...sign of our times...
Upon being handed a journal as a gift, a nine year-old asks his mom what it was. The mom says that it was a notebook to record his thoughts and feelings, every day. The kid replies, "You mean, it is a blog...on paper." Reader's Digest, Oct 2008 issue240 Marketing Tips
Before I show the Tips, here is the legendary Peter Drucker in his The Essential Drucker (New York: HarperCollins, 2011, p.21), commenting on the “aim” of marketing – which is telling:
The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know
and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells
itself.
Here are the tips, each small and some seemingly trivial, but when a few people work diligently on this list, the collective power might surpass a million-dollar budget, no?
240 marketing tips & ideas checklist
1. Never let a day pass without engaging in at least One Marketing Activity.
2. Determine a Percentage gross income to spend annually on Marketing.
3. Set Specific goals every year; Review & adjust quarterly.
4. Maintain a tickler file for later use.
5. Carry business cards with you every day, ALL day. (They do not do any good in the box!)
6. Create a personal name tag or pin w/your company logo, wear it at high visibility meetings.
7. Stay alert to trends that might impact your target market, product or promotion strategy.
8. Read market research studies about your profession, industry, target market groups, etc…..
9. Collect competitors ads & literature; study them for information about strategy, product features & benefits, etc…
10. Ask clients why they hired you & solicit suggestions for improvement.
11. Ask former clients why they left.
12. Identify a new market.
13. Join a list-serve (e-mail list) related to your profession.
14. Subscribe to an Internet Usenet newsgroups or list-serve that serves your target market.
15. Create a new service, technique or product.
16. Offer a simpler, cheaper, smaller version of your (or another existing) product or service.
17. Update your service.
18. Establish a marketing & public relations advisory & referral team composed of your colleagues & or neighboring business owners to share ideas, referrals, & to discuss community issues. Meet quarterly for breakfast
19. Offer a fancier, more expensive, faster, bigger version of your (or another existing) product or service.
20. Create a suggestion box for employees.
21. Create a suggestion box for customers.
22. Attend a marketing seminar.
23. Read a Marketing Book.
24. Subscribe to a marketing newsletter or publication.
25. Subscribe to a marketing list-serve on the Internet.
26. Subscribe to a marketing Usenet newsgroups on the Internet.
27. Train your staff, clients, & colleagues to promote referrals.
28. Hold a monthly marketing meeting with employees or associates to discuss strategy, status & to solicit marketing ideas.
29. Join an association or organization related to your profession.
30. Get a marketing intern to take you on as a client; it will give the intern experience & you some free marketing help.
31. Maintain a consultant card file for finding designers, writers & other marketing professionals.
32. Hire a marketing consultant to brainstorm with.
33. Take a creative journey to another progressive city or country to observe & learn from marketing techniques used there.
34. Analyze your fee structure; look for areas requiring modifications or adjustments.
35. Establish a credit card payment option for clients.
36. Give quick pay or cash discounts.
37. Learn to barter; offer discounts to members of certain clubs, professional groups, & organizations in exchange for promotions in their publications.
38. Give regular clients discounts.
39. Offer financing or installment plans.
40. Publish a newsletter for customers & prospects. It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive.
41. Develop a brochure of services.
42. Include a postage-paid survey card with your brochures & other company literature. Include check-off boxes or other items that will involve the reader & provide valuable feedback to you.
43. Remember, business cards are not working for you if they are in the box. Pass them out! Give prospects two business cards & brochures. One to keep & one to pass along .
44. Produce separate business cards & sales literature for each of your target market segments. Gov., Commerce, Business, & Consumer
45. Create a poster or calendar to give away to customers & prospects.
46. Print a slogan & or one sentence description of your business on a letterhead, fax cover & invoices.
47. Develop a site on the World wide web, www.yoursite.com
48. Create a signature file to be used for all your e-mail messages. It should contain contact details including your web site address & key information about your company that will make the reader want to contact you.
49. Include testimonials from customers in your literature.
50. Test a new mailing list. If it produces results, add it to your current direct mail list or consider replacing a list that’s not performing up to expectations.
51. Use colored or oversized envelopes to pique recipients curiosity. Also try using the Mail Bumps Technique. Simply place a small object in the letter that creates a bump, retroactively creating curiosity to open it rather than throwing it in the trash.
52. Announce free or special offers in your direct response pieces. Include the offer in the beginning of the message & also on the outside of the envelope for direct mail.
