You are ready to get endorsements for your book. You’ve identified your ideal celebrities and influencers. Now it’s time to contact them and make the ask, but you may be wondering how to contact a celebrity for a book endorsment. Here are the top ways to find the contact information of celebrities:
Start with a Google Search
Google is a great resource for finding contact information. Start with a google search. Try being completely literal. Type in ‘email address for Celebrity Name’. We are going to use Barbara Corcoran as our example.
As you can see you get a number of results, including Barbara Corcoran’s own website [1], which is sure to have a contact form. We’ll save that for later.
In this search you see both RocketReach [2] and CEOEmail [3] which claim to give you email addresses. Both are free. It is worth having a look and copying down the email addresses into a file.
Test the email addresses to see if they are valid using this free tool:
In the event you don’t find any email addresses you can try the following:
Find an email address for a staff member at your celebrity’s domain. You can do a Google search, or try a Linkedin search using your celebrity as the company name.
For example: look for any address at @barbaracorcoran.com. From this you can determine the email convention they use. It might be ‘first initial’ and ‘last name’, or ‘first name’ only before the @ sign. You can then substitute your celebrity name in the same format as the email address you found.
How to Contact a Celebrity for a Book Endorsement- Ninja tips:
Address your endorsement request to a few different email addresses at the same time – addresses that you found, or just try a few of the most commonly used email conventions. That way you increase your chances of success, and any email address that is not valid, will send back an email letting you know that.
Add a read receipt- if used, it will let you know the email was received and read.
Use Press Contacts to request celebrity endorsements
Celebrities and high-profile people often have a PR firm on retainer or staff. You can typically find their contact info in a press release issued about the celebrity. These releases may be found on the celebrity’s website, or by searching for news about them.
Once you find out the celebrity’s PR contact you can either contact them to ask who to direct an endorsement request to, or just pitch them directly.
Use the Contact form on the celebrity website
The contact us form on any website is always available as a way to contact a celebrity, or anyone else. It usually goes to a general mailbox, often opened by an assistant. I have had success using this method to request endorsements, though it’s not my preferred method; I use it only when I can’t find a celebrity email address or press contact name and email address.
Here is why you should ask Barbara Corcoran, or any celebrity for an endorsement. They might just say yes!
In fact, Ms. Corcoran encourages you to request endorsements, and has a dedicated link to make it easy for you.
Fast Track Your Results & Get More Celebrity Endorsements
I started thinking about do-overs and second chances after attending my cousin’s second wedding [same groom – the first wedding took place in the groom’s native country]. How they can be both positive and critical to your business success. I was thinking of all the times I stopped myself when I was probably inches or millimeters away from success. Can you relate?
Even if the improvement is only a millimeter over the last run, do-overs can make all the difference. Watching the Olympics recently, I saw a few races where millimeters or milliseconds were what separated the gold medalist from the rest of the competitors.
Anthony Robbins talks about how the difference between success and failure is only a millimeter apart in this inspiring video.
I am not talking about a Mulligan – the do-over in golf you request because you didn’t like your first shot. I am talking about an informed do-over. There are a number of places where the do-over make sense in your business and I believe should be built into your business practice. Part of the key to success, is to use available feedback or tools to help you improve on your previous attempts or initiatives.
Here Are a Few examples of How Using a Do-Over in Your Marketing Can Be The Key To Success
Headlines, Blog Post Titles, and even Book Titles or Sub Titles
A mentor of mine recently suggested that perhaps better blog post titles would help with readership and engagement. I decided to use an A/B split test tool to see if my original post title [‘A’], could be improved with an alternate [‘B’] . I used a free plugin called Title Experiments Free that randomly displays the 2 post titles and ranks them based on performance. I tested three titles: in two out of three cases, my original ‘A’ title was preferred, and in the third case, the alternative headline is proving to be a better option than my original headline.
