There’s nothing exciting about a razor blade, right? How about online budgeting software? Total snoozer. Contact lenses? No way. These are some of the most boring products you will find in the market. Yet, each of these products has been successfully marketed online. Dollar Shave Club has made shaving and razors exciting and cool. Mvelopes has transformed the way people think about something as boring as budgeting. The LensStore is creating a buzz about eye glasses. What did these companies do to generate excitement and how can you do something similar with your mundane commodity?
They took the product beyond itself and utilized online, offline and social channels by promoting stories around the product. This is what differentiates great marketers from mediocre ones. With the advent of internet and social media it has become easier than ever to share your stories to large number of audience. Below we provide tips on how to do it.
Blogging
Writing on your own blog is a great way to promote otherwise “boring” products. You can write about multiple facets of the product – history of the product, benefits, how to use it, experiences and so on. Instead of promoting the product itself you can promote the story of the product.
When you write about the story and benefits of your product you help your target audience envision what it would be like to own and use your product. That way, you don’t have to sell them. The product and the stories will sell themselves through word-of-mouth.
Guest Posting
In addition to writing on your own blog you can also promote it on other blogs and websites via guest posting. Again, if you have interesting story about the product that keeps the audience occupied many other blogs will be willing to host your story. This broadens the audience to which your product is marketed.
In addition to the guest post you can request to have a link included in your bio at the bottom of the post. As long as you have something interesting and unique to contribute, your odds of being accepted are excellent.
Educational Materials
There is always a demand for educational material around any product. People want to know how to use the product, what are the different use cases and how to repair it. Kraft increased the sale of their cream cheese by providing videos and recipes showing numerous ways in which it could be used. You will find companies of all sizes and styles providing educational materials via video, podcast, brochures and so on. When your customers are educated about the products they tend to buy more.
Consulting and Advice
You can go one step beyond providing educational material and offer free consulting and advice around you products. By helping your customers with consulting you are only helping yourself because when people know how to use your product properly they will be more satisfied and keep coming back to you. With the advent of internet it has become easier and cheaper than ever to provide consulting. You can set up a link on your website where customers can ask questions or provide live chat with an expert.
Tom Grant is a small business writer. He loves to share his ideas for how to breathe new life into business writing on small business blogs. He recommends www.lenstore.co.uk for great deals on contact lenses.
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