A picture that summarises the value of marketing

To call on an old cliche: A picture tells a 1000 words.

I snapped this recently as I felt it perfectly summarised what it is that a marketing approach will bring to a business. Someone's witty little message - "Junk collected, antiques sold" - gets to the heart of the matter.

A marketing approach should do the following:

- Realise you're selling an emotional response rather than just a product or service (your product or service SAYS SOMETHING about the person buying it, if only to them)
- Recognising that clever copy, and the right words, can make all the difference
- Sell the benefits, not just features.
- Price matters - and that budget or discount isn't the only pricing choice.
- Have a clear message and know the value of being a specialist in something, so that people know when to buy from you
- Know what it is your target market is looking for so that you can sell it to them (which involves the marketing golden rule of first putting yourself in their shoes)

So, don't think like a business owner; think like a marketer. Buy junk, sell antiques.

PS. And for a zero budget, yet highly effective, marketing tool, you can't go past the chalk board. They stand out so well these days because everything else is so "slick" and they have an unbeatable nostalgia value, plus the benefit of allowing you to change your message daily!

Small or no store front? Creative solution!

If you've got a physical, but limited, store frontage, there's no excuse not make the most of it.

I spotted this fabulous little example in Byron Bay. It's a sky dive business and the ONLY store frontage it had was a staircase - the whole business was upstairs.

So not only had some bright spark decided that some eye catching colour was needed. They took it a step further and got zero budget marketing creative. They've painted various ascending heights on each of the steps.


Simple - check
Effective - check
Cheap - check
Clever - check

What asset - physical or otherwise - are you currently not making the most of?

Free list of tools to help select Google keywords

Search engine optimisation is zero budget marketing gold for many businesses. It's also something pretty basic that MOST businesses don't get.

Understanding WHAT keywords people are searching for - and thus what you should potentially NAME your business or ensure you write about in your copy - is the first step. I am by no means an SEO expert, but I've regularly been able to get very quick traffic & buyer growth for clients just by updating copy and headers to include the right keywords. Many website use way too little copy, so just a little can go a long way!

Whilst there are paid tools and services around to work out what services you should use, Google has several of it's OWN tools that you can use.

Google Insights and Google Adwords Keyword tool are two that I've used regularly, but thought I'd share this helpful and comprehensive post from Link Assist which has TWELVE free Google tools you can use.

How to stop your flyer being thrown away

This little piece of zero budget marketing gold comes our way via a somewhat battered, self delivered, produced on a home printer with no graphic design, flyer from a local electrician. It hit my mailbox, amongst the bills, rare letter and catalogues that are usually there.

So what makes this little flyer worth talking about? After giving it a quick glance, I DIDN'T throw it out.
It survived the "chuck test" and made it onto my fridge, then my metre box.

Why?

It told me not to throw it out, and gave me a reason.

At the bottom of the flyer it said:

"Dont throw this away. Put it in your metre box in case you ever need an electrician in an emergency."

So simple, but effective. If , like many people, you don't have your own electrician of speed dial, this makes so much sense that I felt compelled to follow the flyers instructions.

This is what good marketing should be. A potential solution to a problem-and often a problem you didn't realize you had!

This electrician got this. That it isn't about spending a tones on design and delivery if you don't have the message right.

It also shows that "unaddressed delivery", the cheapest of "direct mail" ( you can letterbox drop yourself or pay Australia post around 13-14 cents an item) can get a result. Not every time, and perhaps only when I have an electrical fault, but with a clever enough message, it's a zero budget marketing winner.