Celebrate Green! – A case study in DIY marketing

Posted by Karen Renzi

I am a villager.

Not just any villager (and certainly not one of the Village People), but part of the village that is raising a 232-page child. It’s the new book: Celebrate Green! - a fabulous book with down-to-earth eco-tips on how to celebrate holidays a little, or a lot, ”greener.”

I met Lynn Colwell, the mother half of the book’s mother-daughter author team, via Savor the Success, a social network for women entrepreneurs. We were both selected as part of the first team of “official” bloggers on the site. The experience has been phenomenal – with so much mutual support of other members and idea-sharing. Lynn blogged about launching her new book, out this October 1st. Lynn and her daughter Corey self-published the book and are doing all their own marketing, on a shoestring.

And so was born a fantastic idea: build a VILLAGE to raise this “CHILD.” They started by recruiting individuals, like me, interested in helping to advance the book. Now, on a weekly or so basis, they ask each villager to complete one simple task to support awareness for the book.

Lynn took some time out of her very busy schedule to answer a few questions for me about this DIY (do-it-yourself) and FREE idea of “village marketing.” Please read on – I’ve bolded some of Lynn’s insights that I’m sure will help spark your own ideas of how you can draw on the support of your village to help raise your business:

How did you come up with the “villager” concept?

After I sent Celebrate Green! off to the printer, I called Corey, my daughter and co-author and said, “Boy, I feel like I just gave birth!” We’d spent about eight months working on the project with MANY roadblocks that I could equate to the ups and downs of being pregnant. We laughed about the similarities when I had a light bulb moment. “Hey,” I said, “I think we should send out an announcement about our bouncing baby book.” We emailed a few dozen people with the announcement (below).

Celebrate Green! baby announcement

The response was heartwarming and hysterical. “Oh, I hope the labor wasn’t too difficult,” and “I’d love to be the auntie,” things like this. Those responses prompted another idea. A lot of people seemed ready to help. Maybe I could find 50 and ask them to do some things to help us promote the book. I was thinking baby, raising a baby…then the proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” popped into my head and we were off and running.

How many villagers do you have so far and how did you find them?

Approximately 100. [We] started with friends and family and I asked them to pass the word too. Also talked about the concept in forums on websites including Savor The Success, The Switchboards, Biznik, HBWM and Ladies who Launch, Yahoo group momwriters. Generally I’d say it’s about half and half, between friends/family and members of groups I’m affiliated with.

What are the “rules” and expectations of the village?

I send out an email on Monday listing one (mostly) babysitting assignment for the upcoming week. The assignments will take ten minutes or less to accomplish. So for instance, this week, the assignment is to visit one of the blogs on our “blog tour itinerary,” and make a comment. We encourage people to do more, but if everyone did just one, we’d be happy. We also realize that people are busy and will be away etc. so there is no pressure to do the assignments. We hope that people will find it’s fun to participate. We also will be doing some giveaways for various “heroes” of the village as we go along. We think the more fun and the less stressful we make it, the more likely people are to participate. We don’t even require anyone to buy a copy of Celebrate Green! although of course, we encourage it by offering one copy for 40% off the cover price. If anyone reading this is interested, they can learn a bit more here.

What other unique marketing approaches are you using or considering?

I have been in PR many years and know what has worked for me in the past when it comes to publicizing what I’m doing. Because we have absolutely no money for marketing, I’m doing a lot of one-on-one relationship building kinds of things like the blog tour. In everything I do, I try to stimulate wins not only for us, but for the other person as well. For instance, in November, I’m creating a digital coupon page. There is no cost to be a part of this. The only requirement is that the participants offer one item for sale (and of course the item and company need to meet our eco-expectations) for 50% off. I will put the page together and make it available to all of our lists, publicize it wherever I can. Hopefully the participants will do the same. In this way, we are getting the word out about these great companies as well as about Celebrate Green!

We also are partnering with companies that are interested in selling our book in conjunction with a product of theirs. And we’re inviting companies who want to give away an item with the book to join us in this way. We’ve got a number of these co-ventures coming up. Away from the net, we will be speaking and consulting, but instead of a normal “speech,” we’ll be doing what we call “Show ‘n Tell Playshops,” where people learn about celebrating green by participating and having fun.

What has been the most difficult or frustrating thing for you related to marketing the book and why?

The only thing that frustrates me is that I’m not 15 people! The internet has made marketing so much easier and definitely cheaper. There are just too many opportunities and because I try to always personalize everything, it’s very time intensive. That’s why I thought the village was such a great concept because it would allow others to participate in small ways that could have big results without my having to do so much myself.

Tell me your top “gems” to pass on to other DIY marketers.

Others can guide you, but you know your product or service better than anyone.

