecloth' restaurants throughout the USA, Barnett Marketing Communications had the opportunity to see first-hand the real impact of such consumer buy-in. The client provided a turn-key internet-managed loyalty programme which provided consumers with points that could later be redeemed for free meals and other benefits. In addition, members were offered discounts, birthday gift bottles of wine, special desserts and other interim incentives to motivate their return to the sponsoring chain of restaurants (in order to build up points). In implementing the programme, some restaurants charged an annual membership fee, while others opted to give away the programme. This gave me the perfect opportunity to test out my theory about commitment as an important measure of the success of points-based loyalty programmes.

Triple the results
By head-to-head comparison, I was able to determine that programmes which charged a joining fee of US$20 signed up roughly 33% of the new members each month as those which simply gave away the same membership programme. But those that charged for membership saw triple the rate of points redemption compared with those that offered the same programme for free. But while these two methods might appear to produce much the same result, they don't. Those that charged the US$20 fee had, in effect, a self-liquidating marketing programme: On the balance sheet they were already a long way ahead of those that had initially absorbed the costs of the programme themselves. In addition, with triple the number of members to service, the 'free programme' restaurants had three times the programme overhead costs. It turned out that charging a membership fee - asking members to commit themselves financially - was a double-win situation for those that charged the joining fee.

Some of our branded restaurant chain clients did programme comparisons, with some restaurants giving away the programme while others in the same chain charged the fee. Every one of those restaurant chains, after completing the comparison, converted to the fee-for-membership version of the programme.

Conclusion
So, if you have (or are planning) a membership-based loyalty programme, either tie the programme to a cause or organisation that capitalises on pre-existing emotional ties, or develop a programme that requires members to demonstrate some buy-in before they can benefit. Both approaches, based on the core principles of motivational psychology, are valid - and both work.

For more loyalty marketing feature articles:

BTW - all memberships/subscriptions are on application. At least in the UK, it's become fashionable to "subscribe" under pseudonyms such as "Michael Mouse", and the editors at The Wise Marketer therefore review each application to make sure the publication is going - for FREE - to a real marketer, and not (apparently) to a Mickey Marketeer.

Copyright © 2004 Barnett Marketing Communications

About the author...

Ned Barnett, the owner of Nevada-based Barnett Marketing Communications, has over thirty years of experience in high-stakes, crisis-management public relations, and is a well used information source for both print and broadcast journalists. As a political consultant and speechwriter, he has worked for candidates and officials from both US parties, as well as for public interest advocacy groups in areas involving the economy, the environment, and healthcare.

Barnett has taught PR at two state universities, and has written nine published books on public relations, marketing and advertising. He has earned PRSA's coveted 'Silver Anvil', two ADDY awards, and four consecutive MacEacherns. In 1978, he was the youngest (at the time) person ever to earn accreditation from PRSA and, in 1984, he became the first person to earn a Fellowship in PR from the American Hospital Association.

Barnett Marketing Communications can be found online at http://www.barnettmarcom.com.

Top Ten Tips For Marketing and Promoting Books and Authors

2004-08-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

By Ned Barnett
(c) 2004

Last night an author I've been advising had an appearance on one of the cable news programs - and his appearance reminded me of a couple of key things that I'd neglected to include in my original "Top Ten Tips" for promoting books and authors; with that in mind, I've enhanced my original Top Ten list to include several additional - and very important - promotion concepts.

You'll find them embedded below, but here are a couple of hints:

1. If an author is scheduled to appear on any broadcast, get that word out widely, in advance, so interested parties can tune in. I am constantly amazed at the number of regular guests on cable news - authors who have a book to sell (and who also have an e-mailing list of fans at their finger-tips) who do NOT announce their upcoming appearance. The few who do - and my hat's off to all of them - include James Taranto at the WSJ's "Best of the Web," and The Nation magazine's editor, Katrina Vanden Heuvel. They never fail (as far as I know) to let their readers know, in advance, of their scheduled appearances.

