Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art and Writing

Idea Generator: Gorilla marketing and beyond the jungle.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

Marketing yourself and your product or writing is tricky because there are people like me in the world: we hate advertising and obvious sales gimmicks. Not only do we ignore them, we lash out at those who would push them on us. It's easy to turn off clients and supporters if you abuse their trust by being too pushy or crass, bombard them with constant sales pitches.

Just ugh.

The fact remains, however, that you have to get yourself, and what you do, out there to the public. Sounds like a quandary, right? You have to dance around the fine line of giving your prospective customer just enough to leave them wanting more, no more no less. What you need are some creative ideas, and I have just a few to get you started. I'm one of those brainstormers who has, once a brainstorming session gets underway, a million ideas of which six are even realistic. However, they're sometimes a good six. So here's a few I came up with in a hurry.

As always, leave comments for other readers if you have ideas or actual success with unusual marketing plans and would be willing to share them.

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Faux newspaper: Print up (at minimal cost at a quick copy center like Kinkos) 11x17 papers folded to look like small newspapers, and place them around town. People have a tendency to snatch up these kinds of free publications. They should be designed to appear to be a free newsletter or indy publication, but don't be overly deceptive. Use your art and writing skills and give your readers some actual tips, news and ideas. The articles and images should be catchy, useful beyond simple ad copy, and cleverly worded to drive traffic to your web site and business. This is a great way to gain subscribers to your online newsletter, or paper newsletter, if you have such a thing. Be sure to include a coupon or contact information if you want readers to contact you.

Subscription Sales: The idea is the same as companies that offer "Dessert of the Month Club" or "Jelly of the Month Club" - except you offer art of the month, or maybe a story or serial novel each month, or card of the month... you get the idea. The length of the subscription would vary, as would the cost you charge (as long as shipping and product costs are met!). This might attract the "collector" personality, who wants the full set of what you make or who likes being part of an exclusive club. The idea could also be promoted as a great gift idea for your customers - 12 months of unique items for that special someone! Think of the anticipation it would build in a customer or reader: a product or story just for them. Don't forget, of course, to include a tie-in with your web site: "Visit our website to see related items of this new design" or "Read more from the second in this series" - something like that.