This point is so incredibly important that ignoring it is fatal.

Look at it this way for a moment:

• You do not build your own road but use the roads which are already built.

 

• Even if you are a car mechanic, and some real good engineer, you do not build your own car, but you have it built.

 

• When traveling you only put yourself on a bus/train/airplane/ship etc. that has pre-existing routes to your destination, you do not build a new vehicle and create a new route.

So why the dickens would you want to build your own marketing avenues?

Why not put your message on channels and media that are already in existence and which will carry your message for free or at the very least with very, very little money?

Here are a few examples on how to have other people and companies and organizations distribute your message for free or for little.

First you need to look for entities which have established communication lines to people who are also your target market.

There are plenty of them out there such as churches, non-profit organizations , the media and other business whose clientele is similar to yours. Keep in mind that I said their clientele is similar – not of the same.

For e.g., if you are a plumber, then your clients go to churches, they belong to non-profit organizations and they have kids thus a school teacher could pass messages and of course other business such as a restaurant, a dentist or a dry-cleaner, just as IBM, all want to reach pretty much the same demographics.

If you are a manufacturer and do B2B, then many other business wants to sell to the same businesses you sell too.

Even though sometimes a business has a very narrow demographic, the above example still applies. All you need to do is to be a bit resourceful, sit down and think of who is out there that is already making connections to your target market or to the people who talk to your target market.

Do not forget — Google, Yahoo, YouTube and hundreds of such sites which are worth billons of dollars make a living selling advertising to the ones who do not know any better.

Please do NOT be one of the advertisers, but make Google promote you for free in a way few others can due to the power Google has. Google and all the other sites I mentioned do NOT create any content and yet they make advertising money that makes the rest of us blush because they are providing content.

Smart indeed! Los Angeles Times and New York Times newspapers do the same. They provide content (news) so people read it and thus others advertise. But Google does not need to pay reporters. Wow!

They use the whole world as a reporter – including you.

So, if you do it right , then they will love you and your content so much and dish you out so much that you will be the reason they make money with but by doing so put you on a pedestal and make you famous. Who cares about famous? Google, Yahoo, YouTube etc. will make you rich!

This is one – only one — area of using other people’s money to market and to turn advertising into endorsement.

Ok, let’s go on.

In fact, to ONLY want to talk to people who will buy from you, or qualify to buy from you is deadly, as they have many, many influencers who are NOT your prospects, but as said, will influence your prospect. (This is like becoming friendly with the brother or friend of the girl you want to date – you do this so you get an introduction. Right? Of course I am right! )

Actually targeted marketing even though has its value, has become a liability for those who do not understand the interaction, or the synergistic actions of this world.

Too much emphasis has been made by marketing experts about target and precise marketing as to boost their charge for reaching those target markets.

Those “marketing gurus” create a mystery that is damaging and does not hold true.

They make you spend thousands of useless dollars to reach “the exact and ideal” prospects directly (when in most cases they have no clue who that is anyway) and totally overlook the rather inexpensive ways to reach their prospects via others!

As said, if you want to reach the small town business owner because he has more money, you will probably also reach them in the masses called consumers. Business owners are after all also consumers.

Or you want a certain income level, well, just target zip codes with houses of a certain price which in turn will include your target market.

If you want to reach parents with teenagers, well, go to the schools, and to just about ANY household, as there is no household who does not at least know a friend or family member with kids.

Reaching a certain business can be done by reaching their employees, by reaching their suppliers, and by providing data to them which has nothing to do with your business but which makes them talking about you .

Be resourceful and you will find a dozen avenues.

Why do you think so much business is done on the golf course, or churches, temple etc.? Because there is a friendly personal connection where people know people who know even more people!

Viral marketing actually takes care of all that for you.

In any case, you need to find a way to have other people pay for your marketing.

So, who could be promoting for you?

• The media (newspaper, TV, Radio, etc.)

 

• Trade magazines from your related professions

 

• Industries who are doing business with the type of industry you do business with

 

• Community leaders small and large; church leaders, politicians etc

 

• Non-profit organizations

 

• Professional associations from you as well as from related fields

 

• People who purchase as consumers from your prospects

 

• Google, Yahoo, YouTube and another 100 such sites (never pay but  make them promoting you because they need your content)

 

• And oh, let’s not forget about your clients and your prospects (they too can throw you a bone every so often and the following ways of contacting them work really well for them)

There are four types of messages in marketing:

1. One is the talking about one’s service or product and offering it

 

2. The second is to give free content and educational messages about your service or product. Give industry/market data information rather than product information.

 

3. The third would be to provide information on business related issues such as marketing tips, hiring tips, organizational tips, where to get a good deal on XYZ product or service, even tips on how they could help their clients out with something would be appreciated as it usually results in more sales for them and thus qualifies as a marketing tip.

 

4. The fourth is to have a community and humanitarian message (connected to actions) which the public in general as well as, and especially, the community leaders such as priests, rabbis, teachers, business owners, doctors, city employees, non-profit organizations and their employees, will be happy to see and to pass on.

The last two types of message (the third and fourth one) are by far the best door opener and will by far make the best in roads so that then you can “pitch” your product and service the same way.

Again, this is a form of viral marketing and definitely a form of “other people paying for your marketing,

Oh yeah, – what could be better?

If you need help to implement this concept of having other people pay for your marketing, contact us and speak to our consultants.

Ideas are great – but without a pig-headed determination to implement the ideas, your intended goals will never ever be reached! (just ask the 95% of Americans who end up being broke at age 65)

Contact us here on exact steps of implementation. 

 

Tags: free marketing, marketing tips, practice marketing

 

Category: Un-Advertising in Action.