What do we do when we’re inundated with salesy emails? We delete them, right? Most people do unless they signed up to receive emails from you.
So why spend thousands of marketing dollars creating an email marketing campaign or advertising campaign with the knowledge that many recipients will most likely delete the email?
Spend your time and energy somewhere else—somewhere fresh and unexpected.
Too many people have built walls against hard-selling forms of marketing. Some have begun to keep their email addresses more private, others delete every unknown email in their inbox, while others mark their junk as SPAM.
It’s a waste of your time and money to try to break down these walls. But who said you can’t go around them?
We’ve conditioned prospects to do such awful things to our emails. It’s time to start thinking of fresh and creative ways to market your business.
Here are 5 unique ways to market your business, without the hard sales pitch:
Write a tip card: This is a great marketing piece to use if you offer a service to clients. A tip card is basically a postcard-sized paper card with a small image of your logo in the bottom corner, offering clients tips related to your business or industry.
For example, let’s say you own a pet grooming company that does everything from bathing to babysitting and peticures (pet pedicures) to obedience training, and a client comes to you to have his or her dog bathed. When the client comes to pick up the perfectly groomed pooch, you can give him or her this tip card with the Top 10 Tips For Exercising Your Pet or the Top 10 Tips for Teaching Your Old Dog New Tricks.
Your customer may post this fun tip card to his or her refrigerator or pass it along to a friend. Either way, this card is being exposed to more people than the client alone.
Create a small gift your target market would use: Let’s say you own a personal styling company whose target market consists primarily of outgoing females ranging in age from late 20s to 40s. You may consider giving clients a free, tastefully decorated martini glass to remember you by and to possibly share with a friend or bring out during a cocktail or dinner party. If you’d rather not put your small logo somewhere on the glass, you could tie a bow with your card attached around the stem of the glass. Get creative and get a feel for what your clients would want to use in their everyday lives.
Please note: post-its and pens have been used as marketing materials before—boring. Think outside the box, and have fun.
Personalize your credit card: Many banks and credit card companies are coming out with new ways to personalize your ATM card or credit card. Take this opportunity to put your company logo on your credit card. This means that every time you purchase a product in a store using your credit card, the cashier—whether it’s an employee or the owner—will see your logo.
Put your logo on your dog’s collar: You work for your pet, why can’t your pet work for you? You can either create a little patch with your logo, or sew your company name onto the collar. This might not work for long-haired dogs, but for short-haired dogs, their collar tends to be more visible. Whether you’re at the dog park, strolling downtown or in your neighborhood, or bringing him or her to the groomer, your dog will (unknowingly) be working for you.
Utilize your company logo during your hobby or downtime: Whether you go to the gym, do yoga, garden, or play tennis with friends during your downtime, you can sport your company logo in a subtle way. If you have a tennis bag for example, customize it to have your logo on the exterior. Or if you’re doing yoga, customize your yoga mat with your logo. The possibilities are endless. As long as you’re subtle with your marketing, you will increase company exposure and influence people to think of your company in a positive light.
Do you know of any additional places you could post your company name or logo? Let us know in our comments section.
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