Over the years I’ve used literally hundreds of great marketing ideas.
These marketing ideas have been instrumental in helping me build my web design business to exactly where I want it.
How I learnt a lot of those marketing ideas is pretty simple……… I cheated!
Here’s what I would do:
1. I’d visit someone’s web site/business/receive a flyer/see a sign/whatever.
2. If I saw something that seemed to work/did work I’d file that away for consideration.
3. I’d incorporate elements of what I’d seen work well into our own efforts.
4. We’d measure, measure, measure and see if it worked.
5. If it worked, we’d do it again.
6. If it didn’t work we would discard it.
A Great Example
Benchmarking is a long used and very effective way to get better – no matter if it’s in business, sports (the Fosbury Flop is a brilliant example) or relationships.
I just visited the web site of Sheppard Web for that last post.
On the side bar what caught my eye was that Derek – the owner – has a section:
“Our Competition”
Under this Derek has written:
“You have a choice in web design vendors, but we’re not afraid of comparison. Here’s a list of other Lynchburg web design firms you can investigate………….”
Brilliant stuff.
Sheppard Web are positioning themselves as a quality operation unafraid to be compared to their competitors – going to the extent of pointing out their competition.
Can you use that same sort of thinking in your business?
Cheers
The best way is to copy what others are doing – it’s not really cheating, it’s being sensible. If your competition are stomping all over you, check out what they are doing. It also works the other way. If you have a new marketing idea that you want to test out, check and see if anyone in your industry has done it and what type of results they got.
Also check out your competitors and the ones that aren’t doing so crash hot – see what they are doing for marketing and maybe stay away from it!
Hi Emma
It’s pretty easy stuff and smart strategy. No need to reinvent the wheel with your marketing.