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This is my  little list of my top 10 favorite marketing ideas on the Unconventional Marketing Blog. Hope you enjoy.

Marketing Ideas #20 McDonalds Anti Starbucks Marketing Campaign - Billboards are shooting up everywhere taking shots (espresso) at Starbucks. In Western Washington (home of Starbucks) hundreds of these billboards are beginning to appear even right next to Starbucks.

Marketing Ideas #14 McDonald’s Free Coffee Monday - On the radio I overhead McDonald’s advertising free coffee Mondays where you can drive through or stop by their store for a free sample of McDonald’s coffee.

Unique Marketing Ideas with great results - Thirty days ago I started my Marketing Ideas En Masse trail to see what kind of results I could produce. Wow, am I amazed by the results of the test trial. Let’s dive into the numbers and see what we find.

Effective Marketing Online - Anybody with millions of dollars in their advertising budget can run a huge and effective marketing campaign, but how do you run an effective marketing campaign online for free?

Online Apartment Marketing Ideas - Just a couple of thoughts that came to my head when I thought of marketing empty apartments. I do have some experience in marketing apartments online and thought I would share some ideas.

Quick Marketing Ideas - I am going to just throw out a few different marketing queries I have received to this blog and then reply as quickly as I can with marketing ideas.

Real Estate Marketing Ideas - I don’t know if you have noticed, but the Real Estate market is taking a bit of a beating.

Marketing Ideas #12 Be Creative - Thanks to Dosh Dosh on twitter I found this ad talking about a Nissan Xterra for sale. This is an ad from Craigslist where some guy is trying to sell his Nissan Xterra SUV.

Marketing Ideas #10 Burger King dropping money - Most of the contents inside are gift certificates to their restaurant but who knows maybe someone got adventurous and added some real cash.

Starbucks new Gold Card marketing strategy - Just the other day I noticed Starbucks had started a new promotion, the Starbucks Gold Card. Although, it is not quite like the Centurion Black Card, it is on the right track.

Direct mail pieces are becoming very popular again. Not to say they never were popular but now they being looked at by even more people as the advertising budget get tighter.

Benefits of Direct Marketing Mail

Not only do you know your client is more likely to purchase from you but you can talor each mail piece directly to their needs. So if you know that you have clients in cold baren wastelands like Fargo, ND. you could have pictures of people playing in the Carribien sun as a prize. Or on the other hand you can have the people and objects in the ad reflect the demographic you are targeting. For instance in our area that would probably be more anglo white scandivnaivian people on the cover.

Buying smaller Direct Marketing Mail lists

It is completely possible to buy a mail list of the exact people you are looking for. Say you want to target a specific audience like Northern Minnesota ice fishers, I am sure there is list out there with just their names on it. This allows you to really drill down and build a marketing piece that will be the most appealing to that demographic. “Lower more target results + more money per item = better results. We have received as much as 42% on dimensional mail.” -BigPops

Using Dimensional Mail to Increase Sales

I sent out a question on Twitter to see what others had to say about Direct Marketing and @BigPops said that he had “great success” with dimensional mail pieces.  I have never used dimensional mail pieces before and did the natural thing and Googled them. Turns out they are basically unconventional mail pieces or anything that isn’t flat like a postcard. I like that.  I should have BigPops send some pics of mail pieces he has sent out sounds pretty neat.

Conclusion

All in all there is a huge market for Direct Mail Marketing and all sorts of products out ther to help with folding, cutting, printing and what not for those businesses who wish to take on the task running their own direct mail pieces. I have no doubt this industry is in a good position to take up the slack in newspaper advertising. The more target your audience and the more you know about them the better the results.

What are your thoughts on Direct Marketing Mail and what kind of success have you had with it?

I hope that everyone is enjoying the eggnog with loved ones next to a warm fire and some good food. This year Lindsay and I continued our tradition of having Chinese Buffet for Christmas lunch. We started going 3 years ago when both of us used to work on Christmas. This year is a little different.

I quit my last job a year ago this week. Hard to believe where life has taken me since. Quitting my job was the guttiest thing I have ever done, leaving behind a secure dismal paycheck to pursue a life of business and Internet Marketing. It was the best choice I have ever made. Deciding to strike out on my own definitely came with its ups and downs, but over all has been extremely worth it.

Looking back over the last year makes me very thankful that I get to spend time relaxing with my girlfriend Lindsay and for all the support that family and friends have given over the years. I hope that wherever you are, you are with the ones you love and cherishing every moment. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. God Bless you and may this year be more fruitful than the last.

-Josh Whitford

P.S. This year I am changing the focus of my newsletter to better help and encourage others to pursue a better life through marketing.

