One of our listeners, John, is in a pickle. He is starting a new business, but that isn't the problem, although I am sure we can all agree that starting a new business is fraught with pickles. John is up for it, though. He needs help with getting other people to help sell his product. Some of you have that same problem, so I decided to share eight ways he can make that happen here in the newsletter.
Before we get into that, let's remember a foundational element of success in marketing and sales tactics: before you plan and execute, think about what you want to get out of it. For example, if you are advertising, that's one type of communication, but it can have different goals. Maybe it's awareness or education. Perhaps you want to remind them that you exist or persuade them to make a change. Knowing what you are trying to convince them to do gets you started with a tactic that works.
Watch Colin talking about this on YouTube:
Knowing your goals helps you choose the channels for those communications successfully. In John's case, it's a new company, so building awareness about his company's brand is critical. Of course, education and persuasion are, too, but working everything into one communications campaign is challenging. Trying to do so usually means that you will take care of everything at once without doing a very effective job at any of it.
Therefore, as we present these ways to get others to sell for you, some of these channels will be better than others at various communications and tactics. Moreover, you might skip a couple because it doesn't do anything for you or the brand you want to build.
For example, I've had my own company since 2002, and I've considered each area. I avoided a couple of them, particularly the first one, affiliate marketing. In that case, my motivation for skipping it was to remain independent. In other words, my strategy was to communicate about my company and maintain my independence, so the first tactic wouldn't work for me or my goals. So, I encourage you also to consider your goals as I present the options below to determine what will work best for you.
#1: Affiliated Marketing
Affiliated marketing is where somebody sells your product for you. So, for example, if I had a relationship with a pen company, I could tell you how wonderful it was, and then I could have a link to it that you could click on and buy it. I would then get a cut of all the pens sold via that link. This type of affiliated marketing relationship works pretty well, particularly if you have a relationship with a sales partner with contacts in high-value areas.
However, there are other types, too. For example, awareness is another goal that affiliated marketing can facilitate. Some people use social media to link to products on websites and earn a commission that way. So, they are selling your product by making people who follow their Pinterest board aware of it.
Therefore, affiliated marketing can work for many things. Just not Beyond Philosophy, it seems.
#2: Referral Programs
Much like an affiliated marketing scheme, a referral program incentivizes your customers to refer their friends and family to use you. The idea is that you leverage the credibility that your brand receives as a result of your customers' recommendations to people they know.
You will see these offers everywhere. We subscribe to a vegetarian meal service that spends considerable resources attempting to recruit me to tell my friends and family about it for $25 off. However, most of my friends are dyed-in-the-wool carnivores, so it's a fruitless effort. (#punny)
#3: Influencer Marketing
This area has grown in popularity over the past few years. Here, you get key opinion leaders in a given area to talk about (i.e., sell) your product or service for you.
So, for example, the vegetarian meal service that is wasting its time with my circle of influence could try this one. The company could go to a social media influencer that specializes in helping people improve their vegetable intake and could promote the meals as a convenience food that serves those goals.
One of the strengths of this tactic is that in these key opinion leaders' following base, they have credibility in that area. When the influencers say you have a good thing, that's enough for many followers.
#4: Co-Branding
Getting into the business-to-business area is Co-branding. Here, two established brands collaborate on an offering, which could create a synergistic relationship for both brands. In other words, it has to benefit both brands. For example, Nike and Apple have a few collaborations that associate the two brands.