Free
Stuff
As a thank you for visiting my site – here are are a few
tips to help you in the marketing game – and some sources of
information which you may find useful. I will add more as I find
them!
THE
BEST MARKETING TIPS IN THE WORLD – EVER!
1.
Ask people to recommend your product or service.
If you have done a good job, people will be happy
to pass your name or your company’s name on. The very best
marketing costs nothing in terms of money – it is word of mouth.
It may cost you something to ask for a recommendation – a
telephone call, letter or email and a bit of time – but the human
condition means that we all like to bask in a bit of reflected glory
and by passing on our own good experiences, we get that glory!
2.
Public relations wins over paid-for advertising every time.
Advertising has become ubiquitous – it is
everywhere – so much so that even advertising companies are
recognising that people are become to immune to it and are having to
come up with innovative ways of getting our attention – from
scratch and sniff panels for perfumes and toiletries, to smells of
fresh bread and coffee being wafted out to us in supermarkets to
tempt our other senses and lure us to buy. But we are still swayed
by stories and articles from real people or possibly subject
experts, because we feel these stories have more justification –
someone has researched them on our behalf, gathered up lots of
information – and saved us the trouble! A good public relations
campaign therefore, especially for a smaller company, which doesn’t
have a big advertising budget will normally be able to show better
value for money.
3.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Lord Leverhulme, the soap powder magnate, once
famously said:
“I know 50% of my advertising budget is wasted –
I just don’t know which half”.
In marketing it is crucial to measure everything you do – from the
smallest press release in a local paper, to a brochure distribution
campaign further afield. If you don’t know whether what you are
doing is a success, you can’t decide whether to carry on or to
change tactics. So as soon as you start doing any marketing at all
decide how you are going to measure its effects – and continue to
do so all the way through your start up in business.
4.
Sell the benefits of your product/service, not the item itself.
None of us buy a new car, a holiday or a mortgage
purely because of its colour, its price, or its low interest rate
– we buy it because we can see ourselves being the envy of our
friends; we picture ourselves on a beautiful beach in the sunshine,
or we see ourselves cooking in the top of the range kitchen in our
new house. These are the benefits – the things which stimulate our
senses to buy – and these are the intangible parts of the product
that marketing can work with to sell the tangible product or service
itself.
Marketing
Resources
Below are some websites you may find useful when
looking for information.
I will add more as I come across them.
The
Advertising Standards Authority
(Advice on advertising, requests about advertisement content,
complaints about advertisements)
Mori
(Opinion polls, advice on surveys, free access
to some general interest research polls)
Media UK
(Listings of all UK news, magazine, trade and broadcast media)
Census
information for England and Wales
Census
information for Scotland
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