Dippity-do and Aqua Net Too

Issue #877 Dec. 9, 2014
Publisher: Joan Stewart

“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”

In This Issue

Dippity-do and Aqua Net Too
Anatomy of a Perfect Pitch
Beta Testers Needed
Hound Video of the Week

This Week in the Hound House:

I’m giving my brother and each of my two sisters a really fun gift for Christmas. But it’s one of those presents that you can’t think about at the last minute. I had planned this back in August when I saw part of it in the vendor building at the Wisconsin State Fair. The rest of it came together this week. The little snoops read these tips, so I’ll share a photo of it with you after the holidays. Stay tuned…

1. Dippity-do and Aqua Net Too

Q-tips. Vaseline. Oil of Olay. Dippity-do. Chapstick. Pond’s Cold Cream. Dove Beauty Bar. Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair.Clinique Facial Soap. Aqua Net.

When I saw them featured in a six-page spread in an issue of Real Simple magazine earlier this year, it brought back memories.

I remember the time in the eighties when I bought only Clinique beauty products because of a marketing trick that was pure genius. Every woman who worked behind the Clinique sales counter in the department store had to wear a bright white cotton jacket, similar to the ones physicians wear. It gave the illusion that those expensive little containers of jams and jellies were just what the doctor ordered to make me beautiful.

When I was a teenager and it came time to set my hair, I’d grab a hunk of hair, slather on the pink Dippity-do setting gel, and roll the hair onto one of those giant purple plastic rollers that was the size of a tin can.

All those products are among the miracle workers that the magazine has chosen for its Hall of Fame. Three hundred experts, including Real Simple readers and editors, and industry pros, chose the lotions, potions, fragrances and other goop that have claimed their spots in the pantheon of beauty greats.

“Why? Because they are wonderful–and they work,” the article said.

What a fun feature. So why can’t you do the same thing?

Start your own annual Hall of Fame. You can choose three or four products each year, for either personal or business use, that you couldn’t live without. I’m toying with this idea as a way to extend The Publicity Hound brand, and I’m already thinking about a few good candidates for the 2015 Hall of Fame.

This is the perfect time of year to announce your winners for 2014. Share it on the social sites and be sure to let the companies whose products you’ve chosen know that they’re in your Hall of Fame. Many of those big brands have mega-thousands of fans on sites like Facebook.

2. Anatomy of a Perfect Pitch

When you publish great content you’re proud of, do you let bloggers know?

For me, that’s usually an afterthought.

But a few weeks ago, content strategist Nicole Kohler emailed me to let me know that she had created an updated list of Google resources that I previously had written about at my blog.

Her pitch was so beautiful, and so perfect, that I said yes.

One thing led to another. And this morning, she published a post at her company’s blog that includes a Q&A interview with me. You can read the interview.

Early this morning, I published a post at my blog that analyzed her simple pitch and explained what made it great.

Refer to this the next time you create sterling content. It’s a textbook example of how to build valuable relationships with bloggers.

3. Beta Testers Needed

I’m looking for fiction and nonfiction authors who blog and would like to beta test five blog templates for different types of posts.

The templates will be ready in a few weeks, and I’ll give each author a package of five templates to test. I want you to write a blog post using each template, and let me know if they were easy or difficult to use, and if they can be improved.

You’re under no obligation to publish the posts at your blog. I just want you to be my guinea pig (or is it a guinea Hound?). To thank you, I’ll give you a $30 coupon good for products at my website.

If you’re interested, email me and put “Beta Tester” in the subject line. Tell me if you write primarily fiction or nonfiction and give me a link to your blog.

The templates should be ready in a few weeks, so you might want to use the slow time around the holidays to test these.

4. Hound Video of the Week

Thanks to Christine Buffaloe of Serenity virtual Assistant Services for reminding me about this cute little video of what dogs do on Christmas Eve. It’s on my Facebook page.