It’s a publicity tool that’s as old as dirt, so I was pleased to see it mentioned in a case study written by Marketing Sherpa, about how a successful Publicity Hound reaches out to bloggers and uses a variety of online marketing strategies to sell her books.
It’s a handwritten thank-you note, and it never goes out of style. You should be sending thank-you notes to journalists, bloggers, broadcasters and others who spread the word about your product, service, cause or issue.
No wimpy email thank-you notes! Hand-written only, please.
That’s what author and financial expert Janine Bolon is doing. After consulting with publicist Penny Sansevieri of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., Bolon used this simple five-step process for creating a huge presence online:
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Revamp her homepage
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Start an email newsletter
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Solicit reviews from bloggers (also known as a blog tour)
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Set up Google Alerts to track mentions and reviews of her books (Watch this short video that demonstrates how to use the alerts.)
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Send handwritten thank-you notes thanking reviewers
You can read the entire case study for only another week or two.
I’d do one more thing if I were Janine. I’d offer a freebie like a downloadable special report or a list of tips, to anyone who signs up for the newsletter. Some people won’t hand over their email address unless they know they’ll receive something valuable in return—instantly. (See “Special Report #51: 55 Free Things You Can offer to Generate Publicity or Capture People’s Email Addresses”).
Hi Joan!
I love this idea and I think it’s really important to do a good job at keep-in-touch with thank you notes and other such cards.
I use a service called Send VA Cards (www.sendvacards.com) that handles all of my thank you notes electronically. My handwriting is loaded into the software and each card I send comes out looking really, really professional and all I need to do is use a few clicks of my mouse to send a card.
I use this to do campaigns which send out a series of cards or to do one-off cards when I want to say thank you, congratulations or any other greeting imaginable!
I think it’s neat how we’re moving to an era where a lot of this keep-in-touch stuff can be handled personally yet easily.
Sincerely,
Erin Blaskie
Business Services, ETC