Top five marketing blags

Having recently launched my own business after years of ‘working for the man’, I’ve come to appreciate the value of a good deal. To put it more succinctly, I’ve become a bit of a tight-wad and I now understand why clients constantly moan, “does it really have to cost that much?”

It’s not that I’ve gone native and am now slashing my rates (heaven forbid), but I do understand the small business mind-set, particularly of those just starting out or operating on small budgets.

Which is why I thought I’d share my best ‘marketing blags’ with readers of B2B Marketing. Clearly, these are aimed at those of us who have more sense than money, but anyone is welcome to use them. I have to say that these are not all my own ideas, most of the better ones were dreamt up by my business partner Nik Done and others have come from mates who run a variety of businesses up and down the country. So here we go…

 

This might sound a bit mental, but I reckon is one of the last and possibly most powerful bits of real estate that has yet to be exploited for marketing purposes. I don’t mean one’s own business card, but rather business cards of other people, particularly those who are influential, successful and natural networkers. We’ve seen London Underground tickets used for advertising, so why not business cards? Most cards have very little, if anything on the back, and if you approached the right people with the right idea, I reckon you’d get a pretty good take up. For instance, let’s say you’re an up and coming photographer, you find a good stylist, offer to pay for her next run of business cards in exchange for a cool photo and credit on the back. The novelty alone is worth a lot and if nothing else it will get people talking and remembering your name.

 

If you have more than a couple of staff, and you’ve made some sort of provision for them to have cars, you could take a leaf out of the tradesmen’s books and advertise on your fleet of vehicles. Rather than going out and getting some flash motors, you could go to a dealer and get something cheaper and then hire a starving artist to ‘pimp your ride’. Then every time you or your staff roll around town, you’re raising brand awareness and encouraging people to seek you out. It seems to work for Foxtons.

 

Shocking to say, but it is still the most cost-effective of the marketing disciplines and the one most likely to be in reach of start-up businesses. Whilst I don’t want to do myself out of any trade, I think most people are capable of doing some basic PR themselves, at least in the early days.

The obvious thing to do is to issue a press release around a new product launch etc. but a tactic that is far simpler, more effective and costs you nothing is the by-lined article or opinion piece. Basically, you identify a topic on which you feel strongly, and hopefully are knowledgeable about and you contact the relevant newspaper or magazine with your pitch. Keep it simple: best to write it down so you can email it later. It helps if the media in question has written about the topic, but from a different perspective – perhaps there was a recent opinion piece that you disagree with? Alternatively, and this is a good way of trying out various opinions, you could write a letter to the editor.

 

I know this sounds dead obvious, and it is, but it’s also very effective. I have a mate who swears by it and he has an MBA in marketing! Basically, you write directly to a prospect describing who you are, what you do and why you’re writing. It obviously helps if your letter is insightful, witty and beautifully written, but the key is to make it specific, so the recipient knows it’s not some mass mailing. Often these letters are triggered by something you’ve read in the trade or local press or by something someone has told you. Never be tempted to include anything other than a simple letter, on your company stationery, preferably written by the owner of your business or MD. Any brochures or other sales collateral will be a huge turn-off and could backfire. Handwriting the address is a nice touch, and it’s also worth putting ‘private & confidential’ on the letter. If you do this, chances are you’ll get past the PA and other gatekeepers – they’d never dare throw a personal letter in the bin, yet they chuck out masses of ‘professionally written business DM’ .

 

This is not a new idea, but it still works. One of the hardest and most valuable things to do is to bring together a target audience of potential customers – which is why sponsoring a conference is so expensive. So when someone else has bothered to do this, you should take advantage of it! Let’s say your company recycles ink cartridges and you know that there’s a big business fair going on down the road. Rather than spending thousands on sponsoring the event or advertising in their programme, take over the café across the road, get a big banner saying ‘Cartridge Amnesty’ and hand out flyers offering free breakfast to anyone who drops off their business card and an empty cartridge. You can then send a free refilled cartridge to them along with an offer to take up your service.

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