Tips – Who Uses Them and How
“Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.”
– Joe Chernov
A typical first thought you and many Subject Matter Experts have is to post your tips on your website and your social media platforms. After all, it’s good marketing – made even better when adding an invitation that drives people back to your website.
Yes, that’s true.
Another frequent thought is to distribute a format of your tips free to workshop attendees or audiences when being interviewed, providing handouts in live or virtual settings. Better yet, add an invitation to your tips at your website, in exchange for their email address.
Again, an appropriate thought, sometimes prompting sales.
You might even offer a bonus of some format of your tips (digitally or tangible) as a value added item incentivizing people to order a particular service or product from you.
So far so good.
AND
Companies and nonprofits of all sizes, products, services, audiences, and missions can do everything YOU do for your business. The difference is they PAY you to use YOUR tips. They reach more people with your information. They have budgets to market and sell their products and services. They spend those budgets creating more Money for their organization. And your tips help them successfully accomplish their goals.
Everything you do, they do, too. The difference is bigger reach than you and your content becomes more revenue for them while also increasing YOUR bottom line.
Those organizations use your content in ways you might not consider for your business. They often pair the educational tip content with promotional campaigns for specific products or services to be featured. You’re a chiropractor or massage therapist, seeing many people in your practice with back problems from sitting way too long at their computer. You have suggestions for staying physically healthy and still getting the all-day computer work done. Do you think a company selling ergonomically
manufactured desk chairs thinks your tips are helpful? Imagine staying pain-free sitting at a computer for hours on end. Imagine selling more chairs! Giving a booklet, 52-tips for a Pain-Free Back, with each chair sells more chairs, while promoting your business.
National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcast Service(PBS TV) have a long standing model for generating money. Different size monetary donations prompt different value gifts. You can do that, too. Bundle your products and services to create different gift values for different size purchases.
Many years ago, direct mail marketing was a popular way to reach buyers.
A public seminar company bought several thousand copies of my organizing your business life tips booklet. They saw something I never considered because that marketing method was not one I used. They offered a copy of the booklet when a person informed the company they were getting duplicate flyers for this company’s seminars. It was less costly to send a copy of my tips booklet than to continue sending duplicates to their very large mailing list. Not something for my company to use, though a useful suggestion to share with organizations that counted on direct mail marketing as their stock in trade.
Pay attention to marketing and sales campaigns that companies and non-profit organizations use – online, in magazines, on TV, and billboards. Enhance your Education by noticing what the “big guys” (or even the smaller ones) do. Test their ideas in your company. Offer suggested uses to decision makers you meet in businesses and nonprofits who realize what a valuable resource (and vendor!) they found.
© 2024, Paulette Ensign – All Rights Reserved
