101 Ways to Promote Yourself: Tricks Of The Trade For Taking Charge Of Your Own Success

by Raleigh Pinskey

Overview

You may have the most outstanding business, product, idea or talent in the world, but in order to be successful, you have to let the world know about it. Raleigh Pinskey offers you a crash course on how to get the attention you need. 101 Ways to Promote Yourself reveals the insider secrets learned from years of experience and how these low-cost, high-powered techniques can carry you to the top of your market and beyond.

Find out how to:

• Develop hot new leads
• Project a positive image
• Get your name in front of potential customers
• Promote instant name recognition
• Hold on to valued customers
• Build on your success by cultivating referrals
• Position yourself for greater visibility in your market
• Grow and expand your network and database
• Explore media opportunities
• Market effectively on the Internet
• Create goodwill in your community

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780380810543
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	12/08/1999
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Raleigh Pinskey is CEO of the Raleigh Group, a Los Angeles-based international, multi-faceted visibility marketing and public relations company founded in 1979, that specializes in making entrepreneurs, small businesses, and entertainers visible and prosperous.

Visibility consulting clients include men's and women's apparel and accessory stores, shoe stores, pet stores, doctors, lawyers, travel bureaus, restaurants, grocery stores, non-profit organizations, generator manufacturers, engine additive developers, fancy fortune cookie bakers, architects, and the original singing telegram company. She's also worked with musicians such as Sting, Paul McCartney and Wings, David Bowie, Blondie, KISS and Herbie Mann, as well as fitness guru Callen Pinkney's Callenetics, Chicken Soup for the Soul authors Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, and The Bronx Zoo's A Great Snake Named Jake.

She is the author of the internationally successful You Can Hype Anything: Creative Tactics and Advice for Anyone With a Product, Business, or Talent to Promote (Citadel Press); Talk Your Way Onto Talk Shows; The Zen of Hype: An Insider's Guide to the Publicity Game, an eight-cassette public relations home study course; The Musician's Guide to the Zen of Hype, four cassettes and a twenty-one-page booklet with media releases; and Soul Candy: Sayings that Nourish the Body, Mind and Spirit (all available from RRP Publishing).

An internationally known professional lecturer, Raleigh speaks on the topic "Promote & Prosper: Visibility Marketing Secrets That Grow Your Business." She's taught at UCLA's Extension School of Journalism and Public Relations and is a member of the National Speakers Association.

Raleigh walks her talk. She's a frequent guest on radio and TV and contributes to consumer magazines and business journals. She's the visibility marketing columnist for International Business Woman magazine, host of a weekly radio show, a guest expert for Entrepreneur Magazine's World Wide Web Online marketing programming, and a guest host for the America OnLine Lunch programming.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Naming Your Business

Word-of-mouth marketing at its best

I've been told that naming your business is just as important as choosing a pension plan. Why is a name so important?

• It is your brand identity
• It announces who you arc and what you stand for
• It acts as a directory of services
• It can cause your success or contribute to your failure
• It can lump you with the competition or raise you above them all

When is a name a good name?

• When it makes your business easy to market
• When it's easy to rememberWhen it's simple to pronounce
• When it's simple to spellWhen it presents a clear understanding of what you do
• When it conveys your competitive edge, your niche
• When it stirs customer interest
• When it represents what you represent
• When it doesn't confuse you with a similar business
• When it sells itself with no explanation
• When it has a positive ring to it
• When it's optimistic
• When it doesn't limit you to your geographical location
• When it promotes the service if the owner is not a known name
• When it attracts the types of clients you want

How do you pick a winner?
Joan Delany, in her article "Naming Know-How, The Right Name Can Help Boost Your Company's Image and Bring in New Business. Here's How," in Independent Business magazine, offers these five sound suggestions:

1. Analyze your company
2. Evaluate your market
3. Start a list
4. Test your choicesand make a final selection
5. Do your trademark homework

In Getting Business to Come to You, Paul and Sarah Edwards and Laura Clampitt Douglas suggest that you "generate a long list of words that describe what you want your business to reflect. Think of adjectives, time, place, uses, feelings, features, humorous aspects of what you do, images you have about the business, results you produce, and products you offer."

What are some examples of successful names?
Independent Business magazine and Business 96 magazine (last year Business 95, next year Business 97) both hold business name contests.
These are the Independent Business winners for the first three contests (there were none in 1992 or 1993):

•1991	#1: Juan in a Million (Mexican Restaurant) #2: Twice Sold Tales (used book store) #3: Loch Ness Lure Co. (fishing lure shop)
•1994	#1: Curl Up and Dye (beauty salon) #2: Johnny on the Spot (portable toilets) #3: Brilliant Deductions (tax preparation services)
•1995	#1: Rhythm & Brews (coffeehouse with music) #2: Wreck-O-Mend (car collision repair) #3: Engine Newity (car engine repair)

Business 95 held its first Great Names Contest in 1995. Here are the three winners:

•	#1: Plain in the Glass (mobile windshield repairs) #2: Make Be-Leaves (artificial/silk plant shop) #3: Got It Maid (maid service)

NOTE: if you plan to do yellow pages advertising, pick a name that starts with an ''A." Depending on your category, you might have to use several As.

Resources

Trade Associations and Organizations
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks; Washington, D.C. 20231; [phone]. They have fax-on-demand (see the chapter, "Fax-on Demand"). For a free booklet, Basic Facts About Registering a Trademark, select number forty-one.

Books
• Naming for Power: Creating Successful Names for the Business World by Naseem Javed; Linkbridge Publishing; [phone]; http://www.abcnamebank.com
• How to Name a Business or Product by Kate McGrath and Stephen Eias with attorney Sarah Shena; Nolo Press; [phone]

Software
• Decathlon Corporation; 41 Executive Park Dr.; Cincinnati, OH 45241; [phone]. Decathlon's software is called NameMax
• The Namestormers; 4347 W. Northwest Hwy., Ste. 1040; Dallas, TX 75220-3864. Namestormers' software is called Namer, Headliner, and NamePro

Contest
• Business 96 magazine Great Names Contest Ballots; 125 Auburn Ct. #100; Thousand Oaks, CA 91362; fax [phone]. No contest membership required. Ballots available free from Wells Fargo banks or the above address.

Magazine
• Independent Business magazine is for members of the National Federation of Independent Business, a wonderful organization designed to assist small business in all their endeavors. Call (800) NFIB-NOW

101 Ways to Promote Yourself. Copyright © by Raleigh Pinskey. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.