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One of the most useful ways to multiply the effectiveness of any marketing message is to get large numbers of people to recommend it to their friends and colleagues.
Here are two simple keys to doing this:
Key One: Make your marketing message entertaining
A Belgian television station launched a brand new TV channel and wanted to get a lot of people noticing what they were doing.
So they shot a hugely entertaining two minute video called Push to add more drama to your life.
This video has now been watched by over 42 Million People because it is so entertaining and fun to watch.
Key Two: Make your marketing message valuable
By valuable, I mean your marketing message has important information that will help a lot of people to do one of two things.
It will help them to solve a pressing problem they have or allow them to reach an important goal faster and easier.
Here are four examples of valuable marketing messages like this.
The useful Blog:
Richard Koch is the author of a wonderful book called 'The 80-20 Principle' which has now sold over a million copies. Richard started a brand new website recently and on his website are some short blog posts that I found incredibly valuable.
My favourite blog posts are 'What is an hour of your time worth' and 'find your horse to ride'.
Because these messages by Richard have been so useful to me I have shared these with many of the people I know.
The valuable newsletter:
A couple of days ago I was emailed a copy of an outstanding newsletter on direct marketing written by Alan Rosenspan.
The newsletter was 16 pages of valuable ideas on how to improve the response in your marketing.
Alan shared step by step case studies and helpful ways on how to use the ideas in these case studies in your own marketing.
(I had never heard of Alan and was sent his newsletter by a marketing colleague in the States who thought I would find it useful.)
And because it is so valuable I am now recommending it to a lot of other people.
The helpful video:
Brendon Burchard is a world recognised authority at showing people how to become an expert.
Brendon produced a 45 minute video recently which explains how simple it is to package up your own knowledge and experiences and turn it into a valuable business.
In his video Brendon gives step by step instructions on how to promote your business online and also shares a fascinating case study of how Barack Obama used email marketing in his presidential campaign.
What I love about Brendon is that his messages are always very positive and jam packed with useful 'how to' ideas that are easy to apply.
The practical marketing brooklet:
In my own business, I wrote a short 28 page booklet recently called The Little Blue Book of Marketing Magic.
This booklet contains a short summary of 18 marketing strategies that are used by many of the top sales and marketing experts in the world.
The booklet is available at no charge as a download on my website and is very easy to read.
A number of business people have found this booklet valuable and recommended it to the people they know.
Here is an example of someone recommending this booklet on my behalf.
The main idea in my column is this:
With a bit of creative thinking and effort you can make many of your own marketing messages either entertaining or valuable.
And by doing this you can multiply their effectiveness. This makes it very easy for a lot of people to start recommending your marketing messages to many of the people they know.
"Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising."
- Mark Twain
Action Exercise:
What can you do this week to multiply the effectiveness of your own marketing messages?
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