What You Can Learn From The Woman With The Little Black Book
September 18, 2007
The woman with the little black book has written 25 best selling books, and is estimated to be worth $200 million.
She’s not only the queen of raunchy fiction. Jackie Collins is an expert at creating a huge buzz to sell her books. And here are 3 methods she has used that you can apply to your business:
Involve People Who Will Spread The Word
Many years ago rumours spread that Jackie’s characters were based on real life people. She had a little black book, giving details of all the “real” characters of each of her novels. And the contents of the book would be revealed after she died.
As a result, Hollywood’s rich and famous flocked to Jackie to share their most intimate secrets in the hope of becoming “a star” in one of Jackie’s books. They told all their friends, who also told the media, which persuaded thousands to buy the books so they could guess which famous star they were based on.
How You Can Do It: Give a key group of your customers an incentive to spread the word about your business. Make sure you focus on a small, influential group of people who will benefit from spreading the word in some way.
She Helped Her Customers to Create an Identity Legacy
The average human being wants to be remembered after they die. And by including them in one of her novels, Jackie is offering them this chance.
How You Can Do It: You don’t need to write a best selling novel to offer your customers an identity legacy. Consider the popularity of companies who offer to name stars after people. And have you seen all the bricks on the walkway with names on them in Walt Disney World? The company made a fortune selling those bricks. Think about what you can do to offer your customers a chance to have their name live on after they die.
She Created Controversy
Jackie claimed that a famous rock star had threatened to sue her, because he believed her novel – “Rock Star” was based on him. Nobody would know for certain whether her claim was true, as obviously, the Rock Star could not be named. But people flocked to buy the book in the hope of guessing who the rock star was and discovering what juicy gossip he desperately wanted to hide.
How You Can Do It: Can you make a controversial claim about your product or service that will attract people’s curiosity? Perhaps it has a secret ingredient? This works particularly well for the world famous Grasmere Gingerbread shop.
Joanne Wilson who manages the shop says that the gingerbread has a secret recipe and she sleeps with the only person who knows the ingredients (her husband makes the gingerbread!)
These three powerful marketing ideas have helped Jackie Collins make millions. And I hope they can inspire you too. But spend some time thinking about it and don’t expect ideas to come overnight. Remember, you just need to come up with one amazing marketing idea to skyrocket your business.
Comments
4 Responses to “What You Can Learn From The Woman With The Little Black Book”
-
Successful And Outstanding Blogger
Title remind me of Little Green Book. Creating controversies is a good way to get well known.
Just curious, where do you find these stories to create a relevant post? How long did it take?
Hi Sean – Most of them are in my head. I have a great long term memory, but a poor short term one unfortunately.
Also, I get them from just from seeing and reading things I suppose, then thinking about them. I probably spend more time thinking about them than anything else.
They don’t really take long to write. I usually write them in the mornings as it’s quicker, and I’m ashamed to say I don’t do much editing or rewriting.
What is Little Green Book?
Little Green Book is the Science of Getting Rich book, not sure if you heard, but when the Secret movie launched, it was very big and popular.
I have poor short term memory too
Now where is my key again….
Hi Sean – I did read some of that book, as I got it as a free ebook. It was a lot like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.