53. Update your media lists often so that press releases are sent to the right media outlet & person.
54. Write a column for the local newspaper, local business journal, or trade publication.
55. Publish an article & circulate reprints.
56. Send timely & newsworthy press releases as often as needed.
57. Publicize your 500th client of the year or other notable milestones.
58. Create an annual award & publicize it as an outstanding employee of the year.
59. Get public relations & media training or read up on it.
60. Create your own TV program on your industry or specialty. Market the show to your local cable station or public broadcasting station as a regular program. Or, see if you can air your show on an open access cable channel.
61. Write to the editor of your local newspaper or trade magazine editor.
62. Get publicity photo taken & enclose with press release.
63. Consistently review newspapers & magazines for ideas.
64. Take an editor to Lunch.
65. Appear on a radio or TV Talk show.
66. Submit “Top” articles to newsletters & Newspapers.
67. Conduct Industry research & Develop a press release or article to announce an important discovery in your field.
68. Create a press kit & keep its contents current.
69. Ask your clients to come back again.
70. Return phone calls promptly.
71. Use answering machine or voicemail system for after-hours phone calls. Include basic information in your outgoing message such as business hours, location, etc…
72. Record a memo or “tip of the day” on your outgoing answering machine or voice message.
73. Set up fax or e-mail system to respond to customers.
74.Ask clients what you can do to help.
75. Take clients to a ball game, a show, or another special event – just send them two tickets with a note.
76. Send hand written thank you notes.
77. Hold a seminar at your office for clients & Prospects.
78. Send Birthday cards & appropriate seasons greetings.
79. Photo copy interesting articles & send them to clients & prospects with a hand written “FYI” note & your business card.
80. Send a book of interest or other appropriate business gift to a client with a hand written note.
81. Create an area on your website specifically for your customers. (Community, Services, Forum, Link Exchange, Classifieds, etc.
82. Join a Chamber of Commerce or other organization.
83. Redecorate your office or location where you meet with your clients.
84. Join or organize a breakfast club with other professionals (Not in your field) to discuss business & network referrals.
85. Mail a brochure to members of organizations to which you belong.
86. Serve on a city board or commission.
87. Host a holiday party.
88. Hold an open house.
89. Send letters to attendees after you attend a conference.
90. Join a community list-serve (E-mail list) on the internet.
91. Advertise during Peak seasons for your business.
92. Get a memorable phone number.
93. Obtain a memorable URL & E-mail address & include them on all marketing materials.
94. Provide Rolodex cards or phone stickers pre-printed with your business contact information.
95. Promote your business jointly with other professionals Via Cooperative direct Mail & or e-mail.
96. Advertise in a specialty directory or in the yellow pages.
97. Write an ad in another language to reach a non-English speaking market. Place the ad in a publication that market reads, such as a Hispanic newspaper.
98. Distribute advertising specialty products such as pens, mouse pads, mugs, etc…
99. Mail “Bumps”, Photo, samples, or other innovative items that create a small bulge in the letter to create curiosity.
100. Create a direct mail list of Hot prospects.
101. Consider non-traditional tactics of advertising such as bus benches, bus backs, billboards & popular web sites.
102. Project a message on the sidewalk in front of your place of business using a light directed through words in a glass window.
103. Consider placing ads in your local newspaper classifieds section.
104. Consider a vanity automobile tag with your company name.
105. Create a friendly bumper sticker for your car.
106. Code your ads & keep track of the results.
107. Improve your building signage & directional signs inside & Out.
108. Invest in a neon sign to make your office window visible at night.
109. Create a new or improved company logo or slogan.
110. Get a booth at a fair or trade show attended by your target market.
111. Sponsor or promote a contest or sweepstakes.
112. Sponsor or Host a special event or open house at your business in cooperation with a local non-profit Organization.
113. Give a speech or volunteer for a career day at a high school.
114. Teach a class or seminar at a local collage or adult education center.
115. Volunteer your time to a charity or non-profit Organization.
116. Sponsor an “Adopt-a-Road” area in your community to keep roads litter-free. People that pass by the area will see your name on the sign announcing your sponsorship.
117. Donate your product or service to a charity auction.
118. Appear on a panel at a professional seminar.
119. Produce & Distribute an educational cd-rom, audio, video tape, Multimedia presentation (Virtual).
120. Write a “How to” pamphlet or article for publishing.
121. Publish a Book.
122. Start every day with 2 cold calls.
123. Give your sales literature to your lawyer, accountant, printer, banker, temp-agency, office supply store, etc… (For free advertising)
124. Put your fax number on order forms for easy submission.
125. Create Special promotions on a daily, weekly, monthly, & yearly basis.
126. Put flyers & or posters in laundromats, Company Break rooms, Bulletin Boards, College Campuses, Pool Halls, Dance Clubs, Restaurants, Etc..
