Welcome to Not Your Usual Marketing Tips -- your Online Marketing Ideas and Commentary Column Official Sponsor of 2008.
There, I’ve now claimed the first commercial “ownership” of a Year…
It’s the first month, and that begs the question: have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet? I mean from a marketing, advertising and promoting standpoint. (I could care less if you’ve vowed to lose weight; trust me, it’ll only come back by this time next year anyway…)
Since offering up this specific column thrice before, it’s worn well as universal and timeless commentary. So, as they say, if it ain’t broke…
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There’s a great scene in an old “Seinfeld” episode where Jerry has telephoned in reservations for a car rental. Except that when he arrives to pick up the car, he’s told there are none to be had. The girl at the counter explains that, for whatever bureaucratic reason, his rental was released to someone else. In his customary exasperated manner, Jerry then tries to “educate” her -- that although “it’s your business to MAKE the reservation…you also have to be able to HOLD the reservation..!”
It’s January of a New Year. From a marketing standpoint, presuming you’ve MADE your New Year’s resolutions, are you planning to actually HOLD them?
In no particular order, consider these 12 Resolutions for 2008 – one per month – vowing to proactively engage in at least one of them:
Guerilla Marketing: Think outside the box for ways to promote yourself. There are rules…and sometimes there are no rules.
Networking: Do more, by joining more…networks that is (associations, fraternal organizations, fellow hobbyists, etc.)
Publicity: Toot your own horn through such means as press releases; even if you think you’ve got nothing new to say, there’s a whole world out there that doesn’t know what you’re thinking…but would like to, or perhaps more importantly, needs to.
Positioning: All things being equal…what makes you “more” equal than others?
Seminars: Think you know it all? Well, there’s a good chance you do – to targeted markets with whom you wish to do business and promote yourself.
Newsletters: Share your ideas, broaden your constituency; send out industry-relevant information either as hard copy…or electronically (such as what you’re presently reading).
Trade Shows: Go to them, be in them, mingle within them, write a program article for them...
Event Marketing: Sponsor a cause, have an Open House; it’s good PR by “humanizing” your business.
The Newspaper: What a concept! For ideas, for client contact opportunities, for business references, don’t rely on the 11:00 PM TV news alone. Read the newspaper.
Greeting Cards: It doesn’t have to be Christmas to send them. Stay top of mind year-round, with Valentine’s Day, July 4th, Arbor Day – whatever! – as the “excuse.”
Postcards: Along with greeting cards, postcards are a fast, convenient, economical – and customized – way to let people know about your business (think realtors, financial services professionals, et al…).
Website: If you don’t have a site, get one. If you already have one, concentrate more on the text this time, by focusing on Keywords to help facilitate Search Engine Optimization. (You need to be found…before you’re read.)
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That’s enough pontificating for now…
Have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2008. And we’ll see you again the first Tuesday of next month with another edition of Not Your Usual Marketing tips.
Joel Kweskin
There, I’ve now claimed the first commercial “ownership” of a Year…
It’s the first month, and that begs the question: have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet? I mean from a marketing, advertising and promoting standpoint. (I could care less if you’ve vowed to lose weight; trust me, it’ll only come back by this time next year anyway…)
Since offering up this specific column thrice before, it’s worn well as universal and timeless commentary. So, as they say, if it ain’t broke…
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There’s a great scene in an old “Seinfeld” episode where Jerry has telephoned in reservations for a car rental. Except that when he arrives to pick up the car, he’s told there are none to be had. The girl at the counter explains that, for whatever bureaucratic reason, his rental was released to someone else. In his customary exasperated manner, Jerry then tries to “educate” her -- that although “it’s your business to MAKE the reservation…you also have to be able to HOLD the reservation..!”
It’s January of a New Year. From a marketing standpoint, presuming you’ve MADE your New Year’s resolutions, are you planning to actually HOLD them?
In no particular order, consider these 12 Resolutions for 2008 – one per month – vowing to proactively engage in at least one of them:
Guerilla Marketing: Think outside the box for ways to promote yourself. There are rules…and sometimes there are no rules.
Networking: Do more, by joining more…networks that is (associations, fraternal organizations, fellow hobbyists, etc.)
Publicity: Toot your own horn through such means as press releases; even if you think you’ve got nothing new to say, there’s a whole world out there that doesn’t know what you’re thinking…but would like to, or perhaps more importantly, needs to.
Positioning: All things being equal…what makes you “more” equal than others?
Seminars: Think you know it all? Well, there’s a good chance you do – to targeted markets with whom you wish to do business and promote yourself.
Newsletters: Share your ideas, broaden your constituency; send out industry-relevant information either as hard copy…or electronically (such as what you’re presently reading).
Trade Shows: Go to them, be in them, mingle within them, write a program article for them...
Event Marketing: Sponsor a cause, have an Open House; it’s good PR by “humanizing” your business.
The Newspaper: What a concept! For ideas, for client contact opportunities, for business references, don’t rely on the 11:00 PM TV news alone. Read the newspaper.
Greeting Cards: It doesn’t have to be Christmas to send them. Stay top of mind year-round, with Valentine’s Day, July 4th, Arbor Day – whatever! – as the “excuse.”
Postcards: Along with greeting cards, postcards are a fast, convenient, economical – and customized – way to let people know about your business (think realtors, financial services professionals, et al…).
Website: If you don’t have a site, get one. If you already have one, concentrate more on the text this time, by focusing on Keywords to help facilitate Search Engine Optimization. (You need to be found…before you’re read.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s enough pontificating for now…
Have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2008. And we’ll see you again the first Tuesday of next month with another edition of Not Your Usual Marketing tips.
Joel Kweskin
