Here was his response to my pitch:

Dear Ms. Fisher,

Come, now.  Can you really tout this with a straight face?

Now, that sounds like a challenge!  And the short answer is yes!  What do you think?  Here’s the pitch:

I’m sure many or all of you would love to have your products featured in Oprah Magazine, or in Real Simple.  Of course, thousands of other product companies would like that as well. 

To stand out from the competition, and to maximize your success, I’m going to share with you some of my pitching secrets and tips, to help you land top publicity placements that lead to sales.

For many years I’ve helped hundreds of clients get year-round, and especially fourth quarter, product media coverage. In fact, my team and I have already begun pitching Clients for fourth quarter publicity coverage.

Join us on Wednesday, June 22, 2011, from noon to 1 p.m. EASTERN for this free teleseminar - Get Fourth Quarter Publicity and Cash in on Fourth Quarter Sales.

During this presentation you will learn:

• What types of products top magazines are looking to feature
• What to include in a pitch to get the attention of top Magazine Editors
• How to find the right media contacts to pitch your product to
• Discounts on tools you need to pitch the media
• The five pieces of information you must include in your pitch to make it successful
• Examples of successful product placements – and why they got in
• And much more!

Sign up here. 

“I Spent All of My Money on (My Product, My Building, Technology) and I Have No Money for Marketing and Public Relations”

Most of the time I hear this from new or start-up businesses, but sometimes I hear it from established businesses, as well.

Why This Makes Me Cringe (and Not for the Reason You Might Think)

You might think that I hate hearing this line because it means that someone doesn’t have a lot of money to spend. But that’s okay, because I have many do-it-yourself Public Relations and Marketing products that can fit any budget.
The real reason I cringe when I hear this is because:

• These business owners aren’t equating marketing and P.R. as investments, as they do the other places where they put their money.
• They devalue my expertise (unconsciously), by saying that they have been willing to spend (sometimes a lot of) money on everything else, but not with me.

Imagine this conversation: Let’s say I call up a company and say, “I’d like to inquire about your products.” And you say, “Great, what would you like?” And I say, “Well, I’ve spent all of my money on marketing and P.R., so I don’t have any money for your products.” Kind of puts a damper on the conversation, doesn’t it?

The good news: I have one answer that applies to everyone. And here it is:

The right marketing budget is always more than $0.

If you think I’m joking, I can tell you that the second most frequent comment I get is: My budget is $0.

Here’s the issue: If you don’t market and sell your product or service, then there really is no business. Even companies in the business of marketing and P.R. know they have to spend money on marketing and P.R.

Here are some places where you can spend marketing dollars:

• Web site creation and design
• Email marketing
• Online advertising (Google Adwords, banners, etc.)
• Print and broadcast advertising
• Design and printing costs for all print materials, such as business cards, letterhead, newsletters, brochures, etc.
• Public Relations
• Trade shows
• Any other special events needed

So How Much Should I Spend on Each Area?

Ah, that is the question. And let me tell you that even though I was a Finance major and have an MBA, I still hate creating budgets. But they are necessary to run a business.

Now before I go into this, I promise that I will get tons of disagreement on this, as the one thing that everyone agrees on is that there is no “one” way to create a marketing budget. So I’ll just go with this anyway:

The most popular method of setting up a marketing budget is to budget marketing as a percentage of sales. The average allocation usually ranges between 9-12% of the annual budget, while the smallest businesses may go as low as 2%. If a business is launching a new product or service, advertising and publicity needs are greater, so the percentage will increase. The main advantage to using a percentage of sales is that the marketing budget will increase, or decrease, with the sales revenue of the company.

This means that the newer your business, the more you should spend on marketing and promotion. Kind of lousy, huh? Just when you have all of these start-up expenses, you have to spend more on marketing and promotion. But that’s the way it is – because people don’t know about you yet. After being in business for over eight years, I get business coming my way all the time, without spending a dime. But it happens because I spent more money initially on marketing.

You have been in business three years and decide you want to allocate 10% of your budget to marketing, or $10,000.

