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casado
23rd October 2009, 09:52
Some of you may be interested in this idea to promote your business.

I was yesterday murdering a tomato to make a salad that would accompany a chicken that I have bought ready murdered and was roasting away in the oven when I came up with this idea. Let see what you think of it.

I plan to introduce a product which has a lot of applications in many industries. I decided to target 3 of them to start with. I paid someone to do a market study and find out the level of familiarity of the people responsible of those industries had with this product. For that we took a sample and created a questioner and interviews were carried out by phone. The result was that, despite the tremendous benefits and savings it can bring to their businesses and the fact that it is widely used in countries where this product is produced ( I need to bring it from abroad, by sea ), almost no one interview knew about it and its properties.

So, I thought that before jumping into warehousing it and so on, I would create some literature to send to prospect with is essentially technical information. So I created a document which is mainly, 90%, just scientific and technical facts, going down to basic physics and chemistry to explain the whys and hows of the product, and added at the end a form to be send back for those who decide it would be a good idea to try it. So far nothing original.

The problem is that I filled out 10 A4 pages with it. With a little effort I could save a couple of pages and make it 8. Why would this be interesting. The thing is that if I want to print it on paper, that I need to, 10 pages is a very bad number. I need it to be either 8, 12, 16... To understand the reason, if you want to make it look like a magazine, the publication would be composed of A3 sheets of paper folded in the middle, so one A3 sheet would contain 4 pages, two 8, three 12, four 16, and so on. Ten is the wrong number as I would need 2 A3 sheets and 1 A4 sheet in the middle. Yes, there are many solutions to the problem, just add pictures and spread the text around until I reach 12 pages, cram the pages so I end up with 8, or, instead of doing A4 do it A5 or another format.

Yes, but there is another solution. I could share the publication with other business who would like to be exposed to the same client base and let the put their own messages in it, that could be in the form or editorial articles or advertising. So, I could aim to have a 16 pages publication, may be space the content that I have created a little more, and use 11 pages instead of 10, and have 5 pages for others. In exchange these others can contribute to the cost of printing and distribution. So, with 5 pages, I can set myself a target of £250 per page, £150 per half a page, £ 80 per quarter page, and so on. Even though it would not pay for the whole thing, as printing is just one of the costs, it would help me reduce the burden, it will also make the publication more interesting as there would be more elements to entertain the eye of the reader and some other businesses could benefit of exposure to a targeted audience at a very low cost.

Of the 3 industries I am targeting with the publication, the most important one are farmers, and there must be businesses out there who would like to have their message seen by this groups as farmers are normally very family run business and there is some room for consumer goods or services as well.

The publication will be sent out and will have a long life span as it will be kept also to be sent out to those who didn't received it but request information, future sales person will carry it with them to leave with prospects and clients as a reference, etc. So your message will be lingering around for a long time. Those who decide in the future to buy form us, are likely to keep it as they may use it as technical reference. So, they will have the opportunity to see you many times, learn the name of your business and think of it when the need for your product or service come to them.

So, what do you think?

OldWelshGuy
23rd October 2009, 09:57
Yes is what I think. you need to be carefull though as 10 pages for a farmer to read cold is probably too much.

The idea is sound, but there is no way on gods earth will anyone read a 10 page advert.

casado
23rd October 2009, 10:17
Yes is what I think. you need to be carefull though as 10 pages for a farmer to read cold is probably too much.

The idea is sound, but there is no way on gods earth will anyone read a 10 page advert.

Is not an advert, is, as I said, technical information that I need to give as for those that may be interested need to know the facts. An avert would be to kind of announce some miracle product without they knowing what the product is. So, is more educational, on my part, than promotional. Later on, I can create seminars to explain the product, its use and the advantages it offers, and I would expect a proportion of those who would not read the 7 pages of information but sense that there is some thing to it, and later do a proper sales, marketing campaign based on the grounds laid out. Even, within those 7 pages, there are several framed insertions containing abstracts and references to technical papers as support to give it credibility and as a reference for those who would like to research the issue a bit further. So, the main spine article does not take even 7 pages, more like 4, or 4 and a half, and it is divided in short sections each relevant to an aspect of its applications. So, some one interested only in how one particular use of it can skip the rest and only read that part.
But this publication will stay there, so, in the future, when is more widely known and still people call to find out technical information on the product, I can just send out a copy. That is why I think that there can be a clear distinction between my information and the advertising and promotion other can make on the pages. So, every thing would support each other: people may start reading my information, and have a rest looking at someone else's advert, and then decide to go on reading. Also, adverts will be supported by this content as, those interested in reading information about something that can truly help them in their businesses will see the adverts as they read along. As the information is technical and goes in their favour (the product helps them to have a more productive, environmentally friendly farm as well as save some money ) it is very likely that the wise ones will keep it as reference.

OldWelshGuy
23rd October 2009, 10:25
Unless these farmers have requested the information, it will be seen as an advert. Trust me on this.

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action.

These are the stages you need to go through.

How are you going to get their attention? the only way to do this would be to have either a strong cover letter, or a real strong front page that negates the need for a cover letter. Out of curiosity, those pages you mentioned, have you included an about us and how to contact us section within that count? The last thing you want to happen ois for the cover letter to get lost and for people to have something they want but can't find out who to get it from. Strong branding on each page. telephone numbers and web/email addresses at the foot of each page.

If on the other hand these farmers have requested this information (which going by your original post I took it this wasn't the case), then make it as technical; as you like.

Attention. - you must grab their attention hard and fast. farmers need to save money and free up time. I would say your opening gambit needs to attack those two elements.

Interest - you need to keep their interests, make it too technical and you lose them (and the sale)

Desire should be in the sub copy of that original headline grabbing page.

Action - as mentioned above, have contact details i the footer of each page.

casado
23rd October 2009, 10:33
More than half of those contacted on the phone have already requested the information, the only thing I need to make it bigger is to keep on calling. For every 100 calls, at least I would be sending out 50.

Besides, the world is full of free publication posted out without been requested, free newspapers, free magazines, etc. From experience that I have, magazines hardly read by anyone charge at least £500 per page and do not last in the hand of the reader more than 5 minutes.

OldWelshGuy
23rd October 2009, 10:34
Ok you obviously know what you are doing, not sure why you asked for advice really :D

Mystro
24th October 2009, 09:09
I did not even read your first post because it was too long..

Now if what you wrote was somthing i was asking for then maybe i would have took the time

casado
26th October 2009, 08:44
I did not even read your first post because it was too long..

Now if what you wrote was somthing i was asking for then maybe i would have took the time


Thank you for sharing.

re8976
28th October 2009, 08:16
same here. that was some post

casado
28th October 2009, 08:47
same here. that was some post

If you didn't read it because you are not interested, and don't want to waste your time, why take the "time" to reply? is there some inner urge to slash out to someone to vent your frustrations?

David White
10th November 2009, 13:10
How is this idea working for you at the moment?

If you need some extra exposure for selling the advertising pages please PM me and I will try and assist.