This post is written by Mattaw of Money Bites and Blog Gears.
Creative marketing is a viable way of getting a huge discount on exposure. While some of you may think that buying a post on most of the big blogs is the way to go for getting the word about your company or website out there, you’re wrong! Creative marketing achieves this for a fraction of the cost and all you need to do is use your head.
The Ego
Bloggers (especially ones in the make money online niche) usually have a huge ego. What you need to do is fan this ego with your promotion or product as well as giving the blogger something newsworthy to write about.
By fanning the bloggers ego and providing them with content you can easily get mentioned on their blog or even an endorsement for a fraction of the cost it would have run you to buy a post on their blog.
The Relationship
The other positive here is you build a relationship with the blogger. By using their ego to get a cheap mention in the bloggers mind you are also showing you care. This can come in handy for a follow up promotion or just an ongoing relationship with that blogger.
If you already have an existing relationship with the blogger, you can utilize that in your promotion. This can give your promotion some leverage with the blogger who you’re trying to score some exposure from (and a greater chance of getting mentioned by them).
Think Outside The Box
What do I mean exactly by think outside the box? I mean try something new! Sure, your company or website can send a big blogger a t-shirt, but I can only imagine how many of those someone like John, Problogger or Shoemoney gets per day. What you need to do is come up with something brand new or that hasn’t been used in a while (so that it seems newer).
Instead of sending a t-shirt, send a bobble head of the blogger and a custom inscribed keyboard for their desk. This isn’t saying that the method I just mentioned will get you there, but it’s an example of doing something that isn’t common and will get attention.
If you don’t have a physical product or any swag to give away this doesn’t mean you’re out of the running. Create something virtually and send it over. This could be a piece of good innovative graphics work or a custom coded plugin for the blog.
The point is all these methods will cost you a fraction of what you would pay to get on all those blogs and still get a similar effect (as well as build a relationship with the blogger as mentioned before).
The Example
The T-Shirt Tactic – A while ago, the MarketLeverage got posts on blogs such as ShoeMoney, Problogger and WinningtheWeb (as well as quite a few others). Oh yeah, did I mention I’d estimate it cost them a fraction of the cost they’d have to pay to buy exposure on those blogs! How did they do it you ask? Well simple, they bought enough T-shirts for their whole team from the blogs and then sent the blogger pictures of them decked out in the T-shirts. This simple yet effective tactic scored them a ton of exposure on some large blogs.
The Animated Video –This was actually done very recently by Logo Samurai and it illustrates my point perfectly. They sent John and Shoemoney a custom made video of them battling each other.
Not only was the video well done, but it got mentioned on both the blogs. By having their team whip up a video that I can guarantee wasn’t nearly as expensive as buying a post on John Chow dot Com alone, they scored exposure on both large blogs.
What they did is simply thought outside the box and took a older tactic that had been done before and revamped it with their product.
Wrap Up
The point I’m trying to make is simple. It’s not only about getting exposure through blog posts, it can be applied to internet marketing in general as well. If you just think outside the box you’d be surprised what genius ways you can come up with to achieve your marketing goals for a fraction of the cost.