You can easily create a buzz for your biz when you have a network of supporters who share your market niche. Invent a new occasion or holiday and kick off your "virtual celebration" with the help of some resourceful friends. Then, make it super-simple for them to help you raise awareness and for everyone in the group to capitalize on the opportunity.... by custom-designing ads that they can post in their websites, ezines, blogs and forums. How will you "custom-design" an ad? Easy. Create one in HTML, save it to your server, and then pass out the link so that your friends can just "grab" the source code and pop it into their advertising materials. In your ad, include just a few basic elements - a small, simply designed table. A logo graphic to help brand your event. A hooker of a headline, preferably one that tells the audience "what's in it for them." Finally, add about 50-75 words of copy with a call-to-action and a link they can click to "learn more." One great way to warm people to your idea: make the ad somewhat personal. The only way you'll get folks to read that copy is if it comes across like there are real human beings behind the effort. What do real humans do and say? Well, they get excited about things. They have friends whom they're happy to support. They have feelings and goals and dreams. And real humans are conversational and colloquial, as opposed to robotic and textbook-like in their communication. If you have any trouble, pretend you're writing an email to a friend. I recently created an ad to help promote Web Content Awareness Day, and passed out copies to my supporters. I know that my supporters have lists of people who *know* them, read their emails, take their advice and are basically *fans* of theirs. So when I wrote my ad, I tried to communicate the idea that "You know [Mary] and [Mary] knows me. She and I are doing something fun together so maybe you'd like to check it out." Each friend of mine who ran the ad was given a special "Thank You" line that included their name. This way, when [Mary]'s ezine or blog audience saw the ad, they'd see that little "shout out" and it might occur to them that there was a real person behind this extravaganza... and that person actually KNEW [Mary]. Which is TRUE of course... so why not send that message in your ad, right? Whatever you do, don't push your advertisement on people. You can offer it as a solution for those who don't have the time or inclination to write ads themselves. Many who ask for "instant content" will be more than happy to put your ad to good use. But, do give your recipients the option to do it their way. Some of your more creative online colleagues might have their own unique idea about how to present your event to their audience. Grant them creative license and you might just find that they've found a new and ingenious way to "bend" the context of your online blowout to match their target market. That means more interest in the event and more of a buzz for everyone involved. Want to witness event planning live in action? Please join me and my marketing friends at the First Annual Web Content Awareness Day, http://WebContentAwarenessDay.com. Sneak Peek: Visit the Countdown to Web Content Awareness Day Blog and watch what happens when "friends help friends drive traffic." Paste in this link: http://wordfeeder.typepad.com/web_content_awareness_day/ Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved. |
