Last month, as I was writing the content for my monthly newsletter, I saw an opportunity for a colleague of mine.
I met John when he began working with a web client of mine on my client’s PR campaign. It was a wonderful experience. While John is a Havard grad and I’m only a Manchester College alum, we both are preaching the same message from different pulpits. John preaches his message and guides clients to garner what he calls “earned media coverage.” I, on the other hand, preach my message of targeting your audience via paid media coverage and the web.
In the meantime, I have ANOTHER client who is doing everything “right” in her quest for achieving “I’ll be a guest on Oprah some day.” Her efforts are in STARK contrast to the small business owner who contacted me a couple of months ago. While my client is making a significant investment in not only money but also time in preparing her marketing materials, this wanna be Oprah guest was adamantly opposed to spending more than the tiniest portion of time AND money to achieve her goal.
So, I wrote a newsletter about my observations on the subject. “Do your marketing goals include appearing on Oprah“. Because, I have had clients who have “broken through” and been featured on nationally televised shows and each of those clients have told me it was their professional appearing web site PLUS that web site’s search engine friendliness that got the ball rolling for them.
During the course of writing that newsletter, I mentioned John’s work with a client of mine. “This would be a GREAT place to offer a resource from John,” I thought to myself. So I tracked John down and asked him if he had a resource I could share with my newsletter subscribers. He didn’t have one prepared but could I give him until December 1 to put something together. I agreed and published another newsletter for November.
Here it is, the middle of December and I still don’t have the resource from John.
So, my newsletter will be delivered without exposing my newsletter subscribers to his wisdom or his services.
It’s December and soon we’ll be starting a new year. On the top of virtually every business owner’s “New Year’s Resolutions” is to be more successful next year than this year.
Success starts with being well prepared.
If you don’t have one already, develop a white paper which you can offer up if an opportunity arises. Whether it’s 10 tips to better [fill in the blank] or 5 ways to tell your [fill in the blank] knows what he/she is doing…. developing such a resource will help to focus your thinking upon your potential clients/customers WHILE serving as a powerful introduction piece.
