Never forget the power of a demonstration in marketing

Way back in the olden days (2001) I started my first marketing job for a television home shopping company. We made (or bought) infomercials. I was always astounded at just how persuasive they could be- even when I was sitting holding a pretty crappy product, after watching a 25 minute infomercial, I was ready to buy - with or without those steak knives!

The reason these were so powerful is that there were always demonstrations. SHOWING how the product or service could be used.  It's the same reason cooking shows are so popular - even if people aren't going to cook, they love to watch it unfold.

These days, if you're selling a product, you dont need to buy expensive air time for demonstrations. You can make a video on your iphone, edit it on your Mac with the free iMovie software, and voila - you have a hugely powerful selling tool for knicks.

Need some convincing?

Check out this FABULOUS demo video on one of my favourite online stationary stores, Notemaker.com. I know I'm ready to buy some of these markers....even though I can't draw and have no real use for them!

Handy (and cheap) deep etching service for photos

Just a quick one today - but this is such a great potential "zero budget" service for any of you selling online, or in PR, that I thought it rated a mention.

Pheditor is an Aussie based super cheap a photo editing service.

You upload pics to be "deep etched" (basically cut out of their background) and they do it in 2-3 days for $5 a shot or less If you have to pay a graphic designer to do it, you will pay anywhere from $30-$60 an image. So it really is a bargain and firmly in the zero budget marketing tools camp.

Why would you deep etch an image? It gives you a clean image to use online, or in a catalogue or editorial spread. I've used a pic from their blog to illustrate.

I've never used these guys, and I don't know them, but this is such a good price it's worth checking out if you need the service.

What makes a great subject line? What will make someone open and read your email?

Not all marketing tips need to be new and flashy. Sometimes we need to remember the basics - because if you don't get the basics right, nothing that follows will be worth much.

The basic I'm talking about is email SUBJECT LINES.

On average, I get around one hundred emails a day - not counting spam. I read things by clients or friends first (depending on how under the pump I am) and then the other 30 or so left are marketing or subscription emails. Of these, I probably scan 5-6 and actually read 3-4, as I'm just too busy to get to the rest. I suspect that's pretty standard for many people's whose job involves computers and communication.

So, what makes the cut.

I tend to lean towards reading my fave blog emails regardless, but on a busy day (most days), the emails that catch my eye are the ones that get looked at. And they catch my eye because of their subject line. Again, I'm just like everyone else. You need to get their attention before you have a chance to say ANYTHING.

So what makes a good subject line?

It needs to SUCK YOU IN. You have to want to read it.

You can do this by:

- being clever or intriguing

- packing in a lot of information so that one of several items is bound to appeal to people

- have a really compelling, time limited, DIFFERENT call to action

You cannot do it by being dull and pedestrian and revealing nothing new or enticing.

Sometimes you're rushed, sometimes you're not feeling creative, sometimes the client won't let you write what you want to write...there's always an excuse for doing a poor job.

But if you want to know what works, you just have to consider what would catch your eye on a busy day. If you don't think what you've written will suck someone in, go back to the drawing board.

PS. A quick tip is to include the person's name in the subject line. Everyone is obsessed with themselves (if you don't believe me, consider this: who do you look for first in a group photo that you're in?).

PPS. What does a great subject line look like more specifically?

There's a lady I've never met, who I've no affiliation with, who I've never bought from, that I think is a fantastic subject line writer. April Bowles authors a blog and runs courses on launching/running/marketing creative businesses. She's primarily marketing to women that run craft businesses, sell on Etsy, that sort of thing. I'm am not this demographic and I don't know how I found her, but I stay subscribed to her list because her emails are great - and her subject lines are what suck me in every time.

Here's some recent ones:

Last Call for Blogging for Your Creative Business + Why I almost chugged vodka at 10am

This would be so embarrassing...

Would you have done things differently today if you only had a few years to live?

Why the "But I'm Not a Good Writer" Excuse Sucks + A Lesson in Rap

Making a decision can be your fastest way to save your budget

Some people have raised procrastination to an art form. They want time to ponder, consider, discuss, weigh up options. All of these are worthwhile activities - but not endlessly. In 'zero budget marketing' TIME is money. So if you're wasting time, you're wasting your marketing budget.