2. If an author is scheduled to be interviewed in print format (or on a website), get that word out, too - and if the print interview will be echoed on the publication's website, put that in the announcement (not all of us read the Milwaukee Journal, but all of us can find their website).

3. If the author is interviewed, reviewed or cited in a major media outlet (of the Newsweek caliber - or the equivalent within the author's trade-media niche), put out a press release ... and put that release on the wire, and distribute it to all the talk show hosts/producers and other media decision-makers you can find. This actually works - for reasons beyond the scope of this column, media decision-makers often "run in packs" - one good review or prominent mention in a media leader seems to "validate" the author for other media, and a single break-through in coverage can lead to lots of other successful coverage.

In short, build success on success - do not be afraid to "pile on" and use all the coverage generated to create new waves of additional coverage. Then, like a surfer, ride that wave as far as it will take you.

In adding these three concepts to the Top Ten list, I had a chance to reflect on each of these ten concepts - and in every case, I've found ways to beef up those concepts, adding new dimensions to my initial marketing and promotion suggestions.

So, even if you've read this blog before (in it's earlier version), if you're interested in book/author promotion and marketing, I think you'll want to re-read this.

With that said, if you'd like to see how these ideas integrate into a solid Top Ten list of the best ways to promote a non-fiction book author (either in the mainstream or in a relatively narrow business market niche), please read on.

Because of my passion for promoting books and authors, I put together this Top-Ten list of solid PR- and marketing-related promotion ideas - suited for either a narrow trade/business/professional market niche, but easily adaptable to any book other non-fiction book - and for a good many works of fiction, too.

This advice is based on lots of experience. I first got involved in the publishing industry in '74, and began actively promoting books and authors in '82. Since then - in addition to my own nine published books (7 on PR/marketing/advertising) - I've worked for or with three different publishers (in the VP/Marketing role), I've owned a literary agency and I've promoted several dozen books and authors.

Without further ado, here are my "Barnett's Top Ten Tips for Successfully Promoting A Non-Fiction Book (or author)."

1. In cooperation with the book's publisher, contact the various appropriate print (or even broadcast or online) media outlets - the ones that tie in naturally to the book's topic - (including trade journals, if appropriate) and propose that they "brand" the book. For example, in my guise as literary agent, I sold a book to Simon & Schuster and arranged for Casino Magazine to "brand" it - the book, when published, was released as "Casino Magazine's Play Smart and Win" - and Casino Magazine not only loaned us their name (for free) but actually did a promotion to subscribers to help sales.

1a. If successful, work with this publication to ensure ample pre-publication publicity and promotion, as well as a big splash at the time the book is released.

1b. Also work with the publication to "serialize" part of the book before it's released, to whet the appetite of the publication's audience.

1c. Try to strike the same kinds of deals with the "branding" publication with regard to regular bylined columns (which can continue past the publication date, and give the author a firm position to promote and market this and future books, speaking engagements and other activities).

1d. If successful, be sure to coordinate this with the publisher's own in-house promotion/marketing department.

SUGGESTION: Clearing self-promotion activities involving the book with the publisher is always a good idea - even if they have no right-of-first-refusal on such promotion activities (and - though it's a surprise to many authors, many publishers do have such rights built into their book contracts).

It's also a good idea to always keep the publisher's own in-house promotion/publicity/marketing department in the loop on all planned (and especially all successful) self-promotion activities. Getting them on your bandwagon will generally help open additional doors for successful publicity.

2. Beyond the "branding" publication (#1, above), contact the various other appropriate print and web media (including appropriate trade journals) to propose having the author "serialize" parts of the book (i.e., adapt published chapters or parts of chapters into article format) in their magazines or on their websites.

2a. Depending on the author's publication contract and ownership of the copyright, permission for serialization (and perhaps even fee-splitting) must be cleared with the publisher ... and once approved, be sure to touch base with the publisher's own publicity/marketing department.

3. Contact those same targeted media to propose that the author do a regular bylined column for them, on the topic of the book. Generally, this is seen as a separate business venture, and no permission from the publisher is needed.

