"Push" marketing is a trap for the tiny business owner
I decided to count.
I have seen the Coca-Cola logo in four separate locations today. Once on TV, once in my father-in-law’s hand, once at 7-eleven, and once on a soda machine at the airport — and it is only 3 pm.
Now that is branding.
Coca-Cola is voted year after year as one of the Top 3 most valuable brands in the world.
Wake up call: Your tiny business is not Coca-Cola.
Some of your larger competitors may have the ability to advertise the way that Coca Cola does — putting their marketing message in front of people 10′s, 100′s, 1000′s of times per year. In advertising terms we call these experiences with a brand IMPRESSIONS.
You and your similar sized competitors may be trying to grow your business this way as well.
You will go broke.
You will find yourself spending thousands of dollars to run an advertising campaign that will achieve this many impressions on your target market.
There Is a Better Way
In my eBook, Tiny Business, Mighty Profits I unlock the secrets behind a revolutionary type of Internet Marketing called Content Marketing. At the core of this marketing strategy is creating VALUABLE CONTENT to be used as marketing material both online and off-line.
I teach tiny business owners to market the way that I do — using a WordPress business blog to BROADCAST your content to your target market.
This method of marketing is extremely effective because it uses FREE (or inexpensive) technologies on the web to market INFORMATION.
Why Content Marketing Works
I think we established above that you don’t have the marketing budget to go toe to toe with your larger competitors using traditional advertising methods.
But — you still need to get your marketing message and your business in front of your target market as many times as possible.
IMPORTANT: The key is to get your target market to actually SEEK OUT your marketing messages.
How do you do that?
Think about it — what do you SEEK online? Answer — stuff that is valuable.
What Is Valuable?
- Things that make me more successful
- Things that save me time
- Things that protect me or my loved ones
- Things that make me more money
- Things that entertain me
IMPORTANT: Find out what your target market needs and provide these benefits — if you do so — your target market will PULL your marketing message to them instead of you having to PAY money to PUSH your marketing message to them.
Examples of PULL marketing:
- People asking to receive your email newsletter
- People signing up for your RSS feed
- People subscribing to your YouTube channel, Twitter feed or Facebook channel
- People downloading your White Papers
- People subscribing to your podcast or vodcast
- People downloading your eBook
If you are going to get a limited number of IMPRESSIONS on a member of your target market — you must make that one impression so VALUABLE that they will then PULL your marketing to them on a regular basis through some of the methods above.
The real brilliance to this strategy is that once you get a member of your target market to start PULLING your marketing message to them — it costs almost nothing to market to them. You don’t need to run another television, radio or print ad to PUSH your message to them. They WANT it!
When I meet you or your business for the first time, I should be compelled to seek your marketing message in the future — to SUBSCRIBE to your marketing — get busy creating something so valuable that I can’t wait to see what you will say next!
Image credit – purple_onion
Read this related post by Seth Godin on the power of permission in your marketing.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
My website is a work in progress and shouldn’t be published yet.
Your thoughts resonate strongly with my ethos.
I have a great product – but the marketing needs a mountain of work.
@Rod Davies — all websites are (and should be) a work in progress. Gone are the days when a website could sit static and expect to draw traffic and attention from prospects and existing customers. Keep plugging away at it but you should never have a site that sits idle — the work in progress label should be worn as a badge of honor.
Russ – This is a great post with some valuable information! Being a new writer with very little money available for advertising it is great to learn of low cost and free ways to market myself. I am going to use some of your pointers to better identify who my target market is so I can begin to focus in on those audiences.
@kathrynmae Thanks Katie! Keep at it over at kathrynmae.com — it will definitely pay off. I can’t count the number of opportunities that this blog has given me and your blog will do the same if you put in the time and promotion.
Russ.
I took me more than 2 hours, actually almost an entire day to study all the possibilities of your strategy to be successful in selling on the market. You have done an excellent job and I have learned a lot from your instructions. I do not disagree with anything you have written.
These are my conclusions:
To market anything on the web is a giant project. As you point it out, people have to notice your product (just like a good TV commercial) in order to consider to purchasing it. This is where I envision a short video clip. A pretty girl in underwear; with my book in each hand and doing the “cha-cha-cha”.
All kidding aside, I want to establish a video clip with my book as a subject. I would like to place that on YouTube, Facebook and Linkedin . I also have a profile on Amazon, Skype and MSN Messenger.
The next decision by any potential customer is inevitably would have to be a question; Do I need this book? What is in it and who wrote it? So, the next question is how can they get all that information? Well, my Website is http://www.dalefogarasi.com , but
how will they know that? If someone is interested, they need to find it as easily as possible.
With all this and more marketing strategies, I still don’t think I will break even with my book. Why? Because the product is still just an entertaining entity, it’s useful only until you read it. You see Russ, you are the genius, because we need you to learn how to accomplish our dreams and aspirations. That’s not a nock, far from it, it is with great admiration I am writing this. Not only that, but I am willing to grow and learn more from you. Until I see you,
Dale
@Dale Fogarasi — What you have done with your book is amazing! I think you have a tremendous amount to share with us all concerning both the writing and publishing of a book and your experiences as a Hungarian immigrant.