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There are thousands of places to get useful marketing ideas.
Here are three to start with...
1: Books on marketing
I personally prefer marketing books that have a large number of marketing ideas that I can choose from rather than a small number of marketing ideas.
On that note, here is one of my favourite marketing books:
'The Sticking Point Solution' by Jay Abraham
Jay Abraham is rightly known as the best marketing expert in the world. His track record of amazing increases in profits with more than 10,000 businesses in over 400 different industries is downright amazing.
In this book he covers how to thrive in a much tougher economy with very simple sales and marketing strategies.
You can get Jay's book through your favourite book supplier.
2: Marketing ezines
There are thousands of excellent marketing ezines that you can read at no charge.
Here are two of my favourite marketing ezines.
The Direct Response Letter by Bob Bly.
I have been a subscriber to Bob's e-zine for many years now and it's still one of the very few that I open and read as soon as it hits my inbox.
Bob sends out 2-3 very short messages each week. Each message has easy to use pearls of wisdom that I can apply quickly to improve my results. Bob is one of the most successful copywriters, authors and internet marketers in the world and the amount of useful information he shares (at no cost) is breath taking.
The Levison Letter by Ivan Levison
This is also very short and comes out once a month. Ivan Levison is one of the smartest copywriters I know and each e-zine is usually crammed full of helpful hints on one topic All his Levison Letters are archived on his website and they are excellent.
3: Businesses that make you feel great when you interact with them
This is a source of great marketing ideas that a lot of us overlook.
The big opportunity here is when you get more than you expect from a business and feel great as a result.
I talked about this in a Herald column on added value.
I introduced marketing expert Mal Emery and how he gave clients more than they expected when he owned a coffee shop many years ago.
When you bought a coffee Mal gave his clients a glass of iced soda water at no extra charge.
He also put a little chocolate on the side of the coffee cup and it had the name of the company, the coffee shop on the chocolate.
What was the perceived value of this coffee? Well back in those days it was $1.50 to have a coffee and when you added the soda water and a chocolate it was worth to the customer about $3.50. (However it only cost Mal a few cents to provide this extra added value.)
Now someone paid Mal $1.50 and they got $3.50's worth of value.
So who do you think they told?
Answer: They told all their friends.
'You've got to come here, they give you a glass of iced soda water and a Hasty Tasty chocolate on the side' so his sales exploded.
Mel went from zero sales to $10,000 a week in five months and was able to sell this business for $230,000 by applying the principle of adding value and giving customers more than they expected.
With this source of marketing ideas look for businesses that make you feel good when you interact with them.
Then ask yourself how you can use the same strategy in your own business.
Once you start looking I guarantee you will find great marketing ideas all around you.
"Money never starts an idea; it is the idea that starts the money." - William J. Cameron
Action Exercise:
Look for useful marketing ideas that you can use in your business. Look for good books, ezines and positive experiences you've had with other businesses.
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