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How To Promote Your Business For Free By Giving Downloadable Gifts
| Guest post by: Teresa Bohannon |
Article Overview: Economic hard times and recession are upon us.... I know that because the media tells me so. I have long said that, “What is real in your mind, is real in it's consequences.” and it is no truer than when you are faced with an overwhelming juggernaut of “Chicken Little” styled bad news. Am I saying that the media is wrong, “Of course not.” but what I am saying is that people who do not have a clue about the forces that drive the economy are now terrified—almost by osmosis—into not spending any extra money, which in turn only adds to the negative forces driving the poor economy further downward. So how does the aspiring entrepreneur thrive in a negative economy? By using the mass hysteria to your benefit and giving away free unique, memorable quality, downloadable gifts to promote your business.
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Free Download - The ABCs and 123s of Self-Promotion For Independent and Self-Published Authors Part 5 Successful Blogging By Teresa Bohannon |
How To Promote Your Business For Free By Giving Downloadable Gifts
So you want to learn how make sure that your business survives and thrives during the hard times.... Well you have come to the right place; because whether your business is entirely online or an offline brick and mortar building, or a combination of both—uniquely, memorable gifts can and will allow you the formerly undreamed of luxury of promoting your business for free!
Economic hard times and recession are upon us.... I know that because the media tells me so. I have long said that, “What is real in your mind, is real in it's consequences.” and it is no truer than when you are faced with an overwhelming juggernaut of “Chicken Little” styled bad news. Am I saying that the media is wrong, “Of course not.” but what I am saying is that people who do not have a clue about the forces that drive the economy are now terrified—almost by osmosis—into not spending any extra money, which in turn only adds to the negative forces driving the poor economy further downward. So how does the aspiring entrepreneur thrive in a negative economy? By using the mass hysteria to your benefit and giving away free unique, memorable quality, downloadable gifts to promote your business.
If content is King or Queen, and unique content is High King or High Queen, then free downloadable gifts are the Emperor of the Internet. Seriously!
The fastest and best way to build traffic to your website is unique content. Think about it. How do you think MySpace, You Tube and Facebook all grew so fast...? They grew so fast, because someone, somewhere not only realized that Unique Content trumps all else online, but they were smart enough to give away free space and a free community (which of course is nothing more than a free gift) with the end result of getting other people to provide their unique content, and high traffic counts for them, and then surround it all with revenue-producing ads.
Now we cannot all create a MySpace or You Tube or Facebook, that takes time and lots of money or at the very least fabulous programming skills...but we can all add free and unique content to our websites and we can take that concept a step further by adding free, unique, and memorable gifts. And in hard economic times, thinking outside the box and promoting your unique, free and memorable gifts is probably the smartest thing you can possibly do. Why? Because people are scared of spending money right now and getting free stuff online lifts their spirits and makes them think favorably of you...and if you do it right, it will also make them remember you...and help promote your business and your traffic for you.
Unique Promotional Gifts You Can Give
Personally I do this in numerous ways, including viral marketing techniques via dozens of different software program and Virtual Coffee Table or otherwise informational Ebooks which I giveaway in one form or another from all of my websites, to the—updated for a virtual world; but no less—time-honored traditional co-location marketing.
I offer at least twenty different helpful software programs that people can download for their own use, and even rebrand with their own links and giveaway to others. I also, offer numerous Virtual Coffee Table books on a huge variety of topics which can be given away as gifts as is, or re-branded with personal or business links to re-gift as giveaway gifts. Of course, the beauty of all this is, in the online world is that you do it one time and give it away thousands of times...and all at no additional cost to you!
Now some people may say, “Yeah but a free downloadable gift is cheesy.” and for some recipients that may be true; but only because the gift giver gave a thoughtless, or poorly crafted gift. I maintain that a uniquely personalized gift that is either created with forethought, or a business gift that is topically-relevant, and uniquely crafted to appeal to the recipient's tastes and interests is a virtual treasure that will long be remembered and appreciated. In fact I have built all of my multiple streams of income on exactly that principle. After all we have all been taught that it is indeed, “The thought that counts.” our mother's told us so.
And besides, I have proof that is works; because I have been working successfully online for over fourteen years now, and over the years as part of my web design business I have created numerous custom designed viral Virtual Coffee Table Ebooks for my clients to give away to their website guests, and have received in response emailed notes of appreciation and thanks for the nice gift. As I said, the trick is to make them attractive, make them unique, and make them topically relevant to the same interests that brought your visitor to your website in the first place. If you want people to appreciate your gift then you must make it a gift worthy of appreciation!
Of course the same rule holds true for personal gifts—albeit on a more individualized scale. If someone loves horses for example. You have three choices:
You can give them a plain old non-customized “Bah. Humbug!” Ebook that is basically nothing more than a sales-brochure or plain old unattractive text file saved as a PDF file.
