Making people smile is a great (cheap) marketing tactic

I saw a fantastic little idea when buying lunch today. I grabbed a wrap from Zest Wraps at QV. I was already feeling pretty virtous, as they make clear how healthy & low fat their wraps are. But some smart marketing cookie spent a few cents - and some serious brainpower - in making me feel even better after my purchase.

You see, the wraps come in paper. This paper needs to be held together by some sort of tape or sticker. Instead of having a plain old sticker, the little sticker had a little message on it. It said "You're special."

Now, let's not get into why I need a sticker to give me some love. Let's just say, it made me smile. It re-inforced my purchase decision. That little sticker has actually made me keen to buy another wrap and see what the next one says!

And think about it. This is a real "zero budget" idea. It would cost maybe a few CENTS to add this little sticker. But it has BIG impact. It makes a statement about the kind of brand it is. One that cares for you, your health and your happiness.

Yes, I know it was just lunch, but it's a lunch I'll remember, as a consumer not just a marketer.

So what insight is there to be gained from this clever idea? What cheap and easy opportunities are there for YOU to make your customers smile? Are you missing opportunities in EXISTING vehicles, like emails, phone messages or on your packaging. If you make someone happy, they're not only likely to buy again, they're likely to TELL OTHER PEOPLE.

It's marketers gold. For a few, little cents. Congrats, Zest. You're my "zero budget marketing" hero for the week!

Tabasco undertaking some smart ZBM tactics

I was rather excited to read a story in today's Australian about US Sauce company, Tabasco, employing a bit of "zero budget marketing" thinking to expanding it's marketing in Australia.

Admitting they had great brand recognition but not much in the way of a marketing budget, instead of trying to employ mass marketing to get to consumers, they're trying to talk to chefs & restauranteurs - to both use it as an ingredient and have it as a condiment front of house.

This advocacy over advertising is a smart strategy that gets your product in the hands of potential consumers - whilst funding this campaign through channel sales. It's a "trial" opportunity for the brand, sampling in a more smart fashion.

So what can we learn from this? That when it's too hard or too expensive to try and talk to your end market, the smart effort goes to trying to identify a channel and influencers, to get your brand in front of prospects. Who haven't you been talking to that you should have been?...

Another email marketing tool that's the right price (cheap)!

Email marketing is something most business people and marketers live buy, but finding a cheap enough and good enough service can be tricky. Most affordable solutions are US based and I've come across another good one - AWeber. Their monthly fees are reasonable, esp if you don't have a massive list (eg. $US19 for up to 500 subscribers)

But even if you don't want to use their service, I came across a GREAT tip on their blog.

Turn Your Blog’s Best Content Into an Automated Email Newsletter
There’s no reason to put all that hard work into creating great content, then get just one round of clicks, comments and other actions from it. Why be satisfied with that?
Much of your blog’s content isn’t only relevant at one particular time. Get that old content out to them and make it fresh again!
Create an Autoresponder Campaign For Your Blog in 3 Easy Steps:

1. Identify Your Best Content
2. Turn Each Post or Group of Posts Into an Email
3. Add Your Emails To Your Follow Up Series
4. Once you have your emails together, create them as schedule "follow up" messages to subscribers.

You can check out the detailed entry here.

What I really like about this idea is the opportunity to stay in touch with new subscribers/customers for very little effort or cost. It's a great way to manage a user experience with you and not leave it up to them to remember to come back and see you!

Mailchimp also has an RSS to email feature that would help you do this automatically.