List Building Part 7: Joint Ventures, Word of Mouth Marketing, Offline Media Marketing and Direct Mail

Rick Henkin

In part 7, the final part of our series, we'll examine the following list building methods: joint ventures, word of mouth marketing, offline media marketing and direct mail.

Joint Ventures

A joint venture is an alliance between 2 or more independent parties to leverage each other's assets. What this means in plain English is:

I have a product, you have a list, let's team up and share the profits

I have a list, you have a product, let's team up and share the profits

We both have complimentary products in the same niche, I'll sell yours, you sell mine, and we'll pay each other a commission

We both have complimentary products in the same niche, let's combine them into a new product, sell to both our lists and share the profits

We both operate in the same niche, let's survey our lists, find out what our customers want, create a brand new product together and share the profits

The variations to leveraging each other's businesses are only limited by the imagination.

The benefits of a joint venture are:

Increased list size

Increased revenue

Increased recognition

Increased credibility (depending on the reputations of the JV partners)

Decreased cost of acquiring new customers

Word of Mouth marketing

Word of mouth marketing is the passing of information from one consumer to other consumers. We've all done it. When we tell a friend about this great movie we saw or this good book we read, that's word of mouth marketing. As consumers we're much more influenced by our friend's recommendations or a referral from an authority figure we respect, than by a paid advertisement.

While you often have no control over word of mouth regarding your products or services, you can help facilitate it by:

Making the best product or service possible

Working to keep your customers happy

Listening to your customers

Making it easier for them to tell their friends

Finding the influencers and letting them know about your products and services

Word of mouth can't be faked or invented. If a company tries to fake it and it then comes to light (which it will inevitably), its reputation is damaged and the damage is quite possibly irreversible.

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (yes, there is one), has identified the following positive word of mouth marketing strategie s:

Encourage communications- make telling a friend easier, create forums and feedback tools and work with social networks

Give people something to talk about- information that can be shared or forwarded, advertising and publicity that encourages conversation and build word of mouth elements into products

Create communities and connect people- create user groups and fan clubs, support independent groups that form around your product, host discussions and message boards about your products

Work with influential communities- find people who respond to your message, identify people who are able to influence your target customers, encourage these influencers to spread the word and make good faith efforts to support issues that are important to these individuals

Create evangelist or advocate programs- provide recognition and tools to active advocates, recruit new advocates and teach them the benefit of your products, encouraging them to talk about them

Research and listen to customer feedback- track offline and online conversations and listen and respond to both positive and negative conversations

Engage in transparent conversation- encourage 2-way conversations with interested parties, create blogs and other tools to share information and participate openly on online blogs and discussions

Co-create and share information- involve consumers in marketing and creative (commercials, advertising, etc.), let customers have first access to information and content

Offline Media marketing and Direct mail

You're probably wondering what offline media marketing (which includes print, radio and television ads) and direct mail have to do with Internet marketing. We all know that putting up a website with quality content and great design is not enough to drive customers. "If you build it, they will come" (Field of Dreams movie) does not apply to the Internet. You need to do everything in your power to let people know that your website exists.

If you can afford to advertise on the radio or on billboards, you need to have an easy to remember website. People driving by or listening on their car radio, are not going to be able to write it down. If you advertise on television you're paying for a lot of eyeballs that might not have any interest in your website's product or service. If you purchase a magazine ad, you might be able to reach a more targeted audience but still at a large cost.

If your business caters primarily to a local audience, you can use flyers, direct mail and advertisements in the local newspaper. You can direct people to a specific landing page with a special offer just for those responding to that ad.

Using direct mail postcards can be an excellent way to market your website. Since the postcards are usually sent to a home or office where there is a computer, it's very easy for your prospect just to type in your url and go right to your site. Since you can't place a large amount of information on a postcard, you need to reduce your words down to the essence of your value proposition and its benefit to your audience.

Offline marketing ideas that don't cost any money

Radio talk shows- always looking for guest experts to interview and take calls from listeners. You don't pay, they don't pay and your website is announced on air

Local television- oftentimes local news shows will have a business segment where they interview people who have an interesting story to share

Local newspapers- they also are always looking for interesting and informative stories for their readers. Offer to write a continuing column for them

Local business magazines- same as newspaper

Chamber of Commerce guest speaker- chambers always need guest speakers for their breakfast or lunch meeting

Associations- find local business organizations and offer to speak to them or offer to write a continuing column for their newsletter

Seminars/Workshops- offer free seminars and workshops and promote your website during the presentation

Joint ventures- do a joint venture with an offline business that sells complimentary products or services. An idea might be to create a leaflet about your products that is given to the customer with their in-store purchase

Join a group or start a group centered around your niche

The bottom line is that you need to keep your website in front of people as much as possible. Don't rely solely on online marketing. Alot of your customers may not be as tech savvy as you think.

ARTICLE DATE: 2009-05-04
REVISED DATE:

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· List Building Part 6: Podcasts, Videos, Viral Campaigns and Press Releases/Social Media Releases
· List Building Part 5: Social Media, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs
· List Building Part 4: Online media marketing, CPA networks, ad networks, co-registration and affiliates
· List Building Part 3: Search engine marketing, Search engine optimization, article marketing, forums & groups, teleseminars and webinars
· List Building Part 2: Google AdWords, Yahoo! Sponsored Search, Microsoft adCenter, placement targeting and Pay Per Click
· List Building Part 1: Why Build a List and How Do I Do It?

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List Building Part 7: Joint Ventures, Word of Mouth Marketing, Offline Media Marketing and Direct Mail ">