NOTE: Regarding 2 and 3 - if the publications which agree are non-competing, there is no good reason to limit the serialization (or the columns) to a single publication or website.

4. Create a website for the book. Then create a blog on the topic(s) covered in the book. Then create a subscription (free or paid, depending on your market and your marketing strategy) e-zine newsletter based on the book and it's topic(s) - and if this proves really successful, you can consider a print newsletter down the road. The goal here is to turn readers into subscribers - as well as vocal advocates for the book - and to ultimately create an affinity group based on the book, the blog and the newsletter. This will be useful in many ways, from boosting book sales to creating markets (and marketers) out of readers.

4a. Create a website press room that includes ALL the reviews (HINT: solicit some pre-publication reviews to aid in publicity), as well as a bio, a book summary, and all the other things a good publicity/PR rep would put into a press kit (the virtue of a website press room is that you don't want to have to pay to have it printed, but the material is still there for reviewers and other media).

4b. Put all the content of the website press room on a CD/ROM disk, and send it out with press releases, review copies, etc.

HINT: The concept of putting a website press room on a CD/ROM disk has played very well among media I've worked with at conventions and trade shows I've participated in over the past two years - you don't need a book to adapt this concept to your other PR activities.

5. If the book involves a business segment, market niche or issue of interest to some segment(s) of the business marketplace, contact the various trade (or special interest) associations (local, state, national) that cover the markets addressed directly or indirectly by the book. Then implement Top Ten Tips #1-3 (above) with as many of these associations as possible. Most targeted associations have member publications and websites (including e-zines) which constantly need new, fresh and appropriate copy of value to their members.

5a. Voice of Experience (I used to be an Association VP/PR-Marketing) In spite of the potential of these markets for all kinds of public relations, associations often receive far less input from writers/contributors/PR folks than do commercial publications. There are HUGE opportunities here.

NOTE: Associations are seldom competitive - if your book crosses topics, you can strike parallel deals with different associations in the same or similar markets without conflict.

5b. Arrange a deal whereby the association becomes a reseller for the book, promoting and selling it to their members - as a former Association VP/PR-Marketing, I know from experience that associations are always hungry for "unrelated income" to help them balance the books while keeping dues and member fees low. If you succeed here, work with the association's PR team to "get the word out" to both members and to the media that covers the association's market niche, as well as to other media on your list.

5c. Arrange for the author to put on a workshop/seminar for/with the association - either as a member service or a revenue-generator for the association. If targeted associations accept this approach, see (and implement) 5b. above, as well - then hold a book-signing at the session. Again, if you succeed here, work with the association's PR team to "get the word out" to both members and to the media that covers the association's market niche, as well as to other media on your own list.

5d. Arrange for the author to be a featured speaker at an association conference, trade show or convention (not a stand-alone workshop, but one of the keynote or working/break-out session presenters); and if so, again see and implement 5b. above. Once again, if you succeed here, work with the association's PR team to "get the word out" to both members and to the media that covers the association's market niche - and to other media that are on your own list.

6. Wherever the author goes (on business trips, vacations, etc.), arrange a B&N or Borders (or related) bookstore book signing - preferably in conjunction with a local business association (or a bunch of them - lawyers and accountants, for instance, aren't generally ashamed to be seen with each other). Chambers of Commerce might also be interested, especially if they can tie in book sales or a member service/revenue-generating program. If you succeed here, work with the book store's(and sponsoring organization's) PR teams to "get the word out" the media that covers the bookstore's and sponsoring organization's market niche - and to other media that are on your own list.

