When the economy gets tough, marketing is the one thing not to cut. But you don’t have to spend a fortune on marketing, either.
Case in point: my mailbox brims with beautifully produced newsletters from mortgage brokers, insurance agents and realtors. They’re slick, well-written, gorgeously designed, and cost a pretty penny to produce. But they’re filled with canned articles and I get so tired of looking at those same stock photos of edgy young people wearing black-rimmed glasses. I hardly glance at these gorgeous marketing pieces. But there is a newsletter I read top to bottom…
It comes from a neighborhood realtor named HAVA (just HAVA). It arrives quick-printed on legal size, goldenrod paper with a mishmash of type faces, no photos and not an inch of “white space.” Yet I read every word. Why? Because HAVA’s newsletter features two things I care about: sale prices of houses that have recently sold in our neighborhood and a list of neighborhood service providers: Babysitters, yoga instructor, seamstress, lawn cutters, house cleaners, dog sitters, an accountant, attorney, personal trainer, dentist, even a hypnotist who does past life regression. Talk about community! This is a social network and it’s being leveraged beautifully. When I get ready to sell, I’m going to call HAVA because she knows my neighborhood … AND she knows how to market.
The lesson: good marketing doesn’t have to cost a fortune. It doesn’t even have to be beautiful. It just has to have a “good personality!” And the way to do that is to come up with content that really matters to your prime prospects and keep that content – and your name – top of mind year-round.
How about you? Have you got a favorite Ugly-Duckling marketing example?
– Judy Kirkland
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