BusinessNews Publishing - Summary: Free Marketing: Review and Analysis of Cockrums Book

Book Abstract

While theres nothing inherently wrong with spending money on advertising, the best and most productive marketing strategies in the current business era are in fact free. Thanks mostly to the Internet, its now feasible for no-cost advertising to outperform billboards, radio, TV, the print media, yellow pages and more.

The three basic strategies involved in free marketing are:

Its not that I am against spending on marketing; its just that Ive found that all of the most effective strategies available are now free or virtually free. Its as if marketing and advertising have been freed from the clutches of the old, established giants and expensive strategies that used to control them. As a result of all the interesting people and businesses Ive worked with Ive become a collector of effective marketing ideas. I have used and seen these ideas at work in my own business efforts, as well as in the businesses of my students and clients, and, in many cases, they have achieved amazing results for nearly a decade. Its not about saving money as much as its about effective marketing.

Jim Cockrum

About the Author

JIM COCKRUM is an Internet marketer. He has started, run and sold several successful Internet based businesses. He has sold or has helped his clients sell millions of dollars worth of products and services online since 1997. He is the author of The Silent Sales Machine and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine and Mens Health magazine. He is a graduate of Indiana State University.

The Web site for this book is at www.101freemarketing.com

Important Note About This Ebook

This is a summary and not a critique or a review of the book. It does not offer judgment or opinion on the content of the book. This summary may not be organized chapter-wise but is an overview of the main ideas, viewpoints and arguments from the book as a whole. This means that the organization of this summary is not a representation of the book.

1. Get found online and establish and then protect your reputation

Todays economy is built on the basis of instant virtual relationships and the constant flow of information. Knowing that, its vital that you get into important new habits:

Your online reputation is important because everyone today is busy and overwhelmed. You should be proactive in building your online reputation because that will influence lots of prospective customers. Ideas:

• Have an Internet connected computer or iPad in your lobby and encourage customers to share their experiences in dealing with you right away.
• Hold contests which encourage customers to place genuine feedback about you.
• Set up a Google Alert on your business name so you can monitor any new postings which can influence your online reputation.
• Turn negative customer experiences into free marketing by documenting what you do to make things right for that customer.

The most critical thing you can do to generate a great reputation is to create and freely distribute superior content. If you produce high quality content and get that into the hands of prospects who are online right at this time, your reputation will take care of itself.

You can also enhance your reputation by having an insanely great refund policy. If you give speedy refunds to anyone who requests them, the increase in business this generates will more than offset anyone who takes advantage of your refund offer. Treat each customer like they have a megaphone which they do and go irrationally overboard in spoiling them. Give customers genuine reasons to shout your praises and they will.

At one time, it was important to build a huge Web site to succeed online. Today, simple and inexpensive informational Web sites are outperforming the big and fancy Web sites. In fact the most effective Web sites of all are squeeze pages one page sites where the entire purpose is to capture e-mail leads you then follow up with later. Squeeze pages can be built with zero expense and minimal if any technical skills.

Rather than building a monolith site, the template for online sales success today is:

• Build a simple squeeze page which is a one-page site where you capture the prospects name and address.
• You then send follow-up information which directs people to a separate sales page Web site. The sales page tells what is being offered, explains the benefits and features and makes it easy for people to order.
• You make available to your customers a community site where they can talk about your products, share their ideas and in effect sell each other. This might be a standalone Web site, a Facebook fan page or a forum or discussion board. Participate in a daily, ongoing discussion with customers and make this a great place for prospective customers to hang out.
• Start a blog and use that as the home base for your marketing activities. On the blog, keep track of your progress in being able to solve problems for your customers. Make your blog a high value gathering place for your most loyal followers.

Incredibly, all of the components of the template can be created here and now using free resources available on the Internet. Google all of these elements and you have multiple free options you can use to put together the elements of the template for your business.

Today, brevity is a key marketing skill. People want to find out what you know and then get on with what theyre trying to do. To use this to your advantage:

• Put your business on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites only if you plan on updating these all the time. Social media is never a one-time event. You generally have to update information daily to keep it relevant. Unless social media use is part of your culture, stay away-but be warned if you do that, youre missing out on some incredibly valuable tools. Even if youre not yet ready to start using social media, learn the basics and start looking at how you can use it in the future.
• YouTube.com is too big to ignore as well. Simply posting a few videos here talking about what you do and why will generate new prospects for your business. Get into the habit of capturing pictures, videos and audios of anything and everything which relates to your business. Sooner or later youll be able to put this content to good use online.

There are lots and lots of free resources which will help you get started in social media and in posting material to YouTube. Some you might try:

• Animoto.com allows you to take uploaded pictures and turn them into an engaging animated show you can proudly display. This is a free service.