Bulldog Marketing

The 6 Essential Elements of Marketing Material

I love it when there is synchronicity in the air! I was thinking about posting about what you really need to have on a sales page or brochure when you are selling a seminar, product or coaching, and in my inbox is an article from the Blog Squad about what they look for when they decide what seminars and product to invest in. So here is their list, and here is what you can do to ensure you cover all of the relevant bases when creating marketing material.

Requirement:
What kind of reputation does the expert have? Do a Google search on their name. Can you find them online? Do they appear to be credible?

What you can do about it:
Make sure you have online visibility in your specific market when people are searching for you. By strategically placing blog posts, online articles and properly tagged web pages, you should be able to get to the top of the list with search engines by combining your name with the particular topic that your seminar or product is built upon.

Requirement:
Is the subject appropriate for your business?

What you can do about it:
Make sure that you get very specific in your description of what people can expect and what you will cover in your seminar, training or info product. You may want to include the table of contents if you are selling a book, or provide the agenda or topic list if you are doing a live training. Be specific, and let people know HOW your information will benefit them in their personal or professional life.

Was it good for you too?

One of the things to consider before embarking down a specific product development or internet strategy path is to consider your market, and HOW they want to receive your products or services.  As an equestrian, I get really excited about the possibilities of creating cool  information products that will help people ride better. These products could be easily downloaded to their computer, which makes it a nice fit for me.  But here is the problem.  Most people who ride and show horses competitively aren't sitting in front of their computer and they tend to live in rural areas and don't have high speed internet access.  In fact, most of the people I work with in actually want to see me face to face and not even work over the phone, since they are used to doing business 'the old fashioned way'.  Does this make sense?  Before you spend hours and money creating something consider:

1.  Who is my target customer for this campaign or product?

2.  What is their typical level of technology expertise?  In other words, does the word Download scare or confuse them?  Do they still want the information on a cassette tape to play in their Walkman?

3.  Are they geographically desirable to high speed access?

4.  Do they typically use products or services in the manner you want to deliver your product or service?

I know this sounds like basic information, but I am surprised at how many times we forget that we aren't the customer, and not everybody wants to do things the way we think they should.