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Do Marketing Gimmicks Work?
I was on a teleconference
with my mastermind group the other day and we were brainstorming to help
one of our group members come up with a name for her new book. She had a
title that she had been using for her ebook and that had been
well-received by her clients, and she wanted to keep that title but
expand on it for the next version of the book which was to be published.
She also shared with the
entire group that she felt she needed a "gimmick" for the book to
attract media attention. She had come up with a gimmick that she felt
worked well with her book content, and that her readers could relate to.
She also felt it would
generate the media attention she wanted.
All good things.
Here's where the problem
came in.
As we were brainstorming we
were trying very hard to tie her existing book title - and her
established brand - in with this new "gimmick.”
We were really struggling
to tie the two together in a way that made sense. Every time someone
threw out a suggestion it felt forced. It felt like we were trying to
shove a square peg into a round hole and it just wasn't working.
We finally hit a wall with
our brainstorming.
And I realized something
... that sometimes gimmicks in marketing are good, but if they just
don't fit with your product or service in a way that makes sense, they
may be better left out.
In her case, the gimmick
was proving to be a hurdle.
On the other hand, here's
an example of a gimmick that worked.
In the summer of 2005, my
business was just 6 months old. I had been teaching a 10-week teleclass
series, but realized I needed to revamp the class to make it more
marketable.
I turned to a trend in the
marketplace to help package my program so it would generate more
attention.
Extreme Makeovers were the
craze at that time. And when I looked at the work we were doing in my
teleclass series, that's exactly what it was, an Extreme Marketing
Makeover.
So I renamed my program the
Extreme Marketing Makeover Program, shortened it to 6 weeks, focused the
content on the parts of my system that I had found my clients needed the
most help with and started marketing it again.
And guess what happened?
It attracted the attention
of Entrepreneur Magazine, and the program received a write-up in the
magazine. My program received valuable free marketing exposure because
it tied in with a trend.
It was media coverage I am
convinced I wouldn't have received otherwise.
But you see, the gimmick
"fit" with my program. It made sense. It wasn't forced.
So in the end, I guess my
biggest piece of advice would be, if a gimmick works, then use it. But
if it doesn’t, don’t force it. Because it will likely feel forced to
your prospective clients as well.
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