Notes

6 Steps To Get Slightly Famous
A couple of years ago, Bruce Smith experienced a slowdown in his Salt Lake City-based travel agency. Airlines had eliminated his sales commissions. The recession and recent terrorist attacks also took a toll. And as the travel industry was ultra-competitive, he knew he previously to find methods to distinguish his company from a large number of other travel agencies.

Then, he previously a fortunate accident. His wife asked him where they might celebrate their first loved-one's birthday. When he gave her a blank look, she set about planning for a trip-but wouldn't simply tell him what she was planning. Because he enjoyed the mystery before the trip, and the hints his wife gave him, he repackaged his travel service because the Veiled Voyage, selling 'destination unknown' vacations to couples and others.

Smith's clever branding strategy was a hit. It not merely helped him develop a unique and memorable brand, but also made him 'slightly' famous.

Now, most of Smith's business comes through referrals from happy clients who eagerly tell their friends concerning the Veiled Voyage. He's regularly featured in newspapers, magazines and radio programs and was even invited to speak at a national travel conference. Moreover, he's had the opportunity to increase his brand with a major grocery store chain by way of a lucrative co-branding relationship that has further expanded his company.

The 'Slightly' Famous You

Some business owners attract clients and customers as promised. They don't cold call or depend on advertising. Yet Additional info featured in newspapers and magazines and get invited to speak at conferences. Everyone understands their name, plus they get all of the business they are able to handle.

It's almost as though they were famous.

In fact, they are, but not in the manner celebrities and athletes are famous--they're just slightly famous. Just famous enough to create their names come to mind when people are searching for a particular service or product. They have more business - not merely more, but the right type of business - plus they need not work so hard to obtain it.

Desire to join them and revel in this ideal state of affairs, where customers come to you? You can, nonetheless it may require a fresh thought process and a new marketing strategy. Although their efforts take different forms, underlying them all are six basic principles.

1. Targeting the best prospects

Slightly famous entrepreneurs focus their marketing to target the best prospects.

Alex Fisenko is known in the wonderful world of coffee as 'the Dean of Beans.' The 60-something coffee expert started his first espresso shop in the 1960s. Since then, he's focused his energies and today sells his expertise on launching a successful coffee business to aspiring entrepreneurs. Alex conducts coffee shop seminars and sells an exercise course called 'Espresso Business Success.'

His Web site, http://www.espressobusiness.com, generates thousands of dollars per month in products sales and consulting engagements in the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, and Barbados. 'By targeting the very best prospects, I now earn more income through book sales and consultations than when I ran coffee shops,' says Fisenko.

2. Creating a unique market niche

Smaller businesses with a 'slightly famous' strategy establish themselves within a carefully selected market niche they can realistically desire to dominate.

Dan Poynter, for example, is a successful self-publisher who started writing books about parachuting and hang-gliding over thirty years back. Though it could sound as if his audience would be too small to generate significant sales, he knew his market and where to find them. On top of that, he has the market all to himself!

Rather than make an effort to fight for attention generally bookstores, he sold books to skydiving clubs, parachute dealers, and the U.S. Parachute Association. He developed a reputation in skydiving circles, and has enjoyed steady sales of his books for more than three decades.

3. Positioning your business as the best solution

Positioning is about identifying an integral attribute of one's company not provided by competitors and that is clearly valuable to your marketplace.

When Harry Shepherd started his bookkeeping service a couple of years ago, he realized that he was in competition with dozens of other bookkeepers selling essentially the same thing. To stand out, he mastered a favorite accounting program and marketed himself as a 'QuickBooks Software Training Consultant.'

Shepherd went from blending into a sea of look-alike competitors to occupying a compelling market position. He charged higher fees, and he did not have to are hard to get new clients. Word spread fast among accountants because they referred him to their clients. He even trained other bookkeepers to utilize accounting software.

4. Maintaining your visibility

When was the last time your name appeared in print? Yesterday? Last week? Per month ago? Because you remember doesn't mean a possible client will. To become 'slightly' famous, you must have your message out there, if not continuously, then often enough to keep your name alive in customers' minds.

When Bart Baggett decided to make handwriting analysis his career, he embraced the media, and studied newspapers, magazines, and radio and television programs to determine what forms of guests were in demand, and looked for ways to tie his professional abilities to specific media. His strategy paid off.

At the height of the O.J. Simpson trial, he delivered a news release about Simpson's handwriting that resulted in several timely media interviews. He later appeared on Court TV to discuss Timothy McVey's handwriting, and was recommended by the director of this program to CNN. An attribute in Biography Magazine resulted in stories in the London Times, the Dallas Morning News, and others.

5. Enhancing your credibility

The surest solution to earn credibility is by establishing yourself as a 'recognized' expert with intimate understanding of your clients, customers and industry. Experts out-position their competitors because they're recognized as knowing more than their competitors.

Fred Tibbitts, Jr. founded Fred Tibbitts & Associates to greatly help food and beverage companies reach global markets. He strategically cultivated a reputation in his industry as a well-connected and knowledgeable global beverage-marketing expert who is fluent in all the facts of his business.

Tibbitts monitors global beverage trends every day while staying in contact with account managers at hotels and restaurants. He hosts a series of special events, 'Fred Tibbitts Spring & Autumn Dinners with Special Friends,' in key markets, including Hong Kong, Singapore, and NY. Tibbitts also contributes a column to Hospitality International Magazine and numerous industry publications.

6. Establishing your brand and reputation

Slightly famous entrepreneurs use their smallness and specialty with techniques that corporate giants can't touch. They make certain their brands strike an emotional chord by bringing their business 'soul' to the forefront of these marketing.

When you meet Dave Hirschkop at a trade show, don't be prepared to shake his hand. That's because he'll be wearing a straitjacket while standing before a simulated insane asylum to promote his popular line of 'Insanity' hot sauces.

Dave established his brand by making the latest sauce possible. Rather than sensual pleasure, he promised pain, even danger. Now, Dave's Gourmet, Inc. steps to leading of the crowded hot sauce category because he embraced a humorous branding strategy that led to fiercely loyal customers and great media exposure.

When Dave introduced his Insanity Sauce at the National Fiery Foods Show in New Mexico, he made attendees sign a release form before tasting from a bottle that came in a coffin-like box wrapped with yellow police tape. His best, if unintended, publicity coup happened when a show promoter had a respiratory problem after tasting his sauce, and banned him from the show.

To enjoy 'slightly' famous status, you don't have to be insane. But, you must cultivate a brandname identity that will become the guiding star of one's entire business. It will ensure that all your marketing efforts pull in exactly the same direction. You'll waste less time, make fewer marketing mistakes, and stick out within an increasing cluttered world.

Steven Van Yoder is author of Get Slightly FamousT: Turn into a Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business with Less Effort. Visit http://www.getslightlyfamous.com to read the book and learn about 'slightly' famous teleclasses, workshops, and marketing materials to help smaller businesses and solo professionals attract more business.
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