Published:

08/20/2015 09:58am

Secrets to Zero Dollar Marketing

I want to take a moment to bring everyone back. Back to a time before we had smart phones and tablets, before Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, even before the internet.

I swear I can see you all starting to squirm at the thought of it. You're like Liz King in Amish Country.

But come back to that innocent time in your life. Childhood.
Before we had to worry about careers and roi. When we rode our bikes all day and made sure that we rode those bikes home before the streetlights came on.

Now what if I told you that everything you need to know to market your business, you already knew by the time the streetlights were your curfew.

Storytelling:

When we were children, nothing was better than story time. Whether it was before bed, or when our teacher stopped class and let us all sit in a circle. For those of us 70s kids, Carol and Paula's trip to the story box in the Magic Garden, was must see tv.
This hasn't changed. How you tell your story pulls people in. How you pitch writers or reporters pulls them in and, in turn, will pull their audience in.

Be brief.
Brevity is the soul of wit, as well as a requirement when pitching. You can always go back and go deeper later.

Be unique.
We like stories about things we don't know everything about. Or something we are very familiar with, told with a new perspective. Remember that scene in Dead Poet's Society where Robin Williams makes them stand on his desk and look around? Bring those reporters up on YOUR desk. The new look will get you attention.

Show and Tell

This was a time killing staple for teachers when I was a kid. It also taught public speaking and,to some degree, storytelling.
Show and tell was a time when you brought something you cherished, from home, and told the class about it. Now, me and my friends didn't grow up with a lot of money, so what we cherished, often only had value to us. That didn't make for a very riveting show and tell. So, I would get my friends involved and we would juggle or give a stickball demonstration or show how you could trade baseball cards. By combining our cherished items and each others talents, we gave better presentations and did things that no one else expected, even within an expected format.

You can do the same now.

For several years, I've been pooling the talents of people I respect for photoshoots of "events". We have used these talents to garner attention by making couture dresses out of balloons or using tattoos and pin up girls as a wedding theme. Or even using low cost items in ways that look very expensive.

We have taken our "show and tell" concept of teamwork and turned it into a long term marketing plan that costs you only the talent you bring with you.

Our little group "Show and Tell" projects have been seen by hundreds of thousands, if not millions.

Hot Potato

"Everything will come back to you"

Probably several times. Make sure you keep sending it out.

Marketing is a game, in this way. Keep playing.

Change it up, just like in Hot Potato, left hand, right hand, whatever,
Keep your marketing efforts flowing, pitch EVERYONE !!!

You never know who will read or watch it and contact you thru it.

Also, just like in Hot Potato, you can't control everything. Don't try to, you never will get a perfect result. Just keep playing.

I see now that the Techsy Talk "streetlights" are about to come on. Thank you very much for your time.