7. Arrange for speaking engagements at big national, regional and state conventions (the kinds that, unlike trade associations, pay their featured speakers - and that don't have speakers bidding for the opportunity to speak for free). Conventions like to have interesting speakers who are only tangentially related. I recall that a healthcare marketing/PR group (part of American Marketing Association) had, at a national convention about a dozen years ago, Joan Borysenko (of Harvard) speaking on her scientific research which validated the efficacy of prayer on hospital patients (we were mostly hospital marketers there). Her talk had nothing to do with PR or marketing, but it was fascinating, and much more relevant than the luncheon speaker they'd had the year before - G. Gordon Liddy! Anyway, the point is, there's a market here, and they pay speakers, and you can also do book signings. If you succeed here, work with the sponsoring organization's PR team to "get the word out" the media that covers the organization's market niche - and to other media that are on your own list. If the event is big enough, let the various radio talk show and cable news program producers know - the event might, in itself, justify them renewing their interest in the author or the book.

7a. Develop a speaker pitch kit - including a video/DVD (also on streaming video on your website) that shows the author as a speaker, plus book reviews and raves from group's s/he's spoken to, etc.

7b. Develop several programs that meet different needs of typical convention. For example, develop a "lunch program" talk on the issues dealt with in the book, but for the "laity" business folks who aren't focused on the "inside" of the trade book's topic. Also develop a "spouse program," using whatever stretch you can make to create a link between the book's topic and the audience's likely interests (insider "war stories" can often work). Be sure to develop a stock "keynoter" address, too.

7c. Pitch the author as an expert who can also talk to non-specialist business people (or other relevant audience group) - and aim broadly, as these target groups will have differing topics/themes and speaker needs.

7d. ALSO - position the author as an ideal "last minute" speaker who can fill in when scheduled speakers drop out (but define "last minute" - a day, a week, a month, etc.).

7e. When it comes to book signings/sales at these speaking engagements, the author have to handle the books without help from the sponsoring group. The author can obtain these books from the publisher, generally on consignment - assuming the author has got that kind of deal with the publisher), or the author can contract with a local bookstore to handle it. I was at a Sean Hannity speaking event last winter and he'd arranged for Waldenbooks to be there and sell books (which he then autographed). He would have made far more money if he'd sold these books himself, but I guess he didn't want the hassle of putting it all together (for his book promotion tour, he spoke to probably 200,000 people over ten weeks, and it could have been a huge hassle - besides, he was charging for the events and making a royalty on the book, so he didn't need to be greedy). The author can work it out that way, or you can take copies of the book on consignment (suggestion - have them drop-shipped to the convention site and arrange to have them delivered to the auditorium right before the event) and sell them yourself. You'll make more money that way, and most conventions will provide access to hourly local staff who can handle the credit card imprints, etc. (i.e., the local worker bees you'll need to pull this off). If you succeed here, work with the book store's PR team to "get the word out" the media that covers the bookstore's market niche - and to other media that are on your own list.

8. When sending out books to be reviewed, ALSO be sure to send out a ready-for-publication book review written (and bylined) by some name-brand expert - a Ph.D. or CPA or college professor or somebody like that who, on the face of it, is obviously an expert. In my status as "adjunct professor" at a couple of universities (in PR at one and Marketing at another), I've written such reviews for my clients or under contract - these reviews then went out with the books, and you might be surprised how often a trade journal or business publication editor will decide to publish the canned review, rather than actually read and review the book. Really, this approach works very well.

8a. Of course, with or without a review copy, you'll also want to have a press release done - and send it out along with a CD/ROM copy of the website press room.

8b. Regarding the press release, consider also "popularized" articles you can put out in a MAT service such as NAPS (http://www.napsnet.com/) or Metro Creative Graphics (http://www.metrocreativegraphics.com/). Those reach and are placed in 700 or so small/mid-market newspapers. From this placement, you'll generate lots of nice clips, and they really do support sales. The cost of this is more than a release sent out on PRNewswire or BusinessWire, but the service costs far less than an ad, and the end result looks like pure editorial (which enhances credibility). Of course, it has to be written in newspaper (not press release) style, but that makes it function even more credibly than a press release. I understand that there is a similar paid-placement news story service for radio (for radio news and radio talk shows), and I imagine that it can also help to generate awareness and stimulate business (though, in point of fact, I've not used one of these).

