Publicity + Marketing
There’s this beautiful little place in the woods of Michigan’s upper peninsula that hardly anybody knows about. To get there, you cross from the mainland United States over a bridge that hardly anyone would recognize, and travel 200 miles along a highway that hardly anyone uses. You cross through a national forest whose name hardly anybody has heard, and run along the shore of a giant lake that hardly anybody ever swims in. After another 60 miles, you cross yet another bridge even lesser known than the first, and wind your way up a steep hill into a town whose heyday hardly anybody remembers. Pass a few old mines (still standing tall because people around here could really build a structure that lasts), make a few turns, and look westward. Just before your eyes meet the chilling expanse of Lake Superior, you'll see a little place with a green roof, decorated with prayer flags, hiding amid the cedar trees.
This place is where I do most of my writing. It’s where I’ve done my best work. And, despite being about as remote as any place can be, it’s where my best clients have found me.
Publicity and marketing don’t play by the old rules of who can shout the loudest. Your best publicity happens when you free yourself up to tell the story of your company—not the story you wish it had, but the one that starts from right where you are. It could be a physical place, or simply a state of mind. To you, it’s just home. But to your customer, it’s wonderful and new, a place where they’d like to be. All you need to do is send out the message that helps them find you.