You can give them an attractive Virtual Coffee Table book that a horse-lover would find interesting or enjoyable has been generically created for the random horse-lover.
You can design or have designed a Virtual Coffee Table book that is customized with links and personal pictures and text that is a completely unique gift that they will not only treasure themselves but be able to show off and virally share with all of their friends at the mere click of an email button!
The choice, of course, is yours. Be ordinary and half-hearted...or be bold and stand out from the crowd. In the end, all it really takes is some time, effort and thought...or in some cases the money to pay a professional to do it for you.
Participating In Giveaways
Although Online Giveaways are only about four years old they are indeed a time-honored tradition. Why? Because they are based on co-location for the common good and giving away free samples...and those, my friend, are concepts that date back to ancient times. Think about it, flea markets, farmer's markets, bazaars, strip malls, shopping malls, Internet portals, MySpace and Facebook...they are all nothing more than the natural progression and evolution of the idea that...
The more there is in one place to see, the bigger the crowd that is drawn to visit. Everyone contributes, and everyone wins....
I participate in many online Giveaways, and even started my own called MyLadyWeb's Free Gift Giveaway, which is free to join as a contributor or as a recipient. It was from the beginning with people like my average client in mind. It was designed to attract a wide variety of beginning online entrepreneurs who are not necessarily into Internet Marketing, but want and need to learn how to begin using these techniques to promote their own businesses. It is also primarily designed for those people who do not know where and how to begin participating in online giveaways.
To be honest, it has not worked out exactly the way I envisioned. A good percentage of the items are the same old stuff, from the usual people—and that's great, because it would not be much of a giveaway without the marketing skill and added value they bring to the table—but to my delight many of my contributors have really put their hearts into this opportunity to promote their business for free and come up with custom creations and totally unique items that have not been offered in any other giveaway events!
So the thousands of recipients who will flock to the site over the six weeks of this holiday season when it will be open to the public, will—like sorting the wheat from the chaff—pick the best of the lot to download and remember fondly. Which, of course, means that life is actually fair, and those who took the time to put thought into creating a unique gift to giveaway will rise to the top of the heap, and reap the greatest rewards.
How cool is that?
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It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to
be generous, frank and independent.
– W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915
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About the Author: Teresa Bohannon RSS for Teresa's articles - Visit Teresa's website Click here to visit Teresa's website   Social Bookmarking Guide Easy Product Ideas Positive Thinking Power of Concentration Meditation Guide |
Related Forum Posts
Your Intial Mistakes Business
- Hi,
When I started my business I had made a lot of mistakes initially. These helped me in learning the art of the trade and today when I look back, I feel that these mistakes were quite silly. I had made my learnings then and those
learnings have helped me time and again.
Some of the mistakes I made were -
i. Wrong Time Management
ii. Wasting money on glossy Brochures and Business cards
iii. Believing what they taught me at school was 100% correct
iv. Giving too much when it was not required......
I would like to find out what have been your faltering moments in Business when you had started and what/how did they help you grow.
Regards
My entry
- 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read
- this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody.
2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto.
3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book
Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: Kevin's Case Study #7 - How do you promote your new book?
- [quote="orxan":35cl8y0c]Hi Keven,
For me the best strategy for promoting books would be Google Adwords. It has the highest conversion rate probably. And if you have a list then sending it to your list or to others list can make great profit. There are marketers who are making million dollars in 24 hours after releasing an ebook or program. What they do is send the book or program to their and other marketers friends list.
Giving Free chapter is not promotion method, but it is a good marketing sales technique which makes promotion to be more effective.
Orxan[/quote:35cl8y0c]
Hi Orxan,
When you say "highest conversion rate", what kind of numbers are we talking about?
Re: Kevin's Case Study #7 - How do you promote your new book?
- [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":26hcvszh]How do you promote your new self-help or business book? What kind of marketing budget should you set?
And which online strategy has the highest conversion rate?
Thanks[/quote:26hcvszh]
Hi Keven,
For me the best strategy for promoting books would be Google Adwords. It has the highest conversion rate probably. And if you have a list then sending it to your list or to others list can make great profit. There are marketers who are making million dollars in 24 hours after releasing an ebook or program. What they do is send the book or program to their and other marketers friends list.
Giving Free chapter is not promotion method, but it is a good marketing sales technique which makes promotion to be more effective.
Orxan
Re: Free elecrtricity generator
- Can anybody help me with any aspect of my invention?
In basic terms it is the energy of Gravity conserved and reused = (Auto engaging and disengaging shafts) = perpetual motion
Perpetual motion + static friction generated in a pipe = free static electricity
Free static electricity converted to usable electricity = Free usable electricity
Free usable electricity generated by the constant friction generated by an auto engaging and disengaging machine that conserves the energy of gravity in a overcrankable clock spring
The weight is easilly lifted back up the shaft with the aid of a double pully on ropes
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