Pitching the Press
If your story idea or pitch doesn’t land the first time, you can go back to a journalist or publication with a revised pitch or a new one altogether. Clearly, if you have gotten feedback from the journalist or media outlet on what improvement or changes your pitch needs to get them interested , that is ideal but that’s not always an option. You can do your own research by looking at some of their published stories and see if you can identify how they are different from your pitch, and use this insight to improve your stories before re-submitting.
[clickToTweet tweet=”‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take’ – Wayne Gretksy. via Why You Get a Do-Over” quote=”‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take’ – Wayne Gretksy”]
Your book launch or book marketing
Perhaps your book didn’t get the kind of reception that you had hoped for. Maybe you got rejected by publishing houses you submitted your book to. You are not alone. Agatha Christie’s book pitches were continually rejected for 5 years, before she landed a publishing deal. Her book sales are now second to the best selling author of all time, William Shakespeare.
There is no reason you can’t go back to your book for a do-over and make some tweaks until you succeed. This can include any aspect from the book pitch, the book title or subtitle, the book description, the cover, the book category it is listed under in Amazon and Barnes and Noble, to your book landing page design and content.
Coca Cola has done this numerous times, releasing ‘New’ versions of coke. Some have disappeared quickly and some have succeeded and stuck around.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Don’t Give Up Before the Magic Happens- F Flagg via Do-Overs Need to Be Part of Marketing” quote=”‘Don’t Give Up Before the Magic Happens’- Fanny Flagg”]
Where are there opportunities in your marketing for a do-over that can make all the difference in your success?
Writing a book is a lot like having a baby. You need to prepare for the big event; a process often described as painful, yet one that yields beautiful results.
Pre-planning for your book’s publication is something you should start months before your publication date to ensure your book gets the notice that it deserves. Let’s help readers discover your book by promoting it everywhere online.
Content marketing—the strategy of creating and distributing content to a targeted audience—is a much talked about topic. It can be very effective for your business because it provides valuable information targeted to your prospects’ and customers’ interests and needs.
It engages without including a direct marketing message or selling, thereby positioning the company as a thought leader. But if you’re worried that this is just one more project you don’t have time for, fear not. There are some great, free tools to help you succeed at content marketing.
Of course, you’ll first need to create a strategy. Define your voice as well as your goals. Will you be creating original content, curating other people’s content, aggregating content, or some mix of the three? Are you looking to attract new customers, engage deeper and sell more to existing customers, or perhaps enter an entirely new market? Once you have all of the above established, it’s time to turn to these readily accessible tools to get the most out of your content. Here is our Content Marketing Toolkit for Small Business – originally printed in the NY Enterprise Report.
Editorial Calendar
Creating this will help you meet your strategic goals and manage your content marketing initiatives. Most of the work here is on the conceptual side, not in the implementation. A simple Excel spreadsheet, online calendar, or plug-in will make it easy to keep a schedule. If you have a content team, then a Google Docs or Google Calendar can allow multi-user access.
EDITORIAL CALENDAR PLUGIN: If your website uses WordPress, this plugin gives you an overview of when your content is scheduled to post. www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/editorial-calendar/
Keyword Research
If you identify and use the correct keywords, your content is more likely to show up online where your audience is spending time, or searching on the topic. Tools to help you with this include:
GOOGLE KEYWORD TOOL: Gives you related terms, how competitive the term is, and how many times the term is searched for in a month. Results are more comprehensive if you are signed into your Google account. https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
GOOGLE AUTO-COMPLETE/SUGGESTION:
As you type in the search box on Google, the auto-complete offers searches that are similar to yours based on searches others are doing related to your term.
WIKIPEDIA:
This online encyclopedia’s listings offer related terms and links on a specific topic, which can provide additional keyword suggestions. www.wikipedia.com
Content Aggregators
Aggregators gather and deliver all the content related to your topic or keyword inputs, from whatever data feeds they use as sources, and compile it in one place.