8c. Don't forget putting out at least one press release on BusinessWire or PRNewswire - shoot for broad distribution, with a 400-word-or-less announcement of the book pegged for the non-trade publications (those you hit directly, of course). This will appear (based on the quality of the release) in dozens-to-hundreds of news outlets, plus on 1,500-plus online databases that capture press releases (topically, or generally).

8d. If the book/author scores big with a prominent review, an interview on a major talk show - or any other kind of impressive, favorable coverage - send out follow-up press releases on these successes. This series of releases creates a "breadcrumbs" trail that members of the media can follow as they research the book and author online - giving them a greater sense of the legitimacy of the book and the author.

NOTE: That (8d) is a strategy that has much broader applications in public relations and marketing - even if you don't "do" books or authors, jot this one down!

8e. When you're thinking "press releases" don't forget the growing market in online web-zines and similar sites that include news/promotion feeds. These are an increasingly important PR market, though the word isn't always "out" there yet among book-promotion PR folks.

9. Once the core book is completed and in the publisher's hands, think about publishing an "executive summary" book - a condensed (think "Reader's Digest") version that boils the key points down for the busy CEO, CFO or self-employed person. Offer it WITH the full-text book in some kind of two-fer, as well as selling it stand-alone. You'll need to work this out with the publisher, but because of the profit potential, publishers are increasingly open to this kind of add-value additions to the core book.

9a. Along with the Executive Summary version, you can do an audio version in cassette and CD, for the busy exec stuck in traffic. Again, the publisher must be involved - but again, the publisher should be open to this added route to sales success. I believe this concept is what "Positioning" innovators Trout and Reis (doesn't that sound like a fancy dinner in New Orleans?) called "line extension" - and handled properly, this approach works well in building both sales and profits.

10. Position the author with all the cable news (business especially, but not exclusively) bookers/producers - and all of the business radio talk show producers, as well. Be sure to prepare appropriate pitch kits for producers.

10a. List with Radio/TV Interview Report (http://www.rtir.com/) and GuestFinder (http://www.guestfinder.com/Index.htm). They both have worked for me.

10b. Do the same (Top Ten Tip #10) for business publications outside the book's core niche, and especially general business publications - you never know when they'll need an expert on the subject of the book.

10c. As noted at the very beginning, every time you score with 10, 10a or 10b, be sure to put the word out in every way you can - let your author's "fans" know when and where to tune in, and let other talk show producers know that your author is "hot." Use great publicity to generate more great publicity.

Here's the bottom line: If you're going to promote or publicize (or market - the terms aren't entirely interchangeable, but there's a lot of cross-over) a book or author, these Top Ten strategies are a good place to start. And even if you're not in the book/author field, these strategies have a lot of bleed-over potential for the markets you do work with.

Obviously, if you need some support (this isn't a pitch, but I'd be a fool not to offer), I'd be glad to help.

About Ned Barnett:

Ned Barnett, the owner of Barnett Marketing Communications (http://www.barnettmarcom.com), is a 32-year veteran of high-stakes crisis-management public relations, and is a frequent “source” for print and broadcast journalists. Barnett has advised many corporate and personal clients on effective crisis relations – often stopping a crisis in its tracks, even before it gets started.

As a political consultant and speechwriter, Barnett has worked for candidates and officials from both parties, as well as for public interest advocacy groups in areas involving the economy, the environment and healthcare.

Barnett has taught PR at two state universities, and has written nine published books on public relations, marketing and advertising. He’s earned PRSA’s coveted Silver Anvil, two ADDYs and four consecutive MacEacherns; in 1978, he was the youngest (to that time) person to earn accreditation from PRSA, and in 1984, he became the first person to earn a Fellowship in PR from the American Hospital Association. But mostly, Barnett provides PR counsel to a range of corporations, authors and advocacy groups.

