Notes

6 Steps TO OBTAIN Slightly Famous
A few 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 because the travel industry was ultra-competitive, he knew he previously to find ways 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 wedding anniversary. 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 leading up to the trip, and the hints his wife gave him, he repackaged his travel service as The Veiled Voyage, selling 'destination unknown' vacations to couples among others.

Smith's clever branding strategy was a hit. It not only helped him create 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 significant grocery store chain through a lucrative co-branding relationship that has further expanded his company.

The 'Slightly' Famous You

Some companies attract clients and customers as promised. They don't cold call or rely on advertising. Yet they're regularly featured in newspapers and magazines and get invited to speak at conferences. Everyone knows their name, plus they get all the business they can handle.

It's almost as if they were famous.

In fact, they are, but not in the manner movie stars and athletes are famous--they're just slightly famous. Just famous enough to make their names one thinks of when people are looking for a particular service or product. They get more business - not merely more, but the right type of business - plus they need not work so hard to obtain it.

Want to join them and enjoy this ideal state of affairs, where customers come to you? You can, nonetheless it may require a fresh way of thinking and a new online marketing strategy. Although their efforts take different forms, underlying all of them are six basics.

1. Targeting the very best prospects

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

Alex Fisenko is known in the world of coffee as 'the Dean of Beans.' The 60-something coffee expert started his first espresso shop in the 1960s. Since that time, he's focused his energies and now 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 Internet site, http://www.espressobusiness.com, generates thousands a month in products sales and consulting engagements in the usa, 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

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

Dan Poynter, for instance, is a successful self-publisher who started writing books about parachuting and hang-gliding over thirty years ago. Though it could sound as if his audience would be too small to create 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 in general 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 a lot more than three decades.

3. Positioning your business as the best solution

Positioning is approximately identifying a key attribute of one's company not provided by competitors which is clearly valuable to your target market.

When Harry Shepherd started his bookkeeping service a few years ago, he realized he was in competition with dozens of other bookkeepers selling fundamentally the same thing. To stand out, get more info mastered a popular 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 with their clients. He even trained other bookkeepers to use accounting software.

4. Maintaining your visibility

When was the last time your name appeared in print? Yesterday? Last week? A month ago? Just because you remember doesn't mean a potential customer 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 made a decision 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 popular, and then looked for ways to tie his professional abilities to specific media. His strategy paid.

At the height of the O.J. Simpson trial, he sent out 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 knowledge of your clients, customers and industry. Experts out-position their competitors because they are recognized as knowing a lot 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 details of his business.

Tibbitts monitors global beverage trends on a daily basis 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 in ways 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 market his popular type 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 the front 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 the bottle that came in a coffin-like box wrapped with yellow police tape. His best, if unintended, publicity coup happened whenever a show promoter had a minor respiratory problem after tasting his sauce, and banned him from the show.

To take pleasure from 'slightly' famous status, you don't need to be insane. But, you must cultivate a brand identity that will become the guiding star of your 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 writer of Get Slightly FamousT: Become a Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business with Less Effort. Visit http://www.getslightlyfamous.com to read the book and find out about 'slightly' famous teleclasses, workshops, and marketing materials to help smaller businesses and solo professionals attract more business.
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