ALLTOP:
All the top stories and top headlines on popular topics from around the web. www.alltop.com
SCOOPIT:
Aggregator of info on a topic or keyword. It crawls the web for you and aggregates content around a the terms you input. It then allows you to select the best content and easily publish in a magazine format. www.scoop.it
If you identify and use the correct keywords, your content is more likely to show up online where your audience is spending time.
What’s Trending
A word, phrase, or topic is trending if it is mentioned online and on social networks multiple times. Trending topics become popular either through a concerted effort by users or because of an event that prompts people to talk about one specific topic. Mentioning what’s trending in your own marketing will potentially give you more exposure, but make sure it’s relevant to what you’re selling. For example, a new product release in your industry is a great opportunity to create content and capture some of the volume of social mentions and searches on the trending topic.
Consider writing a product review, a piece on what this new product means for the industry, or a positive personal anecdote related to the product or its creators. It is typically best to steer clear of political or gossipy trends, unless you are in that niche, or can find a way to create related content that won’t be offensive to your audience and can be tied back to your company or product in a way that makes sense.
WHAT’S TRENDING: What’s hot in the news, YouTube, and on Twitter. www.whatstrending.com
GOOGLE TRENDS: Identifies the hottest searches on the internet. www.google.com/trends
Monitoring
This is a recommended strategy to find mentions of your brand, your name, a product name, and news about a competitor in the press and online. You can also use it to find content on your keywords.
GOOGLE ALERTS: Monitor the web for interesting new content, delivered to your inbox daily, based on your queries (by keyword or topic). www.google.com/alerts
HOOTSUITE:
This social media dashboard monitors social media presence and mentions, and also allows you write and schedule posts that will be dispatched to multiple social media platforms. www.hootsuite.com
SUMALL:
The only reporting tool that can visualize your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube accounts along with any other service you use. Know which of your tweets, posts, photos, or videos get the most engagement in seconds https://sumall.com/20ft
Clipping
Clipping is a great way to collect content that is of interest for later use. This is where an editorial calendar comes in handy; when you know in advance what topics you are going to be creating content about, as well as when, you naturally start to gather background info when you find it. Here are some clipping tools to help you with the process:
EVERNOTE:
Multi-platform note-taking application and bookmarking app. www.evernote.com
PINTEREST:
Online bulletin board for collecting, organizing, and displaying information and images. www.pinterest.com
DIIGO:
bookmarking, research, and knowledge-sharing tool with multi-user capabilities. www.diigo.com
Content Suggestion Tools
Content suggestion tools are great aids while you are in the midst of blogging or creating content online. They will suggest related articles, videos, and keywords based on what you are in the midst of typing.
ZEMANTA:
Suggests images, links, tags, and related articles while you write your blog post, and promotes your content. Also available as a browser add-on. www.zemanta.com
REVERB FOR CONTENT:
Makes your content even more relevant and interesting. Offers all the features of Zemanta as well as a built-in dictionary and thesaurus. Add text or thumbnail images. www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/related-content-by-wordnik/
Schedulers
Streamlining the content marketing process is a must for busy business owners and marketers. Scheduling tools vary from a simple one like LaterBro for managing one brand, to something more robust for managing multiple brands and social profiles, like HootSuite. Here are a few tools that allow you to schedule content in advance.
LATERBRO:
Schedules Facebook and Twitter updates. www.laterbro.com
TWEETDECK:
Schedules tweets and posts and connects you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace. www.tweetdeck.com
SOCIAL TOMORROW:
Facebook and Twitter posts. www.socialtomorrow.com
HOOTSUITE:
Helps you monitor and manage multiple accounts and schedule posts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Ping.fm, and WordPress profiles. www.hootsuite.com.
PLEASE NOTE: You may want to watch this video I created on using Google Alerts for Content & PR Monitoring: http://youtu.be/9dD4JxtbT9Q
Writing a book is a lot like having a baby. You need to prepare for the big event; a process often described as painful, yet one that yields beautiful results.