Target Marketing Q&A #1 - Free-Standing Self-Serve Car Wash

2004-08-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

Ned Barnett
(c) 2004

We get questions …

As a long-time PR and Marcom practitioner, I get a lot of questions from colleagues and friends, looking for ideas for marketing and promoting specific business ventures. As an occasional feature here, I’m going to present the questions – and with permission – present the answers I developed for those questions. These answers are quick-and-dirty, informal and focused on presenting concepts, rather than detailed how-tos on the concepts.

The intent is to bootstrap a new online service – market/product-specific promotion and marketing tips – which we’ll be debuting shortly on http://www.barnettmarcom.com as part of our new feature, “Deal of the Century.” Take a look, then let me know what you think.

Thanks

Ned

Question: How to market and promote a free-standing, self-service car wash

We just bought a new home and want to build a free-standing self-service car wash out there near us as it’s very undeveloped now and land prices are only going to be going up. There are homes from the $90’s to the $1mm+ price range within 10 miles of the area we’re looking at. I don’t know yet how we’d bill it. There’s just no other self-serve car wash around. As a business, it’s pretty low maintenance. We see it primarily as a source of passive income.

We’re planning on having 8 bays to wash and then more in the back to vacuum. However, I just don’t know what people in the area would want. If it’s soccer moms, I’m thinking they’d want to wash their cars as quickly as possible to get going again. There will be people with collectible cars in the area, I’m sure, and they will want to baby their cars. The site is near the lake, and I’m sure people will want a place to clean up their boats before taking them back home, too.

Make sense?

We plan on having cameras there to oversee things, too. If the facility gets vandalized, we’ll be able to see who did it, hopefully – and beyond that, we’ll have insurance. You can mitigate risk, but we know you can’t eliminate it entirely.

We’ve got a vendor lined up who stocks everything needed at a self-serve car wash. They can insert their machines into the car washes, restock them as needed, and help ensure customer satisfaction and cash flow. They’ve been doing this a long time and can tell us pretty much everything we need to know – except what our area will call for. They say it’s best to have it on a road at 40mph, but the street we’re putting it on is a major thoroughfare and it’s 60mph. I still think we’ll be ok since there’s absolutely nothing out there except a plant nursery, a restaurant and boat storage in the nearby vicinity.

What do we need to do to market and promote this operation, and to succeed?

Answers

1. Based on the information you’ve provided, I recommend that you position the car wash as upscale, at least to the extent that you have a couple of “detailing” bays that go beyond vacuuming. They could also have special high-pressure devices for cleaning tires and wheels (maybe coarse scrub brushes, too), as well as vacuums with special attachments for dusting dashboards, etc. Check out a few “detailing” shops to see what kinds of detailing equipment they have. I think you’ll have less trouble and do more business with an upscale image. This will require a bit more maintenance, I suppose, but I think you’d also be able to charge a bit more – and you’ll get more business.

2. Be sure that at least some of your bays are big enough to handle the largest of the new SUVs (the Ford Expedition is 19 feet long). Ensure that at least a couple of bays are high enough to accommodate pleasure boats on trailers (since you’re near a lake, boat access should be a major consideration). Also have at least one bay high enough to accommodate bus-high RVs.

3. Your advisors are right about a 40 mph road being an optimum location. At 60 mph, you’re going to need some prominent coming-and-going permanent billboards, located a good way off from your site, as well as a BIG sign that can be seen from a fair distance. Remember – 60 mph is a mile a minute (88 feet per second) and it takes the average car one second per 10 mph to stop. At that rate, you’ve got to give drivers sufficient time to register on your sign (3-5 seconds), plus time to react (1-2 seconds) and 7 seconds to stop. This is especially important since, as we both know, in a 60 mph zone drivers will be speeding along at 70 mph. Best to figure 10-15 seconds of advanced warning – that’s 900 to 1300 feet in round numbers. Unless your signs are as recognizable as McDonalds (and yours won’t be), they’ve got to be visible from at least 1,000 feet from your site. Better yet, erect a visible series of billboards or signs at 1,500 feet, 1,000 feet and 500 feet (and one even farther away if you can get the rights and afford the signs). Better to own the signs outright than to rent, I think, but your accountant should be consulted on that. Don’t forget to figure in the upkeep on the signs (undoing the damage caused by gang-banger graffiti artists, etc.). ALSO, if your road has got a median, you’ve just cut your spontaneous traffic down by half. The ideal would be 40 mph with a “suicide” center turn lane, but even without the ideal, you can use your signage to help “make it work.”

