Goody Bag Marketing: The "Secret" Tactic
Posted: Saturday, May 17, 2008
by Michael Crooks
Crooks Advertising Alliance
Using Goody Bag marketing as a promotional strategy is a great first step. In a previous article (Goody Bag Success) I outlined specific steps to develop an effective plan to target your market. In this article I'll discuss a specific tactic to motivate your target to action. I call it The "Secret" tactic.
When you employ the "Secret" tactic you promise the recipient of your item that they will become privy to a given number of secrets. This is a great way to drive traffic to a website or a retail location. I'll use Stan from Stan's Plumbing as an example.
Like many small business owners, Stan was wasting money donating cheap do-dads to the goody bag of every golf outing in town. He thought he was doing a great job because he took great care to ensure that the items were imprinted with his name, slogan and phone #.
Stan's Plumbing
Water Where You Want It, When you Want It.
555-555-5555
Water Where You Want It, When you Want It.
555-555-5555
And it worked out real well … for the guy who sold stuff to Stan. But it wasn't working out at all for Stan. Stan learned that simply slapping his contact info on a cheap item is not effective promotion. Thankfully, however, he also learned that with a little thought, he could do better. A lot better. Let's employ the "Secret" tactic for Stan.
"10 Plumbing
Secrets Every Homeowner Should Know."
www.StansPlumbing.com
Stans Plumbing 555-555-5555
www.StansPlumbing.com
Stans Plumbing 555-555-5555
Or, if Stan didn't have a website:
"10 Plumbing
Secrets Every Homeowner Should Know"
Get Your Free Guide. Call Stan's Plumbing:
555-555-5555
Get Your Free Guide. Call Stan's Plumbing:
555-555-5555
When a prospect visits Stan's website or receives the guide, and reads the promised "secrets", Stan establishes credibility, a level of trustworthiness and expertise.
In addition to the "secrets", whether on line or in the guide, Stan highlights his services. He offers a number of services, including a low, fee-based inspection service. Maybe you're selling your home and want to know what upgrades to make to improve the sale-ability of it. Perhaps you want to know the integrity status of the plumbing in a home you want to buy. Or, you simply want to ensure your plumbing is up to snuff. Call Stan.
Every time Stan performs an inspection, he places his sticker with his contact information on the water heater.
Stan could also offer visitors to his website a higher-value imprinted promotional item for stopping in or filling out and submitting an e-form. The item is delivered with his sticker and instructions to place the sticker on the water heater. If Stan doesn't have a website, he can include a response card with the free guide. This is how Stan builds a database for future, targeted marketing efforts.
I believe every business, company and non-profit can use the "Secret" tactic to increase the effectiveness of their Goody Bag donations. To be most effective, the goody bag should be the starting point of a larger concept. Using Stan as the example, the "Secret" tactic helps get Stan:
• generate interest;
• establish credibility;
• create opportunity for personal contact;
• get his sticker inside people's homes;
• create a database for ongoing marketing.
If you're currently putting your contact info on some cheap do-dad and donating it to goody-bags, I'd like you to stop doing that. Simply slapping your contact info on an item is not effective promotion. Want proof?
Next time you receive a goody bag at a golf outing, conference or other event, pay close attention to how you view all the junk in the bag. Do you fall all over yourself to do business with the companies represented by the pens, pencils, and what-not in the bag? How much of the stuff in the bag ends up out-of-sight in a drawer, given to the kids or worse yet … in the trash. How many items ask you to do something? How many cause you to do something such as visit a web site, make a phone call or visit an establishment?
Then ask yourself, "If I'm not motivated by any of this junk, why will others be motivated by my junk?" Most likely the answer is, they won't be. That is why without an effective idea behind what is imprinted on the item … IT'S A HUGE WASTE OF MONEY!
The "Secret" tactic is just one of many tactics you can employ to make goody bag marketing the effective promotional tool it can be. But it's going to take some thought and a little planning. Now, stop simply giving stuff away … and start promoting.
This Article has been viewed 926 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)As a new business owner I will try your approach out and see where it heads. Now all I need to do is discover those 10 secrets? Thanks.Mr. Melaccio, Give it some thought. I've found that no matter what my client's business, there are "secrets" or inside information that can be shared without giving the farm away. The goal is to establish credibility and expertise. Good luck, sir. Warm Regards, Michael Crooks
Very good information Michael. Lets see, 10 secrets I have to offer are hummmm....
HI Michael, this is great information! I never thought about it before, but I throw most of the junk away, because it has no real purpose! Great advice for business owners. Well laid out and an interesting read. Blessings to you!
EXCELLENT! As simple as it sounds, it never occurred to me. Thanks for this 'secret' to marketing.Dear Camille, You are correct. Much of effective marketing is simple. It just requires proper thought. The problem is, as most of us get older, we forget the simplicity of thought that we had as children and believe that complicated is somehow better. If you implement a promotion based on this thinking, I'd love to hear about it. Warm Regards, Michael
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.