Here is one scenario for your annual marketing investment:

• Web Site Updates (this assumes you already have a Web site): $3,000
• E-mail Marketing: $2,000
• Google Adwords: $2,000
• Public Relations: $2,000
• Printing: $1,000

After deciding this is a workable budget, here is how you would determine what you can do and what you can outsource:

1. Web Site Updates: Outsource

2. E-mail Marketing: You can probably have someone design your emails for you, but you’ll need to write the text for the emails and pay for an email system to send and track your programs (such as Constant Contact or 1shoppingcart), so you’ll probably have to manage that yourself

3. Google Adwords: You’ll have to write the Ads and manage that yourself – it’s a low budget

4. Public Relations: You’ll have to do it yourself; you can invest in DIY PR products and databases of media contacts

5. Printing: Outsource

So don’t make potential marketing and public relations vendors cringe. Create a basic marketing budget, and you can have real conversations with your vendors, and a business with a plan to grow.

On November 3, 2010, three lucky people will be able to pitch their product to a top Sales Rep who has sold hundreds of products to Target.

Here’s how this came about…

Over the years, readers of my Special Report, “Skyrocket Your Sales by Getting Your Product on the Shelves at Target,” have been thrilled to find the names of several Sales Rep firms who often got their clients’ products into Target. Some of these firms don’t even have Websites, so this information is almost impossible to find!

Then readers started to ask me to personally make an introduction for them, to these firms.  As these firms get many inquiries, it isn’t fair to swamp them with the hundreds of readers of my Report who made this request.

But I wanted to do something…

So I asked the owner and long-time Sales Rep of a firm that has successfully sold products to Target in almost every product category, to be on a conference call with me on Wednesday, November 3, 2010, at 1 p.m. Eastern. And he said yes!

I asked him to start off with answers to questions I get frequently.

So you’ll learn insider secrets, and answers to questions including:

• How a small business can successfully sell their products to Target
• What kind of products Target is interested in buying now
• If it’s necessary to have a strong sales record with other retailers prior to selling to Target
• What price points Target likes
• And much more!

But that’s not all….

Since so many people are eager to pitch their products to Target, our illustrious Sales Rep has agreed to let three lucky people pitch their products to him. And that is an amazing opportunity…

By the way, I agreed not to mention his name here, because he is a very busy man, and very conscious of his time. And he refuses to have a Web site, so it’s hard to reach him. But I can tell you that he and his firm are at Target pitching products almost every day!

So…you might be wondering…

How can you attend the conference call and be considered for the product pitch?

First, you must have purchased the Special Report on How to Sell to Target. That’s because you need to know some basics before we cover more detailed information. If you’ve already purchased the Report, I have a record of it. If not, you can purchase it here: http://zfpr.com/target.htm.

Next, you can sign up for the Conference call, at the Early Bird price of $49, here. This price goes away at 11 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, October 27, 2010, and is replaced with the $99 price. There are no refunds, but we will record the call and you can listen to it online if you can’t make the call for some reason.

And, finally, if you want to be considered for the Product Pitch portion of the call, you must send the following information by Friday, October 29, 2010, at 3 p.m. Eastern: After registering, email me at margie@zfpr.com with “Target Pitch” in the Subject Line, and I’ll email you the questions you need to answer, so that the Sales Rep can review them and choose the pitches he thinks are most viable to discuss on the call.

So don’t wait – Sign up for the conference call now.

P.S. – If you don’t get at least double the value of the price of the call, and learn valuable information on how to sell to Target, I’ll give you your money-back, no questions asked.  So sign up today!

I have been wondering what I should be doing today. I don’t feel much like working.  Then I read an idea from a Ft. Lauderdale man, who suggested that today be a day of service.
 
Most of us are familiar with volunteering, but there are so many ways to help others.  So for those of you who want to help your country and its inhabitants, here are some ideas:
 
1. Give a sincere compliment to someone who really needs it – How about giving lots of compliments?

2. Help someone in their job search – How about giving them a copy of the Go-Giver? Also see #8.

3. Write a check to a charity - Or increase your donation.  Here’s one I donate to:  www.somaly.org.  

4. Adopt an animal – Or donate to an adoption organization.  Or give your animal a bath, or a run at the dog park.

5. Call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while – We’re all busy, and friends are so important, but they so often get pushed aside when more “urgent” tasks demand our time.

6. Donate blood – Or schedule a donation.

7. Volunteer somewhere or check on volunteer opportunities

8. Buy a product or service – help our economy

9. Support someone’s dream

10. Ask for forgiveness

11. Remind your loved ones that you love them 
 
 
God Bless America!
 
Margie Zable Fisher

Here is the original post – with my notes on what I actually did:

I wrote this on September 11, 2002.  I’ll be doing the same thing today.  How about you?

I have been wondering what I should be doing today. I don’t feel much like working.  Then I read an idea from a Ft. Lauderdale man, who suggested that today be a day of service.
 
