How To Do It: Indirect Marketing

Jason Katzenback — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:54:07 +0000

This post is written by Mattaw of Moneybites.com and BlogGears.com. Moneybites shares tips, tricks, and ideas to make money online.

Indirect marketing is a great way to get some excellent promotion and coverage on websites or blogs. It is a type of creative marketing that is cheap BUT very effective.

What is indirect marketing?

Indirect marketing is when…

“products and services are sold through third part distributors (versus direct marketing)”

I’m not talking in this case about selling products or services through a third party though. Instead, I’m talking about getting your product or service promoted by using the help of a third party to get at the place where you want the promotion to occur.

How to do it

Indirect marketing can be done fairly simply. The first step you need to take is researching your target. Find out about friends and family (family is best) and their habits. Next send the friend or family your promotion along with a promotion for the person you want to target.

What this does is gets the friend talking to the target about your company, and your target is already happy because they got something for you. Also, it can show the target that you cared enough to do some research and be kind to people around them (if they look at the indirect gift first as well).

For example, if my target was Mr. X, I’d research Mr. X first and find out everything about him (in this case let’s say he has a son). I’d then send Mr. X a promotional package along with something extra for his son. What this would do is get his son on your side (he just received a gift out of the blue) and get the target thinking about you. Mr. X might be so impressed (or nagged crazily by the indirect person) that he may give me some exposure on his website or blog.

A real life example

John Chow (yeah, I know a lot of examples involve him), at one point received a promotional package from MarketLeverage (A CPA company). Inside this package was a host of stuff for his daughter as well as a few treats for John.

What MarketLeverage did here was appealed to John’s fatherly sense and also did something nice for a loved one. In response (and probably motivated slightly by the kindness), John wrote about it on his blog, not too shabby.

This is a classic example of indirect marketing. They appealed to someone close to the target and as a result got the promotional “bang” they wanted.

Wrap up

Indirect marketing can really help you make some “noise” for your product. It can get people talking if done right and really get you some good exposure. So, before your next marketing attempt, find a website you like, do a little research and perhaps extend a well thought out promotion attempt to the webmaster and owner (and the indirect target). You might just get the “bang” you’re looking for.

So what are your thoughts about the idea of Indirect Marketing?

John Cow dot Com » indirect marketing

How To Do It: Indirect Marketing