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#3.08: The “Give It Away” Issue

1> Give Away Your Old News
2> Give Away A Gift With Purchase
3> Give Away Tools They Can Use
4> Book: What’s Wrong With Wall Street Analysts

1> Give Away Your Old News

Magazines are full of interesting content — with plenty to spare. Why not use that content to sell more subscriptions? Email newsletter publisher Daily Inbox publishes free email newsletters that feature interesting excerpts from Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, and other major publications. Email subscriptions are free, and each email contains a prominent link to the magazine publisher’s web site and a prominent “subscribe to the magazine” advertisement. It costs the magazine nothing, it sells subscriptions, and it builds their offline brand to an online audience. They even make a little off the advertising.

THE LESSON: Re-use your library of good content to reach new customers. Old copy doesn’t do you any good sitting in a file cabinet, so put it to work as an email-based prospecting tool.

MORE INFO:
http://dailyinbox.com

2> Give Away A Gift With Purchase

Ever since Time-Life offered the Football Phone to new subscribers, we know that a give-away item increases sales for nearly any type of merchandise. Despite their proven effectiveness, you rarely see gift-with-purchase offers on the web. Give it a try — a simple message on your homepage offering a premium with every purchase may be just the thing to turn browsers into buyers. If you don’t want to manage your own program, Silver Carrot offers turnkey reward programs to online marketers such as Orbitz and Dell. When shoppers complete a sale on your site, they are directed to a Silver Carrot page that looks just like yours. Silver Carrot manages the entire program, including processing and fulfillment, and you get the benefit of a boost in sales.

THE LESSON: Don’t forget about the classic tools of direct marketing when you go online. A little incentive for your customers can result in a real boost in sales.

MORE INFO:
http://www.silvercarrot.com

3> Give Away Tools They Can Use

You can turn a simple spreadsheet into an effective viral marketing campaign. Some of the most popular items on the Internet are tools and calculators, such as mortgage calculators or interest rate calculators. Look for a spreadsheet that you are already using internally that your clients (and prospects) would find extremely useful. Put it on your web site as a free download. Potential customers will use it, share it, and thank you for making their lives easier. One of our favorites are the free tools at Web Digest For Marketers (a popular emarketing newsletter) that help you compute the cost of advertising. When you go to the page with these simple calculators, you also see offers to subscribe and advertise.

THE LESSON: Turn an internal tool into a promotional item that teaches customers the benefits of working with you. Make it good and it’ll increase word-of-mouth sales.

MORE INFO:
http://www.wdfm.com/advertising.html

4> Book: What’s Wrong With Wall Street Analysts

Read “The Contrarians” — a funny, edgy, and insightful novel about how outrageous young Wall Street analysts have become. You’ll find yourself screaming at the characters — and unable to put down the book.

BUY THE BOOK:
http://www.thecontrarians.com

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