Imagine this…you are in the bathroom, about to finish up your business, look over to the roll of toilet paper to find three dangling sheets staring you in the face. You think to yourself, “Oh Shit…WTF am I going to do?” Amid your little “moment” you use your head and resources available and find a way to get out of the “crappy situation” (pun intended)…and manage to come out smelling like a rose.
While this experience is one that we would rather not think about, it is however an experience that we all as entrepreneurs can relate to at some point along our entrepreneurial journey…Not to mention when we think about our current and future marketing plans for our business.
It is this experience alone a successful entrepreneur and author named Mike Michalowicz wrote a brand new book appropriately titled “The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur”
I was introduced to the book through a friend a couple days ago, and after investigating their marketing I simply couldn’t ignore how they rolled this book out. The message/content and way they went about the full rollout was TOP NOTCH.
Not only are they building an amazing brand, but further, they are killing it in the social media space, getting attention from big media outlets, and have built a volunteer sales force that is costing them nothing to market their book for them…and yes they have done this all in about 4 months.
In this post I would like to examine what they have done to create such a successful launch, by highlighting some of the innovative marketing things they are doing, so you can duplicate some of these elements to help you market your own products.
Lets start with their message…
From their marketing they are looking to be a category creator for a new niche of first time/new entrepreneurs who are looking to build or run a successful business on a very tight budget. They are attracting their audience with engaging content, and leveraging the social media platform to spread their message to their intended market.
The author’s message to his audience is one that blends funny and serious at the same time, but no matter what angle he takes, he is always teaching his audience something in all content that is sent out always encouraging them to purchase the book.
Mike is differentiating his product on quality, and from what I can see it looks like they want to be the next Rich Dad Poor Dad for Entrepreneurship.
Now with their website…
As you can see from the website it is perfectly laid out. I feel like I am in the middle of a bathroom only working with “Three Sheets of Toilet Paper” to help me get my business off the ground. The book is in plain site, features some great copy to look at, and gives the visitor options to buy the book on amazon or directly through the site.
One crucial element they are doing is building a newsletter list, and also giving away the forward and first chapter of the book all for free! As you put your name into the form you are directed to a page to download all of the free goodies, and then are asked to refer 3 new people to the site in exchange for more great content! I really like this part of the site with how viral it can grow.
Also by being on this list, you are mailed a monthly newsletter that is only 1 page long with different things to help you in building your business.
They also have a fantastic blog that has a ton of beneficial content on it, a well designed media page, and a great laundry list of testimonials from some big names promoting the book!
How about Social Media…
- FACEBOOK
From what my friend tells me, he said the site was launched on July 2nd, and the very first thing Mike and his team did was create a facebook group and a facebook page…which now boast an audience of 1500+ members that grows by the day without them…due to the viral nature of facebook.
They leveraged the group by using it as the initial exposure to TPE by putting links in the group to the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur Website. They also put a link to the fan page in the group as well to give visitors the option to join as well.Now remember…It costs NOTHING to mail that list which is pretty remarkable in itself!
The way my friend said they built the list was by having a couple people on the TPE team send invites to their entire friends list to join the group. As people joined the group, it would show up on their personal news feeds…and as they joined the snowball just kept rolling down the hill….and the list continued to grow.
What is really interesting also is that the author is an active participant in the group and is pretty transparent with the people who choose to participate.
- YOUTUBE/VIMEO Another other medium that the author is leveraging is social video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo. What is really interesting is how they are leveraging these video sites with the platform they have built on facebook with their message.By releasing funny/educational videos…and videos that are some great content to share, it brings a great balance for the brand itself. Once videos are published they let their audience know on facebook through messages, as well as by using the “posted item” feature that goes into newsfeeds.
Here are some examples…
Funny video on Vimeo
Toilet Paper Entrepreneur – VLOG 6 – The Mob from Toilet Paper on VimeoSerious video on Vimeo
Start & Grow a Healthy Business in a Recession from Toilet Paper on Vimeo - TWITTER/UTTERLI
The author is also leveraging Twitter and Utterli in helping him stay in front of his audience, helping him strengthen the community that he has built.
- Digg/Reddit/Stumble
The author and his team are also leveraging the powerful traffic generating sites such as Digg Reddit and Stumble. From what my friend has told me, Digg and Reddit traffic are the most “ADD type” traffic of them all, while stumble traffic has been the stickiest with the lowest bounce rate.Here are some posts that have been successful on some of the sites themselves…
- BlogTalkRadioThe night before the authors book launch he did an hour long blog talk radio show that he let his facebook group list know about beforehand on what the 8 Attributes of a TPE with some great question and answer.Here is the link to the BTR show
As you can see they have been leveraging all of these free social media tools to help them spread their message out far and wide to their intended market. Their audience is growing every day, and by default people are sharing these videos and different media with their friends without them asking…brilliant!
While it does take a lot of work to implement all of these different tools, the payoff can be very nice.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
I wholeheartedly believe in this exact type of social media marketing campaign that TPE is doing – I think if you aren’t doing it, you are missing something substantial.
But you do seem to place a lot of emphasis on the numbers of friends on facebook. I am curious as to what makes you think those ‘fans’ or ‘friends’ are really actively interested in the book and/or promoting it themselves (virally).
My experience with Facebook lately is that it is turning into what MySpace long ago became. The numbers of followers or friends really means nothing, as everybody is trying to leverage those numbers basically as a way of legitimizing their presence on that site. In my personal experience, I have never had a friend request turned down, even when I’ve mistakenly requested the wrong friend. Why did they friend me if they didn’t know me? If friending is so simple, so thoughtless, then what value does it really propose other than a marginal increase in visibility?
I’m not suggesting that these social networks shouldn’t be used, but I wonder why you cite having 1500+ as impressive and valuable. Why aren’t we measuring something like active percentages? Something like 77% of our friends are posting on our page once a month. 41% post more than once a month. Etc.
Those are numbers that mean something.