Brainstorm with yourself and others to come up with ideas and consider them seriously, no matter how crazy. Refine the crazy ones because they usually are the best.

Don’t be afraid to fail.

Try the stuff that costs nothing but time first.

Be bold. Go for it!

 

Don’t forget to visit some of the other blogs on the Celebrate Green! blog tour:

October 1
Jessie Upp & Karin Bigelow
Village Green Gifts
www.village-green-gifts.com

http://www.village-green-gifts.com/536/book-celebrate-green/

Mei Lynn
Rare Bird Finds
http://rarebirdfinds.typepad.com/rare_bird_finds/

Tamara Graham
My True Genius
www.TrueGeniusMagazine.com

New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE)
The NYWSE Blog
www.ywse.org/nywse

October 2
Jenn Savedge
The Green Parent
http://www.thegreenparent.com

Elena Lipson
The EcoDiva – Sustainable Luxury
www.TheEcoDiva.blogspot.com

October 3
Jenn Sturiale
Tiny Choices
www.TinyChoices.com

Ecolibris
http://ecolibris.blogspot.com

October 5
Sarah Sabado   
Photography, Travel and Life
http://sah.i.ph

Week of October 6
Paige Torgrimson
Green Paige
http://www.greenpaige.com

Rebbekah White
Blog title Heal Yourself Talk Radio
http://www.healyourselftalk.com

October 6
Stacy Williams
Sagan’s Universe
http://www.sagansuniverse.blogspot.com/

Shirley Siluk Gregory
Green Living/Suite101.com
http://greenliving.suite101.com,

Julie Northrop
Free Birthday Treats Blog
http://www.freebirthdaytreatsblog.com

Tiffany Washko
Nature Moms
www.naturemoms.com/blog

October 7
Faten Abdallah
Global Arts
http://www.theglobeandthearts.blogspot.com

Cheryl Morgen
Escape to Books
http://escapetobooks.blogspot.com/

Elena Lipson
The EcoDiva – Sustainable Luxury
www.TheEcoDiva.blogspot.com

October 8
Wenona Napolitano 
Green Weddings and More and Creatively Green
www.everythinggreenweddings.blogspot.com

www.creativelygreen.blogspot.com

Shirley Siluk Gregory
EcoLocalizer.com
http://www.ecolocalizer.com

Penelope Anne Bartotto, Interview
The Library at the END of the Universe
http://bookwormsballroom.blogspot.com/

Linda Blanco
SaferForYourHomeAndSelf
www.TriCountyMomsBlog.com

Jen Vondenbrink
Your Life Simplified
www.yourlifesimplified.com/blog1

Diana Ennen
Diana Ennen’s Blog
http://hbwm.biz/wpmu/dianaennen/

Chris Clark
Green Daily
http://www.greendaily.com/2008/10/08/celebrate-green-is-full-of-green-holiday-ideas/

October 9
Angie Goodloe
The Herbalist’s Path
www.herbalistpath.blogspot.com

Amy Woidtke
EcoKind Design, green interior decorating
www.ecokinddesigncom

Health Child Healthy World
http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/think_outside_the_candy_box/

Paige Torgrimson
Green Paige
http://www.greenpaige.com

October 10
Cate O’Malley
The Voice of Mom
www.thevoiceofmom.com

Penelope Anne Bartotto, Review
The Library at the END of the Universe
http://bookwormsballroom.blogspot.com/

Alisa Bowman
Project Happily Ever After
http://www.projecthappilyeverafter.com/happy-qa.asp

October 13
Mark Caserta
3r Living and 3r Blogging
http://www.3rliving.blogspot.com/

Tricia Ballad
Living at the Speed of Life
http://www.triciaballad.com/blog/

Michael Bloch
Green Living Tips
http://www.greenlivingtips.com/blogs/306/Celebrate—the-green-way.html

Andrea Howard
Parentise
http://parentise.com/live/wordpress/?p=21#comment-16

October 15
Jen Vondenbrink
Your Life Simplified (interview)
www.yourlifesimplified.com/blog1

Angie Goodloe
Mama Goin’ Wholistic
http://mamagoinwholistic.blogspot.com/

October 16
Karen Renzi
Beyondus Blog – Musings on Marketing, Web, and Life
http://www.beyondus.com/blogWork-at-Home-Momma
www.workathomemomma.wordpress.com

 

Kirsten Aadahl
EcoWomen
http://ecowomen.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/celebrate-green-the-ecowomens-book-review/

Andrea McMann
Simple Things
http://chocolatefingerprints.net/?p=478#comment-1137

October 17
Bethany Cagle 
Brynna Curry       
http://www.freewebs.com/brynnacurry

Unsure of date
Stacey Kannenberg
Cedar Valley Publishing Blog
www.cedarvalleypublishing.com/blog