127. Put web address & short promo on local internet chat lines (live) in intervals of once every 5-10 minutes for 1-3 hours advertising your company website.
128. E-mail special business packages to small / mid-sized companies across the market zones advertising company products, services, promotions & programs. Include a free coffee mug, coaster, shirt, etc. with your company name & logo fo free PR / advertising efforts.
129. Plant internal advertisers (Bird Dogs) in large corporations. Have the employee (Bird Dog) advertise your products / services throughout the corporation & offer him/her a commission on all sales made Via his efforts. Make sure to have him/her where your company name/logo (Supply him/her with free marketing material).
130. Design a shopping bag with your company logo on it so that every customer continues advertising for you whereever they carry the bag.
131. Track all your sales on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis. Keep track of your closing percentages at all times.
132. Have a mobile unit in the field equipped with a cell phone, laptop, marketing materials, etc.. for field sales & transactions.
133. Set-up a booth in a mall, store, flea market, or well populated area for 1-7 days aiding in your PR.
134. Have a Large vehicle covered with your company name, logo, contact info, etc. for mobile use & parking in populated area parking lots.
135. (Canvassing) Have some of the local teenagers hand out & post flyers for your company to aid in your promotions. Door hangers are great for canvassing.
136. Open a foreign language department in your company to target another ethnic group.
137. Have a flag pole with your country’s flag on top & your specially designed Company Flag under it waving in the wind at high visibility.
138. Never get emotionally involved in your work. Business is Business & pleasure is pleasure.
139. 3Ds::: Dedication, Determination, Discipline.
140. 5Ps::: Proper, Preparation, Prevents, Poor, Performance.
141. Open stock for your company at your earliest convenience. Sell the shares for extra financial aid & to further advertise for your company & expand possibilities.
142. Use Flashing lights on your storefront (Like in Las Vegas) to attract attention.
143. (Air-Banner) Have a Plane with a Large air-banner fly overhead near a Largely populated area or special event.
144. Advertise at your local church functions.
145. Target apartment’s when canvassing as well.
146. Use a Semi trailer covered with your company marketing message & park it in a well populated area.
147. Get your company logo on a milk carton, cereal box, soup can, etc… products that are already in the open market nationally.
148. Sponsor a food drive or homeless shelter.
149. Put tabs on all your flyers so that consumers can simply pull the tab with your contact info & leave the flyer for others to see. (Note: pull a few tabs yourself to give it the look of popularity).
150. when sponsoring, put your banner or sign in a highly visible place so that people will know you sponsored the event.
151. Initiate a referral program so that your current clients / members / customers can receive discounts, bonuses, & rewards.
152. Price match your competitors at all times.
153. Match your competitors advertising & add something different & unique to peek / sway more interest.
154. Brainstorm ideas with friends, family, employees, etc..
155. Utilize all the free internet advertising space (Free classifieds, Free directories, Free communities, Free link exchanges, Free Traffic exchanges, etc..
156. Work out a joint advertising / Marketing agreement with your current clients.
157. Put together a pamphlet off all the companies you cross market / advertise with to aid in PR boosting.
158. Hold a Free training Class.
159. Have students advertise in there school for you.
160. Advertise at your Local Airport
161. The first impression to a potential client / customer / member counts, it will make or break your sale.
162. Typically you have 6 seconds to make your initial first impression.
163. Typically it takes the average consumer 10 times of seeing an ad before they look more into it.
164. Open off-shores accounts to generate the opportunities of expansion & to aid in reaching another ethnic market.
165. E-mail proposals from the chamber of commerce’s contact lists.
166. Classifieds & Directories are Great lead sources when you own one. create one to start building a list.
167. Hire an attorney to handle your political & legal issues.
168. Have a costume designed to be worn at your store front to attract consumers to stop & visit.
169. Put together a Promo folder & place tabs on each category for easy referencing.
170. Make sure your website has the ability to accept several forms of payment. (Not everyone likes to use the same one)
171. Open a commercial office (If you do not have one yet)
172. Open a second business in another market.
173. Establish an employee exchange program with another country allowing you to expand your advertising reach & ideas.
174. Get a medical, dental, vision, 401k, etc. to aid in PR / Moral along with long term employment.
175. Greet everyone you meet & or pass with a smile.
176. Start your own internet radio station. It could be related to the theme of your web site and you could advertise your products over the station.
