Marketing 101
Let's start with the rules of marketing.
Marketing is promotion. It might involve selling, and it definitely should lead to selling (or buying, if you're looking at it from the customer's point of view). However, it's more than just selling. In a sense, marketing includes all the steps between where your product or service now resides and where you want it to reside (with the customer!). Each activity in that transit, getting the goods to the marketplace, offers an opportunity for promotion!
It's easy to see, then, that the first rule of marketing is Get Attention. If the people who would be the most excited about your business do not know it exists, you've lost them as customers before even meeting them.
Who are they, your prospective customers? Are they people who stroll the malls? Are they found at resorts or mills? Do they read magazines? books? newspapers? Do they listen to personal development recordings on a mobile device or in their cars? Do they surf the Internet? If so, what are they looking for? What is it they like that might lead them to you if your ad or article were right there?
One of the first successful public relations activities I heard about was put on by a librarians' association to promote gay and lesbian awareness and rights. Not a raucous crowd, the librarians chose to set up a booth at the event, inviting passersby to "kiss a gay person." As I recall, it was a fundraiser, that brought it a dollar a kiss. Once the spit started flying, it was unstoppable. Everyone had fun. To be newsworthy, something must happen. The more interesting the event - offline or on - the more the publicity opportunities.
For example, staging an activity that could make the news provides opportunities for press releases to go to the papers and radio stations, and Internet PR and ezine sites in advance of the event, potentially increasing attendance. If something unusual happened at the event, such as the highest dollar amount for a painting sold, the largest amount of money recently raised for blah-dee-blah, or very long lines to pay for kisses, then another press release is deserved to sum it up.
Amateurs issue press releases about normal things that will happen or have happened. Professionals stage publicity stunts guaranteed to draw a crowd. Call it a hook, a gimmick or whatever you want, but after making your bank deposit, I'm sure you'll call it smart!
Peter Shankman's book Can We Do That is a fun look at what makes PR an event and not another yawn. Shankman is a master of staging stunts.
Ways to get attention for your online product or service:
- write articles you distribute freely, online and off
- volunteer for radio shows
- advertise online and off
- stage events, online and off
- send out press releases, online and off
All of these outlets, and many others, work both on the Internet and in regular 3-D media. With only a little overlap, you'll reach different audiences depending upon where you run your promotions.
Like a matador in the ring with a bull, your first job is to dramatically wave your red cape to get attention.