4. As you’re selecting your site, explore striking a deal to build your car wash next to a name-brand auto parts store (AutoZone, Checker, etc.) you’d help each other with business. For instance, do-it-yourself car mechanics/detailers would want to use your facility, while people washing their car might decide to buy new wiper blades, etc. It could be an important win-win marketing opportunity.

5. Be careful of those expensive security video cameras – they are very often stolen (small, portable and with some street value) – so be sure to put them in cages or something like that.

6. As far as vending, think upscale. Try some high-end products like the new premium Turtle Wax polishes – that might really work as cash-generating products, and you might even be able to get some co-op marketing deals going with the manufacturers/distributors. I would also suggest that all of your vending machines take ATMs, Debit Cards and Credit Cards (don’t you just hate having to lug $5 in quarters to the car wash?).

7. When you’re thinking of vending machines, don’t forget refreshments. And if you go “upscale,” be sure your refreshments include some upscale items – lattes or cappuccinos, Snapple, low-fat or low-carb snacks, etc.

8. Building a sense of community is vitally important – even for an unstaffed self-service car wash – and there are a number of ways of doing this.

9. Come up with crowd-drawing publicity stunts – such as “wash-offs” – where area residents could compete to see who can wash a car (well) fastest. That’s a “for instance,” but seek out ideas like that – ones that will draw crowds to participate, and to watch. Maybe these could also be held in conjunction with charities, which will add to your crowd-draw and overall positive brand image.

10. Work with your area community colleges and host some hands-on “how to detail your own car” classes – and generate good PR for them, as well as for your facility.

11. Work with local churches, school bands, Boy Scout and Girl Scout groups, etc. Arrange for them to stage fund-raising car washes (where the client feeds the kitty for the water and soap and things you usually charge for, then the client donates to the groups who do the actual cleaning work). Again, those kinds of fund-raisers are also great for generating local publicity, so be sure to tip off the local community newspapers.

12. Work out a deal with neighborhood kids to offer their services to customers – to do the washing/drying for them. Even if this isn’t a charity operation, I’d bet a lot of ambitious 14-to-16 year olds (who may be too young for work permits in your market) would like to work on a piece-work basis at the car wash. In all cases, be sure get parental permission, in advance. Issue the parentally qualified kids with photo IDs that tell your customers that these kids are for real. Then, using prominent signage, make sure that customers know these kids work on commission, and that the customer is under no obligation to use them. When I was that age, I caddied at a local country club on just such an arrangement – I was an “official” caddy with a photo ID, but I only got paid what the golfers chose to pay me. Following that example, set a standard rate so the kids and customers don’t get ripped off – and post that “suggested” rate prominently. This Tom Sawyer/Andy Hardy approach to giving your customers the option of washing themselves or hiring an ambitious kid can also be good PR – but first and foremost, make sure it’s legal and not a violation of child labor in your market before you proceed.

13. Set up a secure, open-but-shaded area where kids can watch Disney-like videos while mom and dad are washing the car. This area should be open (where parents can easily see in), but also covered. Of course, the TV monitor should be secured behind a locking screen. A playground might also be nice, but think of the liability. Better to just have a video baby sitter in a safe, open place (with warning signs around written – nicely – by your lawyers to reduce liability exposure).

14. Set aside a “picnic” area (doesn’t have to be large) where you can host chili cook-offs and other weekend events that will bring people out. Tie them in to charities or churches, but also do them on your own.