177. Turn your banner ad into a trivia question. Post the question on the banner and tell readers they can win a prize if they answer the question at your site
178. Clone your advertisements all over the internet by allowing your visitors to give your online freebies away. Just include your ad somewhere inside it.
179. Make your products sell quickly by adding a ton of bonuses. You could get the free bonuses for little or no cost buy joint venturing with other businesses.
180. Tell your visitors to bookmark your website & provide a simple button/link they can click to do it.
181. Tell your visitors to subscribe to your e-zine / newsletter & provide a subscribe page.
182. Ask your visitors to participate on your online discussion board. (Having a forum is one thing, Now tell your visitors to go there)
183. Ask your visitors to sign your guest book. (Having a Guest book is Great, Now tell you visitors to sign it)
184. Allow your visitors to use your articles on their own web site, Newsletter, or e-zine as long as they provide an Author Link back to you.
185. Ask your visitors to refer your web site to a friend(s).
186. Ask visitors to fill out your online survey or questionnaire to help in a market analysis project.
187. Ask your visitors to enter your online contest or sweepstakes.
188. Allow your visitors to give away your online freebies to people that visit your web site as long as there is a Link back to your site.
189. Analyze your Ad Copy, decrease or increase the length of your ad copy as needed.
190. Sub headlines act just like headlines; they grab the readers attention. (Add some)
191. By asking questions throughout your website, The visitor will answer the questions in their own head as they read your website & make the experience more interactive.
192. Highlight/Bold Key Words, the keywords should be attractive to your target audience.
193. Most people won’t read a whole website, so make your product’s benefits standout and you won’t lose the sales from all the skimmers. Use Bullets / Bold to separate your sections & make the Visitors choice(s) easily Navigated.
194. Remember, psychologically a higher price increases a product/service Value, while a lower price decreases the Value. Cheaper is Not always better, it simply reflects the Value of the product/service in question.
195. You should include testimonials, endorsements, and factual statistics to prove your product/service claims. (Added Viability)
196. Remember, unless your product calls for technical words, you want your ad to be read without people pulling out a dictionary.
197. Offer to sell advertising space inside electronic products like ebooks, software, subscription sites, Newsletters, etc.
198. Don’t forget to list your Features along with the benefits of each product/service.
199. Give your visitors a good impression when they first visit your web site. Don’t make the first thing they see at the top of your home page a banner ad.
200. Make sure to place a Partners page & an Organizations page on your site. The Organizations you participate in along with who your partners are shows Credibility.
201. Bonus coupons & gift certificates are a Great way to promote your Product/Service. (Have some designed with tracking #‘s & send them out to your List(s) of choice for a boost in sales potential).
202. Team-up with your weaker competitors to beat your stronger competitors. You can create a joint venture and cross promotion deals that will pass-up the stronger competition.
203. Offer your customers back-end products. If you do not have any back-end products, Join an affiliate or PPC program for additional revenues. Selling to current clients/members/customers is considered a captive audience & produces higher conversion rates.
204. You can include pictures, hand written signatures and contact information with each testimonial to make it a bigger impact on the target consumer / audience.
205. Don’t forget to Up-sell your clients/members/customers. Offer Upgrades, add-ons, revised, etc…
206. Talk to a Cab driver & establish a local / joint advertising campaign with incentives. A cab driver can prove to be a Great asset handing out your business card to EVERY customer that rides in his/her cab. (Note: there are independant owner operator drivers as well, you may be able to make a larger scaled advertising deal with one).
207. Place a picture of yourself on your website & or Marketing message. This shows the viewer you are not hiding behind the site & or Message.
208. If you have had any famous customers (Nationally know / broadcasted) mention them as a client/customer/member to boost your ratings.
209. List any posative reviews, articles, etc. another company wrote about you.
210. If you have Published any books, articles, e-zines, newsletter, etc.. mention them in your ad copy.
211. Consider adding a Money Back Guarantee to remove some psychological risk factors from potential Clients / Customers / Members.
212. Make a complete list of your product/service benefits and features. Start your ad copy with the most important benefit either in your headline or first sentence.
213. Make sure your ad copies benefits are as specific as possible. Include exact numbers, percentages, times, colors, smells, sounds, descriptive adjectives, etc.
214. Having a Unique product/service is important – List all the ways your product/service is different from your competition’s. Include all the differences in your ad copy that are better than their product.
