June 2002

Case Study
Joan Stewart
AKA "The Publicity Hound"

Stick with what you know best. Find a niche. Then market like crazy, preferably to the same target audience.

That’s what I’ve learned after four years of joys and frustrations in Internet marketing. I spent the first four years building The Publicity Hound brand and promoting myself as the Number One expert in how to create free publicity. I started a print newsletter called The Publicity Hound, followed by an entire series of 5-page how-to special reports.

The reports were conceived about three years ago as my way of making money from my eventual book without having to set aside several months to write it.

I’d write a chapter, call it a special report, make it available at my website at http://www.PublicityHound.com , then send it to customers electronically. Once I had written 20 or so reports, I reasoned, I’d have my book, which I could then peddle to a major publisher or self-publish.

Each report focuses on a different and very narrow media relations problem, then gives in-depth information on how to solve it. I call it going “an inch wide and a mile deep” and the formula has worked beautifully.

So beautifully, in fact, that I scuttled plans to package them into a book. Instead, I kept cranking them out at the rate of sometimes four in one weekend. I now have 43 special reports that sell for $7 each. Work the numbers and you’ll soon see why I scrapped the book idea. In a major bookstore, my book would sell for little more than $25. The special report concept keeps customers coming back and encourages them to keep spending. In other words, it turns them into lifetime customers.

Last year, I made about $20,000 revenue just on special reports. This year, I am concentrating on tape-recorded telephone seminars which I then turn into CDs and audio tapes and use to upsell customers who buy the reports. The CDs and tapes will be bundled with other products to create even larger product packages.

My success with products is due, in large part, to my e-zine, which now has more than 7,200 subscribers. When I started the e-zine a year and a half ago at the urging of Tom Antion, a top Internet marketer and friend, my product sales immediately quadrupled. Building the list is my second goal this year because the e-zine has led to numerous full-fee speaking engagements, invitations to appear in other authors’ books, invitations to write articles and opportunities co collaborate with other experts on products. I have attended Tom's "Butt Camp" for Internet marketers three times and am religiously using his hand-outs as my "to do" list.

If I have one regret, it’s creating three products on employee recruitment and retention and using them as an entrée into companies that are looking for ways to use free publicity to position themselves as employers of choice. The problem is that I must market these products to human resources professionals, not to the public relations people who already are my core audience. And that means doubling my marketing efforts. I’ve decided to put all my energies into promoting my expertise and selling to the people in my biggest target audience. That includes marketing and PR people, authors, speakers, small-business people, schools and non-profits, and anyone who wants to self-promote.

Things I wish I had known three years ago:

• Get your products into the hands of as many people as possible who can resell them for you. Quit thinking of these people as your “competition” as I once did. Start viewing them as money in the bank.

• If you’re a sole proprietor, stick with one target audience and work like crazy penetrating the niche. Choose two or three different target audiences and you may have to double and triple your marketing efforts.

• Create products in a wide variety of price points and give your customers as many different options when it comes to buying them.

• Make tele-seminars available in CDs and audio tapes, for example. Turn a series of audio tapes in an e-book.

• Be relentless about building your e-zine list.

Sign up for Joan Stewart’s free e-zine, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week, at her web site at http://www.PublicityHound.com , where you can also download a free sample chapter of her e-zine, How to be a Kick-Butt Publicity Hound, which she co-authored with Tom Antion. Get a free sample and the Table of Contents at http://www.antion.com/publicityhoundTOC.htm

To Contac Joan Stewart a. k.a. "The Publicity Hound" 3930 Highway O Saukville, WI 53080 Phone: 262-284-7451 Fax: 262-284-1737 Speaker, trainer, consultant, and expert in media relations and employee recruitment/retention "89 Reasons to Send a News Release" is yours free at http://www.PublicityHound.com

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