My Mom is not really a coal miner, but she is from Pennsyltucky, so maybe there’s a little bit of it in her. I am halfway through our “pawtograph” book tour for my book, True Blue Leadership: Top 10 Tricks from the Chief Motivational Hound. My pack picked cities we had previously lived in and partnered with small businesses and local animal rescues for our events. We’re humble hounds so this type of venue suits our nature. We worked like dogs for the last three days in a row meeting wonderful humans and hounds and yapping it up with other dog and book lovers.
Eileen Voyles, our tremendous publicist, worked hard to get us several TV appearances, radio interviews, and newspaper coverage before each of these events. They were all great successes. As we traveled from town to town, Eileen commented that this reminded her of the movie Coal Miner’s Daughter, where Loretta Lynn’s husband suggested they take a homegrown promotional tour working tirelessly to meet with all levels of disc jockeys across the South.
As we packed up our books, Frisbees, t-shirts, and doggie bandanas and headed off to the next venue, it was clear that the overwhelming majority of people who came out to each event heard about it via the radio and the newspaper or had seen a posted flyer. It’s very interesting that in today’s virtual world, the written and spoken word still have such power. Now I look forward to updating my Facebook fan page as much as the next pup, but this experience taught this old dog a new trick!
Traditional media, just like social media, is free. If the local stations like you and your story, they are more than willing to jump in and provide you the coverage. Social media is the same way, but there are still many people who don’t use it. One of the couples who attended our event was vacationing at a local bed and breakfast. When they checked in with their dog, the caretaker had seen a flyer my mom passed out to local businesses and recommended the event to them.
So the moral of this “tail” is, don’t neglect any of the marketing arrows in your quiver. If you think you can change the world with your message simply by sitting behind the computer and putting it “out there”, think again. You may hit some of the targets, but you’ll miss many others. Organic growth, where you get out there with all four paws on the ground, is still quite powerful, even in today’s Internet age. It’s just a matter of being willing to invest your time and money to promote your message, even if it means hauling boxes of books from city to city or driving all night to be on an early-morning local news show for two minutes. A tired pup is a happy pup, so get out there and work like a dog to get your message, product or service out there!
i’m proud to be a coal miner’s doggie, by Mr. Blue
My Mom is not really a coal miner, but she is from Pennsyltucky, so maybe there’s a little bit of it in her. I am halfway through our “pawtograph” book tour for my book, True Blue Leadership: Top 10 Tricks from the Chief Motivational Hound. My pack picked cities we had previously lived in and partnered with small businesses and local animal rescues for our events. We’re humble hounds so this type of venue suits our nature. We worked like dogs for the last three days in a row meeting wonderful humans and hounds and yapping it up with other dog and book lovers.
Eileen Voyles, our tremendous publicist, worked hard to get us several TV appearances, radio interviews, and newspaper coverage before each of these events. They were all great successes. As we traveled from town to town, Eileen commented that this reminded her of the movie Coal Miner’s Daughter, where Loretta Lynn’s husband suggested they take a homegrown promotional tour working tirelessly to meet with all levels of disc jockeys across the South.
As we packed up our books, Frisbees, t-shirts, and doggie bandanas and headed off to the next venue, it was clear that the overwhelming majority of people who came out to each event heard about it via the radio and the newspaper or had seen a posted flyer. It’s very interesting that in today’s virtual world, the written and spoken word still have such power. Now I look forward to updating my Facebook fan page as much as the next pup, but this experience taught this old dog a new trick!
Traditional media, just like social media, is free. If the local stations like you and your story, they are more than willing to jump in and provide you the coverage. Social media is the same way, but there are still many people who don’t use it. One of the couples who attended our event was vacationing at a local bed and breakfast. When they checked in with their dog, the caretaker had seen a flyer my mom passed out to local businesses and recommended the event to them.
So the moral of this “tail” is, don’t neglect any of the marketing arrows in your quiver. If you think you can change the world with your message simply by sitting behind the computer and putting it “out there”, think again. You may hit some of the targets, but you’ll miss many others. Organic growth, where you get out there with all four paws on the ground, is still quite powerful, even in today’s Internet age. It’s just a matter of being willing to invest your time and money to promote your message, even if it means hauling boxes of books from city to city or driving all night to be on an early-morning local news show for two minutes. A tired pup is a happy pup, so get out there and work like a dog to get your message, product or service out there!
