Getting Media Support - A Mutual Uplift Process

In sthe spirit of the win/win scenario, here is a marketing approach that turns the marketing sales funnel into a potential megaphone and makes clever use of the personal referral.

Let's say there is an event coming up - a trade show, business mixer, or even a shopping center grand opening. You want to create significant buzz about the event, but have almost no funds for advertising. What can you do? Answer: get folks you know - both online and offline - to help spread your message by sending you actual "Dear Editor" letters via email. Here are the steps:

1) Send email to schools, post to your blog and social networks that you would like to be sent "Dear Editor" letters as email or email attachments which you can in turn capture as JPEGS and post to a Squidoo lens.

2) Explain what the content of those messages need to contain. Encourage the person writing the message to include his contact information because you want that kind of information to be available to the news media for follow-up and confirmation purposes. Since this is a win/win deal, encourage the letter-writer to cleverly also promote his business in the "Dear Editor" letter. The letter needs to be brief. No more than a half-page in length.

3) Capture each message used as a JPEG and load it to a Squidoo lens using the Polaroid Squidoo module. Should the Polaroid module does not meet your needs, us the Text/Write Squidoo module and HTML from a Photobucket.com account. This formula is designed to acknowledge the people helping your promotion. It demonstrates you really do appreciate their help. It should also give the news media a wide selection of "Dear Editor" letters from which to choose for their respected publications.

4) Simply contact the news media using brief email message with a link to your Squidoo lens. The news media should ill figure out what you are doing and be impressed with your clever approach. Why? Because you are actually helping them do their job in ways most folks do not.

This is not pie-in-the-sky rhetoric. This process is being implemented for a shopping center grand opening in Hidden Valley Lake, CA. Visit the following link to see what is scheduled to take place at the Grand Opening of Hardester's Shopping Center.

Form A ''Cluster" and Expand Your Reach

While "clustering" in nothing new (just check out what Wikipedia has to say about the term), in economically difficult times, it becomes more important than ever to form alliances with others...that WORK. Believe it or not, alliances work best when those alliances are focused on small rather than large groups of people. How is that done? Take a look at the Food For Thought link on this page entitled, "Clustering."

Restaurant's FREE Wi-Fi Inspires Other Merchants To Be Innovative

Hidden Valley Lake - A few months ago Charlie McFarling, owner of Ting's Thai Kitchen, decided to do something very clever - become a FREE Wi-Fi hot spot. The idea was that customers would come into the restaurant, order their meal and then get online with their mobile device while their meal was being prepared. They could check email, surf the Web and make free VOIP phone calls anywhere in the world to their Skype or Google Talk contacts. To maintain control of the FREE Wi-Fi, McFarling would need to be the one imputting the restaurant's password into each mobile device. That would entitle each user to an hour's worth of free Wi-Fi.

But, there was a problem. Keeping a Wi-Fi signal free of hacking and viruses would require an Internet connection that was attached to a Virtual Private Network. This VPN would need to be monitored 24/7. How could a little Mom and Pop restaurant manage to afford to do that in addition to having access to the Internet? McFarling needed both additional technological assistance and "marketing buzz" help to make that happen. With the help of CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing, The Wi-Fi Company of Denver, CO and Video By KitDee he got the help he needed.

First, The Wi-Fi Company put his Internet signal on its Virtual Private Network and made the inclusion of what is referred to as "splash page advertising" possible at the hot spot. CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing sought local advertisers and assisted in their individual promotions - both at the hot spot and online. Revenue from the splash page advertising was designed to help defer the cost of the secure Wi-Fi hot spot The Wi-Fi Company had created. (Advertisers promote themselves for THREE MONTHS using print, audio and video for just $79. This included promotion at both the restaurant's hot spot and its online Squidoo lens.) Then, Video By KitDee shot videos at the restaurant. These videos helped to stylishly promote the fact that the restaurant had FREE Wi-Fi. Video By KitDee has since gone a step farther and included Ting's Thai Kitchen in the Lake County Chef's Challenge, which airs twice weekly on Mediacom's Channel 8. You can learn more about this challenge by going to www.videobykitdee.com.

Local merchants appears to be paying attention. Recently, a Crave Coffee Shop opened in the Hardesters Shopping Center, across from Ting's Thai Kitchen. Like Ting's, it too is providing FREE Wi-Fi to all of its patrons. While the nearby Greenview Restaurant has no plans currently to offer FREE Wi-Fi, it is looking at an interesting technological innovation for its restaurant. It is considering the possibility of replacing the restaurant's big white board with a 20" digital photo frame. The digital photo frame would enable the restaurant to impressively showcase news of its daily specials, tournaments and other HVLA activities in the form of slides shows and videos. The digital photo frame is portable and could be used for training purposes in the restaurant's dining area on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. But, that is not all. The digital photo frame could be used to showcase products and services of local small businesses. As an advertising tool, the digital photo frame could generate enough revenue not only to pay for itself, but to help provide profit for the restaurant. Two doors down from the Crave Coffee Shop, a Subways Sandwich Shop is currently being built. One has to wonder if Subways will be offering FREE Wi-Fi to the public once their doors are open.

Ting's Thai Kitchen continues to press the technological envelope. You can now find Ting's on Twitter.com. Just sign up for a free Twitter account at http://twitter.com and click Ting's "follow" link at http://twitter.com/tings. All the latest news about Ting's will be sent to your Twitter connection - be it your Twitter web page or your cell phone. Ting's also has a Squidoo lens which showcases a great deal about what both the restaurant and its advertisers have to offer. Check it out at www.squidoo.com/TTK. Believe it or not, McFarling can update his Twitters by simply making a toll-free phone call with his cell phone. McFarling has learned how "to Jott a Twitter." And, so can you. Just go to www.jott.com for more information.