A Free Lesson in Marketing from Martha Stewart
Think you have to pay hundreds of dollars for marketing advice and help, not at all. Enjoy a free lesson form one of the best, Martha Stewart.
I will recount for you my free lesson. The other day I happened to be at home during a week day. I felt I needed some entertainment so I turned on the TV. There was Martha Stewart just beginning her weekday show.
The show began with Martha greeting her audience and then telling them what she did over the weekend. Ho hum, you say, but wait. Martha tells her audience how she is on a book tour and that while promoting her book she was on the Tonight Show with Borat. (Sacha Baron Cohen, the actor /comedian). Then she mentions how crazy he is and shows her audience a video clip from the Tonight show with her, Jay Leno and Borat attempting to make a bed.
So, in case you missed it. Martha, or her marketing team, went from a straight up promotion of her book to linking herself (which is her brand) with one of the top grossing films in the USA and linking her own video clip with one of the most searched keywords on the internet Borat. She then tells her audience to check out the video at Youtube.com Talk about search engine optimization, wow. Martha has integrated her brand into a top level key word search in a matter of minutes but not just key words but images and video.
Of course her marketing team is aware that she is a regular on Youtube as the butt of many jokes and parodies so why not use her own video on Youtube.com to drive traffic to the Martha Stewart web site and who better to link her with than a high profile person with a movie and who has a super high ranking in the search engines.
But wait there is more. In the next few moments of her intro to the show she responds to a viewer email. The question is how does she maintain her wonderfully white teeth? She explains that she has naturally good teeth but she uses ( here it comes) A certain brand of electronic tooth brush and then she calls in a dentist to show how to get the best results from the brush. She follows the whole thing up by saying go to Martha Stewart.com to get all the details.
Sony maybe the king of product placement but Martha is hot on their heels.
In less that five minutes Martha has promoted her book, linked her brand with the top grossing film in the US and highest ranking search on the internet, provided content for Youtube, and provided content for her viewers.
Can you market like Martha? Sure you can.
Lets see how. First remember Martha is her own brand and she is also a life style. She promotes not just her products ,her books and TV show but a way of living. But for the average small business here are the lessons.
First if you do not have a web site, get one. They are one of the best returns on business advertising investment you will make. You can now find easy to use do it yourself basic sites for very little money. For help and resources check out my profile box at the end of this article. There are lots of inexpensive easy to use choices.
Next what to put on your web site? Provide information about your business or service, hours, location, product line ,phone numbers, email, and fax number, your address and zip code, email address. Also any helpful information about your product or service.
Why is this so important? Because Google will bring your information up with Google maps every time someone looks for directions or a business in your area. Now that cell phones have search and GPS this is becoming the way people find products and services.
Next to make sure Google finds you go to their Google local page and sign up to list your small business web site, it is free and believe me it will help your small business in many unexpected ways.
Again taking a tip from Martha, give your target consumer what they want. Provide information details, helpful hints whatever will help them decide to purchase your service or product.
Still another tip from Martha offer a special discount or price if the customer lets you know they visited your web site. Keep in mind your web site will work for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year so reward the visitor who uses it to find you.
And finally pictures and video. If either will help sell your product or service by all means use them. Pictures of your staff, your office, your service, your product. Internet search is now adopting image search and making that a choice when you search for something. Adding some video does not need to be elaborate, a short two minute clip using your digital still cameras video feature is fine. Keep it short and to the point. Two minutes is great maximum four minutes. This will help people find your product or service when they search.
The reason web sites, internet search, images and video are so important now is the wide spread availability of broad band internet service and the cell phones GPS and search functions. The cell phone is now an essential tool, not just for business users but for people in general so take some free marketing tips from Martha and help your small business succeed.