Just a couple of thoughts that came to my head when I thought of marketing empty apartments. I do have some experience in marketing apartments online and thought I would share some ideas.

Go all in

Just like in poker you sometimes have to go all in. In the apartment marketing game it is best to show them everything you have with your apartment in one spot. I am talking about good pictures, maps, descriptions, local attractions, sideshows, contact forms, live chat and your phone number everywhere.

Respond quickly

In North Dakota I know it costs roughly $500 to market and fill one unit for a year. Now if it is possible to drop that cost down to $100-150 per unit the savings adds up quickly. That is exactly what we did with our network of apartments listings sites.

Promote your buildings on and offline

We still have the traditional property managers that market apartments all of the usual ways via, TV, newspapers and radio. On the other hand I use SEO and content to drive online traffic to our sites. We go to great lengths to become the authority on apartments in our area. We talk about parks, schools, colleges, businesses, museums, special events and anything else we can think of.

Promote your competition

I know that might seem a little weird or off but it works to benefit everyone involved. We have listings for approximately 3,000 units throughout North Dakota and in most cases the apartments are full. The problem is that we still receive leads to the sites asking for availabilities and different apartments. Now you are in a position to either list others apartments for a fee or sell the leads off to other property managers.

Repeat the rewards

I have to admit that this process of building a network of sites is time consuming and labor intensive, but it is definately worth the effort. when done right you will recieve many contacts and have the ability to shape the opinion of your brand as well as reputation of your apartments.

What a busy week. I feel like I have been running around with my head cut off and completely slacked on getting a post up. Yesterday I decided to take the whole day off from anything that resembled work, with the exception of helping to shovel snow. Such is life sometimes. Now without further adieu…

Susie Asks: How much emphasis or value do you believe social networking is for companies? I believe it’s really good for brand building, but conversions are a different story, especially when you are limited in your “territory”. What are your thoughts and ideas.

Josh: I think social media and social networking are huge for companies to get involved with. When you have a brand that has been established over time it is very important to monitor that brand and encourage open discussion. One of the best tools I have seen for brand management and tracking social networking trend is an analytics software called SM2 Techrigy. I won’t go into huge detail about what the software can do other than it is top of the line for online brand management.

Recently, I have been trying to use Techrigy to help in planning marketing campaigns for clients versus just as a brand management tool. I will have to tell you about the results after I am done.

If you are limited to a territory I would seek out the noise makers in that area and work on building a positive working relationship with them. If you are an online retailer I would look for the Twitters and Bloggers in your area and build the best relationship possible with them. Don’t be afraid to be fully honest about why you are talking with them and see what different kinds of ideas they might have. That alone is enough to make them talk.

Jeff Asks: love your stuff- you must work with some talented people. who are these stalwarts of creative energy?

Josh: Funny that you ask Jeff. I do as Jeff says surround myself with many people with creative energy. Here in no particular order are those people.

Jeff Nyquist - former marketing director of The Marcil Group and current marketing director of Black Knight Marketing in Fargo, ND.

Sue Long - who specialized in marketing and design also formerly with The Marcil Group and currently with Black Knight Marketing.

Lindsay Stordahl - Lindsay is the author of That Mutt: A Dog Blog and provides marketing assistance for local companies via SEO, content and editorials. P.S. Lindsay is also my girlfriend and chief editor. Thanks, beautiful.

Justin Moen - Who we imported from Norway as a little programming gnome that helps with our automation processes and SEO. (Actually, he returned from a Norwegian hiatus and we snatched him up quickly after).

Sherry Asks: Since I am going to start a contest end of Dec at my blog. I like to know what’s the best way to choose the Winners. Beside using random.org, is there other way to do it?

Josh: Another way to have people win a contest is to make it so difficult that the only person to finish it wins by default. Or, you could have a set guideline that must be followed in order to win. There are always the contests that you purely decide who the winner is based on your own opinion or that of a panel of people (your friends or closest Internet companions). I think all work fine as long as you specify how people are chosen.

stores open on christmas Asks: My question is how do you brainstorm for good marketing ideas to test out on your blog?

Josh: Mostly out of boredom. I usually see what other people are doing and then see how I can apply that to my blog or other sites with the least amount of work possible. I usually just try something because I think it is cool and want to do it. Like my Marketing Ideas En Masse idea where I just wanted an easy way to post frequently about Marketing Ideas to help with my search rankings on that term. Yes, it helped and also got me a boat load of new visitors. I just kinda stumble through this as I see fit, like my own little Internet Marketing / Social Media experiment.

If you have a question and would like me to take a stab at it go ahead and shoot for the next round of Ask Josh or use my contact form.