The cofounder of the ad agency that created the GEICO gecko and caveman has formed a firm to deliver what he says is a proven methodology for building market share for service and consulting businesses––positioning their chief executives as thought leaders, or the “go to” people of their industries, by helping them package and show off their knowledge in book form.
Richmond, VA (PRWEB) November 23, 2009 -- Stephen Hawley Martin, who with his brother David founded The Martin Agency, a top ad firm serving GEICO, Wal-Mart and BFGoodrich, has formed a new marketing firm called Thought Leader Marketing (TLM).
“Thought Leader Marketing will be dedicated to helping leaders of service and consulting businesses achieve thought leader status in their industries,” Martin said. “This is not for ego gratification, but for a very practical reason. The largest share of business invariably finds its way to the firm headed by an individual seen as the go-to person in a field.”
TLM’s approach will start with writing a book. “We’re looking for clients who have a passion for their field and something compelling to say, clients who have thought deeply about the subject they deal in,” Martin said. “Perhaps they have thought about writing a book, or maybe they have even begun. We will help them mold their ideas into a book concept with potential for commercial success, and find a publisher. Then we will help bring the book to reality with ghostwriting and editorial services.”
A client firm’s leader then needs to be willing to hit the interview and lecture circuit. As a book nears its publication date, TLM’s team will work to line up speaking engagements as well as radio and television interviews.
“It definitely takes commitment,” Martin said. “But the payoff can be spectacular. Books such as Profiles in Courage by John Kennedy and The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama helped their authors get elected president of the United States. And think what books like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and In Search of Excellence did for their authors.”
Martin should know about book publishing and what a book can do for its author. He has written, ghost written, or edited dozens of books, ten under his own name that include two business management titles and four novels. He is the only three-time winner of the Writer’s Digest Book Award, and he has won first place awards for excellence in writing from Independent Publisher and USA Books News. He is also the founder and publisher of The Oaklea Press, a book publishing firm with a successful line of business books. (See Oaklea’s business book Web site, www.LeanTransformation.com.)
Martin is joined by James A. Bacon Jr., former publisher of Virginia Business magazine and, more recently, VP-Publishing of the Boomer Project.
More about Thought Leader Marketing can be found at www.ThoughtLeaderMarketing.net.
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