Most of us are familiar with volunteering, but there are so many ways to help others.  So for those of you who want to help your country and its inhabitants, here are some ideas:
 
1. Give a sincere compliment to someone who really needs it – done – this is one of my favorite things
2. Help someone in their job search – yep, had lunch with someone, brainstormed, and gave her a copy of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich – always a good motivator
3. Write a check to a charity – Forgot to do this, so I just donated to Uplifting Athletes, based on a recommendation from Tom Burke, a fellow BC alum, who mentioned that BC footballer Mark Herzlich was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma. You know, donating money to charity is such a high, isn’t it? 
4. Adopt an animal – Adopted a greyhound a few months ago
5. Call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while – Didn’t get to do this on Friday, but did it on Sunday – a good friend from BC who I hadn’t spoken with in years – great to re-connect, Ellen!
6. Donate blood – Drat – didn’t do it – ok – I just put it on my to-do list for this month
7. Volunteer somewhere – or check on volunteer opportunities – Didn’t do this, but I just put in another call to Girl Scouts, where I’m trying to volunteer to be a Troop Leader and haven’t received a call back (hint, hint)
8. Buy a product or service – help our economy – Did this – never seem to have a problem doing this either
9. Support someone’s dream – yep
10. Ask for forgiveness – yep, right Mom?
11. Remind your loved ones that you love them – always
 
 
God Bless America!
 
Margie Zable Fisher
 

I have been wondering what I should be doing today. I don’t feel much like working.  Then I read an idea from a Ft. Lauderdale man, who suggested that today be a day of service.
 
Most of us are familiar with volunteering, but there are so many ways to help others.  So for those of you who want to help your country and its inhabitants, here are some ideas:
 
1. Give a sincere compliment to someone who really needs it
2. Help someone in their job search
3. Write a check to a charity
4. Adopt an animal
5. Call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while
6. Donate blood
7. Volunteer somewhere – or check on volunteer opportunities
8. Buy a product or service – help our economy
9. Support someone’s dream
10. Ask for forgiveness
11. Remind your loved ones that you love them
 
 
God Bless America!
 
Margie Zable Fisher

If you are a WBO, I’d love you to do the following:

1) Sign up for the new, no-cost WBO Digest now.  You won’t be disappointed.  Sign up for it here:  www.wbodigest.com.
2) Enter to win $100 for you or your favorite charity by spending two minutes providing info on content you’d like to see. You can go to the survey here.

Everyone who fills out the survey by 5 p.m. Eastern on Friday, September 4, 2009, will be entered to win $100 for you or your favorite charity.

Thanks for your support.

Sincerely,
Margie

Margie Zable Fisher

The answer is yes – for fashion and beauty products, since we do so much work in those areas.

Announcing the Summer Product Publicity Program for Fashion and Beauty Products – Only 10 Slots Available – June-August, 2009

What you’ll get:

- A minimum of 50 one-on-one pitches to top national magazines, including O (Oprah) Magazine, Real Simple, People StyleWatch, InStyle, Good Housekeeping, Self, Vogue, Glamour, Lucky, Allure, and more
- Follow-up and coordination of information and samples to be sent

Cost:  $2,999

We only take on products we love, so we’ll need to learn more about your product.  Please email me at info (at) zfpr.com with Subject Line “Summer” if you’re interested in this program, with the following information:

- Description of products
- Web site
- Price range of products

Thanks, and we look forward to speaking with you!

Think email marketing doesn’t cost you anything?  Think again.  The time involved, and the potential to do damage to your relationships, makes it an expensive proposition.

Many of us make mistakes when we market through e-mail, and we could be creating much better relationships and getting more sales by making some tweaks.  That’s what we’ll be covering during this call.

(Even if you can’t make the call live, you’ll be able to receive the audio download and transcript by signing up now.)

Here’s what you’ll be learning on this call:

• What types of emails you can send to market your products and/or services
•  How to track the success of your email marketing
• The five pieces of information you must include in every email
• What Subject Lines get opened
• Examples of emails that weren’t successful, and ones that were – and why
• How often you should send emails
• And much more!

The call takes place on Wednesday, June 17, 2009, from 2-3 p.m. Eastern.

The cost is $49, until 11 p.m. Eastern on Monday, June 15, 2009.  Then the price goes up to $99.

Sign up here.

P.S. – We always have a 30-day money-back guarantee, so there’s no risk to sign up.