Yes, if you make a decision you might make the wrong one. But you might make the right one. Spending two months hand wringing, when you should have only spent two days, puts you that much further behind a potential benefit. It also means you've possibly met and discussed the same thing for hours and hours (or spent many hours inside your head).

So if you've got something you've been pondering - make a call, or set a date when a decision must be made and stick to it.

Sometimes the call is no, sometimes it's yes. But make a decision and move onto the next thing.

Can you find a subscription model?

The best marketing is marketing that's built in from the beginning. It's not an afterthought, not working out how to sell something AFTER it's developed.

Smart marketing is considered AT THE BEGINNING of a product or service life-cycle.

One of the most clever of marketing models - and thus sales models - is the subscription model. Why? Because you only need to "sell" once, but the sales keep coming in over months or, hopefully, years.

It's a pricing related concept, and pricing sometimes feels like the poorest of marketing cousins, but that doesn't mean it should be ignored.

Very profitable businesses are built on subscription models, from insurance to banking to utilities to media to professional services. So why not try and tap into this for your business? There is no reason it can't work for many more sectors, if only they thought about it how to apply it.

Don't believe me? If it can work for PET FOOD and EMERGENCY SUPPLIES, then it can work for a whole LOT of products and services. Go on, think about it.

Looking for cost savings isn't just for small business

Sometimes the assumption with "zero budget" marketing is that it's only for new / start up / tiny businesses. But every day huge businesses are looking for ways to cut their spend, wherever they can, if it's not delivering results OR if they have come across a smarter way to approach a marketing challenge.

In January of this year, the Procter & Gamble CEO advised Wall Street he was scaling back his company's $10 billion annual ad budget (mostly in traditional media) to take advantage of free impressions offered by Facebook in the form of Likes and status updates. Yes, you read it right, $10 billion!

General Motors has recently followed suit in cutting their Facebook spend. That's two out of America's top three biggest advertisers. More on this here.

The two decisions were made for different reasons (GM isn't convinced Facebook ads are effective; P&G was seeking free media efficiencies) but they're linked.

It appears to be dawning on some businesses budgets that if your marketing content is interesting enough - engaging enough - you don't NEED to advertise on Facebook. Advertising on Facebook is can be free, if you can create something compelling enough to go viral. It goes back to ensuring your product, service - or marketing message - is remarkable.

Or put simply - stop shouting, start engaging with your market.

Some tips for Facebook marketing (on the cheap)

It's not exactly news that social media is big news for marketing. In fact, it seems to be all that some magazines and blogs talk about!

But for all the buzz, is it worth the time and effort and opportunity cost?

You see, social media marketing LOOKS free. But for anyone who's had a crack at it, you'll know it's extremely TIME intensive. It's also a slow build - especially if your business is not in a "hot" space, like fashion or music.

I've yet to see a case where social media was a huge marketing lead generation tool for business - but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. What I have seen work well is community building and "engagement" in the social media space. It's also hit the point where if you're NOT in the social media space, you look like you're 'old school'.

So with that in mind, are there tools out there to help you? Luckily, yes - and they're a lot cheaper to access than they were a year or two ago.

TOOLS

I've used Lujure.com and Woobox.com.

All are multi-purpose and have quite low subscription levels - from free to around $30 a month on average.

I've used Lujure to build a landing page inside a Facebook page - so that instead of landing on the generic wall, you can link to a particular tab that's specific to the promotion you're running.

And I've used Woobox to run a promotion inside Facebook.

Both have been relatively easy to use and are worth trying out. (You will need to invest in some graphic design for images though - otherwise your promotions will look too homemade).

TIPS

Some other things you may not know about Facebook marketing but you might want to try:

• You can claim a USERNAME for a page (sometimes called a vanity URL). So instead of the "messy" URL that Facebook will auto-generate for you, you can have something like: Facebook.com/WiggyBusiness.
• If you post images, you're more likely to be "liked" or shared. So avoid text based "updates" only. Why do you want people to click "like"? Because it improves your chance of being seen by the person and their friends.
• The more you post, the more likely you are to continue to collect fans. Once a week is not enough. Several times a day is better. As is posting outside business hours, as this is when most people check Facebook.
• Timeline gives you much great visual impact - and soon you'll HAVE to use it. So put some thought into your large image and profile pic.