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.

How to build a cheap iphone or ipad app without programming experience

As a recent iPad purchaser, though long time iphone user, I thought I should do a little more investigation into apps. Whilst there are over two hundred thousand around, there doesn't seem to be THAT much that is useful for a business user.

So I wondered....as an app is pretty much a little piece of software, how much would it cost? Is it out of the realm of zero budget marketing to build your own app without being a programmer, or having to pay a programmer?

Turns out the answer is....yes, you can build a DIY app on a very small budget.

There are actually quite a few online app builders, where you can make your own app, and pay a relatively small monthly subscription for the service. Around $40 seems the norm.

Now, the catch is, these aren't super cool apps that do super cool things. They're somewhat like a mini-mobile website. So unless you have some engaged customers or members already, it's unlikely anyone is going to download and use your painstakingly created app.

But, if you are in the content creation business already, a regularly blog, tweet, write, etc, these make your own apps could be worth it. And at a few hundred bucks a year, it could very well be worth the investment.

So, here's the ones I've come across - not tested by me as yet, merely so you can use it as a place to start your own research:

Swebbapps.com
appmakr.com (marketing guru Seth Godin built his app on this, which made me interested in it! It is the one pictured)
Biznessapps.com
myapbuilder.com

Poor tourism marketing - how NOT to market your small tourism business

On my recent honeymoon to the lovely state of Tasmania, I saw many examples in the tourism industry of how NOT to market your business. I was obviously in holiday mode but I still really wanted to bail up various proprietors and let them know how many zero budget marketing opportunities they were really missing!

Website essentials for tourism businesses (and most other businesses too!)

1. Put a LOT more information on your website people! A tonne. There's no cost-per-word to add more content. At the bare minimum, ensure everything about your own facilities and services are there. One new-ish and quite flash golf resort we visited neglected to have on their website that there was a day spa. Ah, do you think that's not something guests might like to know, especially golf widows such as this one?! Talk about an obvious missed opportunity. I only knew in advance because I called and asked in December when I booked - and by March they STILL hadn't updated their site.

On top of the sites that omit information, there's the sites that just give you the bare minimum information - when what they could be giving you is a whole bunch of enticing tourist information that makes their AREA/TOWN worth visiting. Don't just tell me about your B&B - tell me why I should stop in your town and not the next one. Where can I eat? Is there anything to see, like a walk or a great beach? It's your job to convince me of the value of your town, not just your accommodation.

2. Reviews. Tell me what OTHERS thought about your accommodation/tour/service/food. I want to know that you aren't the only one who thinks it's great. Otherwise, I (and others like me) will just head to a site like Trip Advisor, where you will have a whole lot less control over what is posted about your or your business. You could even include an "online guest book" (using a free form tool like Wufoo) to capture comments as visitors leave, then publish them every week or two to your own site.

3. Make sure the information is accurate. Mona, a FABULOUS new gallery out the outskirts of Hobart I can highly recommend, had apparently changed the ferry times to reach the site WEEKS before the date we visited...but had not changed it on their website! So we show up to catch a ferry that's going half an hour later and coming back half an hour earlier than we'd planned. This threw out our plans a bit and meant we had to drive so that we wouldn't miss it in the time we had available. If you've built a useful, functioning website, changing something like ferry times should take 15 minutes tops...and ensure there's every chance people will get to your attraction.

Other ideas:

• Most bookings are handled online - so automate an email (or do it manually) to THANK people for visiting. Tourism is a very worth of mouth business. Do something a little extra and watch the good word spread like wildfire.
• Work together with traders in your community to make something unique about your town. I loved that the tiny town of Sheffield was "the town on murals". Someone had to think of that, co-ordinate it - and now they have created a reason for people to stop in this teeny spot.
  

How to use time limits to generate sales

It's human nature NOT to want to miss out. I have a friend that uses a perfect phrase to sum this up: FOMO (fear of missing out).

You can tap into this "fear" when marketing, by creating scarcity. Whether it's a limited number of items, or a strictly limited time, you create a sense of urgency with those you're marketing too. It's perfect for marketing events (only 17 seats left!) but it can be used much more broadly also.

I subscribe to updates from a fashion site, Igigi. They've taken this to heart and they run semi-regular 6 hour sales. How do I know this works for them? Because they keep doing it! As a test case of 1, I would click to see what's on sale at least 50% of the time, despite the fact I've yet to ever buy from them.

Virgin Blue have a similar tool, although it's even shorter and more regular. They have "happy hour" bookings from 12-1pm on a weekday.

So the zero budget marketing tip for today is to consider - what can you create scarcity around to drive short term sales results?

ps. Just come across another great time limited promotion on a craft education blog, Blacksburg Belle. I had an email prompting it at 1.30am (as it's a US site) and when I clicked on to learn more at 7am, the "10 places only" offer was filled. So more evidence of time limited/space limited offers being effective.