215. Do Not rule out Visual aid – Use graphics, pictures and drawings of people actually using your product/service to solve their problem. Include a picture that also shows the results.
216. Customer service is a Must have – Tell your audience what kind of support they’ll get after they buy. It could be free consulting, tech support, free servicing, etc.
217. Let the consumer tell you how to sell them – in your surveys, make sure to direct the questions around your consumer Vs. your Product/Service. The answers they give will help you understand what they want & why. Use their wants & needs to update your ad copy & provide them with it.
218. Install a Live chatroom on your website & hold a free training session.
219. Create a long-term follow-up system that provides lots of value to your prospects and start building relationships for the long haul.
210. Offer a free training course on your website to aid in repeat(s). You can add a new course once per week or Month.
211. AVOID using scrolling Marquees & or banners that are very flashy, they make it hard for the visitor to concentrate on the actual content. (Very distracting)
212. Divide your product / Service price over a period of time. (give it the psychological feel of affordability)
213. Add How To articles to your site: providing step by step instructions to your visitors on how to use a product or service.
214. Provide News Related Articles: giving the visitor information about updates, market trends, stock, business flux, press releases, employee of the month, etc…
215. Include Interview articles: they can be of employees, clients, members, political parties, competition, etc..
216. Visual Content Helpers: charts, graphs, etc…
217. Entertaining content: tests, quizs, puzzles, surveys, polls, etc..
218. Technology content: Streaming video, Mp3, Audio clips, etc..
219. Remember the basic top 10: Put your best foot forward, Make eye contact, Are you a reflection of your Company, Keep an open mind, Become Necessary, Like the people that like you (even if they annoy you), watch your mouth, mind your mannors, don’t be fake, & Stay Hip with the times.
220. P.S. Tends to be used in letter writing, why not add it to your ad copy. (Make it good, people tend to read a P.S.
221. Lets not forget about your problems, while Visitors do like to hear about how you can help them, the like to know others have problems to. A trust building tactic showing that your not perfect either.
222. Tell the potential something they already know. Helps build trust in your other Content.
223. If you haven’t Organized your site into categories, nows the time to do it, Visitors like Organization.
224. Use the Site Sale technique, simply advertise your business is for sale, set the price 3 or 4 times higher than its actual worth. You might actually decide to sell it if someone matches your offer. At worst, you will make people curious and boost traffic.
225. Auction off a few of your products/services just to get your name out there.
226. Let your visitors know you donate a % of profits to a local/national charity.
227. Surprises can come in handy, have a contest with a surprise gift (do not disclose what the gift is).
228. Keep your headlines relevant, theres nothing worse than a headline that is not relevant to the content it supports.
229. Repetition tends to insure the human brain soaks in more of the key content you want your viewers to remember. Repeat it a few time in creative ways.
230. Lets refrain from talking about ourselves too much. Thats what the about us page is for. Talking too much about you could back fire.
231. Refrain from using pop-ups, while they do tend to work, they also upset the majority of visitors & cause them never to return. You need to focus on retention / conversion / referral, not just conversion. the quick sale is great, however all the potentials lost for the long run game will surely hinder your rate of success.
232. Keep the site simple, when a visitor gets to your site & is hit with “download this in order to view” it tends to detour them.
233. Dead links kill. if you have ever been on a site & saw a link that fit your needs perfectly, got you excited, & then when you clicked it it went to a 404 error page or site not found browser error, 9 times out of 10 it ruin your impression of the main site & you didn’t go back. Your visitors do that to, fix any dead links.
234. Stay away from the registration in order to view tactic, try offering some free content so they can at least take a test drive first. Not many people will get married without at least going on one date first.
235. Check your load time, the slower the load time the more visitors you lose. Java, Flash, Large files, Over abundance of images, errors, etc. can cause a page to load slow. Remember that the majority of the world is still on dial-up and/or have slower processors.
236. Add a news type section that only tells the visitor whats been updated, added, and the date of the adjustment. People like to see recent activity.
237. For large sites, a site search option is a must, look into it.
238. Keep visitors on your site longer by holding a Mystery Prize hunt contest.
239. Reduce the amount of outbound links And increase the amount of inbound links to your site. No sense in having more ways to leave than enter a store is there?
240. if your product/service loses its drive/demand in a targeted market then its time to redesign/re-target for a new market. Do not make the mistake of failing to adapt to change in the industry and going stagnant.
Source of this info
Name of poster: scorpionagency