15. If you’ve got the land, look into playing host to turkey shoots in conjunction with charitable and civic groups such as the Lions Club. These events were very big in Nashville, and I used to win all kinds of turkeys – and side bets – by acting like a dumb business exec who didn’t quite know which end of the shotgun was which. More important, they drew huge crowds (hundreds per day) to the sites. Turkey shoots can only works if you’ve got the land, and a backstop wall, and no problems from local police officials. If you are able to stage these, be sure to hire off-duty, uniformed police officers to provide security and add to the public’s comfort level. This idea is a bit off-the-wall, but if you go forward, you’ll find that it’s a great traffic builder.

16. Contests and give-aways. Tie in with a local detailing shop to provide free detailing services to the winners of your various contests. Ideally, all prizes should tie in with your theme – from detailing to cans of high-end car wax, remind them (in your contests and promotions) about your business by tying in the prizes to the core business – the car wash.

17. Don’t forget that website! Even a self-serve business needs a website.

18. Set up a kiosk at the car wash where people can enter their e-mail addresses so you can send them no-cost announcements about special events and promotions. People WILL give you their email addresses (and be sure to include that in offer to register them online in every direct mail and door-hanger promotion – have them to go your website to register), and then you can market them for free.

19. Set up a photo board (also on your car wash’s website) of the best “before-and-after” photos of dirty-to-clean cars and trucks, as well as of car wash “events” you host. Use this to build a “community” feeling at the place. Set up a drop box for hard-copy photos, and a place on your website where customers can download digital photos.

20. Put up a locking bulletin board available to community groups (accessible only through you – no direct posts) to further build the sense of community. Be sure to echo those postings on your website.

21. When it comes to neighborhood promotion, remember this – your primary market is not a 10-mile radius. The typical retail primary service area for a free standing (non-mall) operation is a 3 mile radius. Three to five miles is second tier, and the ten-mile radius you cited is a third-tier market. Some of this depends on your roads, but it would be an optimistic mistake to presume a ten-mile radius for a self-serve car wash.

22. Within that 3-mile radius primary service area, you’ll want to do direct mail. Direct mail houses now have e-mail lists, too – so when you’re doing your carrier route-sort mailings, you can also buy e-mail lists for your 3-mile, 5-mile and 10-mile radius. BEST to let the direct mail service do the e-mailing, so you don’t get dinged for SPAMing people.

23. You’ll probably want a phone book ad, too, even though people won’t call. And you’ll want to do door-hanger ads (you can get youth groups to do that for you, and donate a fee to the group itself – and get a tax write-off to boot). Magnets are also good marketing tools (for the direct mail). However, you’ll do yourself a lot of good by tying in with local church, school band and youth groups (as noted above), as they’ll bring in supportive parents and friends and such.

24. REMEMBER – people won’t remember something like a self-serve car wash, so you’ll need to keep prompting them. And prompting them. And prompting them. All of the events and strategies suggested here are intended to give some form and substance to that prompting.

About Ned Barnett:

Ned Barnett, the owner of Barnett Marketing Communications (http://www.barnettmarcom.com), is a 32-year veteran of high-stakes crisis-management public relations, and is a frequent “source” for print and broadcast journalists. Barnett has advised many corporate and personal clients on effective crisis relations – often stopping a crisis in its tracks, even before it gets started.

As a political consultant and speechwriter, Barnett has worked for candidates and officials from both parties, as well as for public interest advocacy groups in areas involving the economy, the environment and healthcare. As a historian, Barnett is widely published in military history magazines, and has appeared a number of times on the History Channel, discussing military technology.

Barnett has taught PR at two state universities, and has written nine published books on public relations, marketing and advertising. He’s earned PRSA’s coveted Silver Anvil, two ADDYs and four consecutive MacEacherns; in 1978, he was the youngest (to that time) person to earn accreditation from PRSA, and in 1984, he became the first person to earn a Fellowship in PR from the American Hospital Association. But mostly, Barnett provides PR counsel to a range of corporations, authors and advocacy groups.

© 2004 – Ned Barnett
Barnett Marketing Communications