Marketing Secret #71 How To Get Outside Professionals To Participate In Your Advertising!

(By the way, when we recommend things like cost-sharing, we’re only making a suggestion, not providing legal advice. Anytime you enter a new area, you should have an attorney review your ideas to make sure they don’t violate any local or federal laws or code of ethics!)

In the last secret, we talked about working with outside professionals as your best weapon for low/no cost marketing. Here, we’re going to briefly review different ways you can work with outside professionals to pay for some, or all, of your advertising.

Before we start our discussion, I want to remind you to look at the disclaimer at the top of the page. In some circumstances and professions, getting someone else to pay for your advertising is illegal, and could get you in big trouble.

We are not advocating anything even remotely illegal. If you cannot do these things where you live or work, you’ll either have to obtain competent counsel to find out what you can do, even if it’s different from our suggestions…or forget it altogether!

Now, with that said, let me give you some examples of how some of our financial and real estate members are working with outside professionals and doing it legally! (They have all had their solicitors check this out. DO NOT TRY THIS ON YOUR OWN! YOU MUST HAVE COMPETENT COUNSEL ADVISE YOU ON THIS!)

1. A landscape woman has a mortgage broker pay for advertising because many of the leads end up needing mortgage refinancing etc. The broker is getting business he would have never got, and he is glad to help in those costs with the landscape professional.
2. A mobile phone company owners invites the business owner donors not-for-profit groups to seminars, where he speaks about how to save big money on their mobile phone stuff. He also has a local solicitor speak about tax and estate issues. He usually gets 50-60 people to show up, and obtains a few clients/customers out of each seminar. The solicitor pays for everything! And, the not-for-profit groups eventually get more donations because of the value added service they bring to their donors. They’re not like all the other not-for-profit groups who don’t do this kind of thing and just want money.
3. An office equipment salesperson brings a quick printing guy into the office and shows them all her ads, marketing letters etc. She then explains how she only refers if referred to, and gives the printer a couple of recommendations to demonstrate her seriousness. Then, the printer either set up a seminar for their clients, or send her recommendations, or she sends them packing. She’s in charge.
4. A guy sends out an emotional, response-driven message (see Secret #65 for more information) to his clients/customers and prospects. He sells ad space (our kind of ads are accepted) in the newsletter since he wants to plug these people anyway. They pay for all of his newsletter costs, so he gets free marketing out of the deal!
5. A financial planner and an insurance agent hold semi-annual Client Dinners for their clients. They invite guest speakers, who are either local professionals, or outside vendor’s wholesalers. The planner and agent make these people pay to get a speaking spot on the agenda. No pay, no say! They usually get between 150-200 people, plus several new clients each, since all clients are encouraged to bring friends and family!
6. A pizza place places an insert ad in a local dairy’s monthly newsletter. He gets calls every month. They dairy wants to do it, because he wants the pizza place to provide exciting discounts to fill the newsletter each month.
7. A moving company owner working out of his home uses office space in a real estate broker’s office. The broker gave him a small office and use of the conference room. The mover wants this space, but doesn’t want to pay an arm and a leg. He pays the broker rent each month, and keeps turning over all his clients and leads to the broker, who gets a few new clients each month and makes even more money from the rent! Plus, the broker turns all his customers over to the mover, who contacts them, if the situation is appropriate. Everybody’s winning!
8. An advisor offers a free tax check up for anyone who meets with him. The check up is provided by a local CPA firm. They pay for the ads in the financial magazines because the advisor uses this check up as a USP to help pull more leads.
9. An expense reduction consultant sends out a coupon from neighbourhood accountants, solicitors, mortgage brokers, real estate brokers, printers, movers, appraisers, home inspection services etc. They get business from this – and offer assistance!

I think you can see there is no end to the ways you can work with outside professionals to help each other with costs and expenses. If some of them aren’t legal for you, then that doesn’t mean you throw in the towel and do nothing!

What it means is that you get out there, find what can work legally, and start talking to these professionals right away. We hear all the complaints about what you cannot do in your field or area, but that isn’t going to make you no money! Instead of complaining, have your solicitor help you find those things you can do, and just start doing them!

Getting even a few hundred bucks a month of expenses somehow covered is great, and the networking possibilities are unlimited. But if you just go to Chamber of Commerce meetings and shake people’s hands while passing out brightly coloured business cards, you’ll never get this to happen! You must be the aggressor, and make things happen.