The £500 Marketing Challenge.

[TFGtv.com]

This is a semi-serious exercise...

The primary purpose of which is to stimulate thought, debate among the membership. And maybe even provide some inspiration for those working on limited resources. And of course to yield a few good-humoured comments: Have a bit of a laugh...

There is a secondary purpose too; And that's to help gather some data that I can use when teaching marketing to my TV production students next year. I've decided to move away from the dreary uninspiring case-studies supplied by more 'conventional' (read: 'dull as ditchwater') sources which are, quite frankly, boring the a*ses off my students and try to construct a hypothetical model closer to that we would find here, now, in Scotland on the small-business scene....

So: Here's the challenge.....

You are just starting out. What you are setting up is a business to business service. Your particular service is not a core one! that is to say it's not the sort of thing like cleaning, catering or courier work (or even book Keeping) that people will buy readily simply because they need something done (although you may find some element of this)...

Your service is something more creative. Perhaps you're a graphics artist, a photographer or copywriter; Maybe you take your clients out on a yacht off the Clyde Coast, get them lost, then give them the task of working their way back as a team (i.e. teambuilding). Perhaps you're a Feng Shui expert hoping to bring a little balance and harmony to the average office space!

And one final point; This isn't a local service, you need to target a fairly broad geographical area. A major city the central belt or a sector of the East coast...

You have your tools, the service you provide costs around £500 per instance and you have an adequate website already in place...

BUT, you have just £500 to spend on marketing and five weeks in which to find £5000 worth of business.... (i.e. ten good-paying new clients). We're looking for generic concepts here, i.e. principals and ideas that others can adopt, adapt and improve upon...

A few ground rules.....

1) NO S.E.O. evangelising please! Seems everybody and his dog is an S.E.O. 'expert' these days... And we have screeds of 'information' about it on the board already! And in many ways this thread is about finding alternatives to the current supposed "way, truth and light"...'

IF the key is in driving traffic to your website let's find alternatives to Google and page *anking!! And I'm going to Ask Barry or Stu to just delete any posts that hijack the thread and try to pull it down that route....


2) NO blatant plugging of your own (or your mate's) goods or services! We want to open up debate and stimulate thought here! NOT provide a platform for every random snake-oil merchant... It's fine though to talk about what you do, so long as its relevant and not the main thrust of what you're posting....

Again; I'm asking Barry or Stu to delete any blatant sales pitches....

3) As much as I'd like to here people's ideas I'd like to hear people's reactions to them too! Negative feedback is as valuable as positive feedback; But a balance is essential!

4) Be as passionate and as forceful as you like; An empassioned debate is a useful one. HOWEVER; the line must be drawn at gratuitous insults, defamatory remarks and generally saying things online to folk that in real life might well result in your being bundled into a van late one night and taken for a wee drive to Torrance...

And again; I'm NO fan of censorship but if anyone's getting personal, trying to damage anyone else's business or just going out their way to provoke someone else.... SNIP! Hopefully Barry or Stu will spot it before anyone has to ask! The concept is to build ideas up and swipe at them to see if they're solid; NOT to have a go at others.... 'Self Moderating' is the phrase that springs to mind....

Hopefully we can draw some good ideas out of all this that maybe some folk can actually use?

Anyway; Have at it!