Campaigning

Getting Noticed

By Matt Mould

So lets face it; it's not just who you know.  It's more what you have, how you show it, more specifically the first image or few words you display, when it's displayed, where it's displayed, and to what frequency.  I've got a couple hundred LinkedIn contacts, a hundred or so Twitter followers, I'm in some 10,000 circles on G+, get quite a few views on my About.me page and now have this blog (to which I hope to have a few subscribers soon enough,) and I can't just design a cute shirt on Teespring and drop a link at each location with fingers crossed.  While I can, but nothing will come of it.



So with that many supporters right up front, what's keeping the effort-free approach from working?  The material is good and the audience wide, posts are made at a couple of seemingly ideal times throughout each day. and I have many very active members within my communities, but not enough for the few bites required to actually get the campaign off the ground.

In fact, the most success I've had with any of the few campaigns I've tried this approach with was a gentleman who had pledged a fiver to a Kickstarter campaign.  He was spared his investment as funds were not reached.  This was before I truly understood the nature of these sites and services so I was still a bit wet behind the ears so to speak.  I now know that unless you are in a very niched network with nothing but folks that know your name and brand and already trust your ideas and services, you're going to need to advertise.

And while this seems daunting to individuals like myself who have very little in the way of startup funds and just want to get there ideas out there (and of course make a little money in the process,) after a bit of research, it isn't quite so anymore.  With programs in place like Facebook ads and Googles AdWords, we the little guys have options these days.  You can technically run a Facebook ad for as little as five dollars.  Sure, it'll only run for a day and probably won't make you rich, but it will get you a bit of attention at the least.

Now there are many videos and text tutorials out there explaining the best ways to get the cheapest rates on per-click traffic advertising with services like these, so I won't delve into those strategies but I will strongly recommend checking a couple of these tutorials out as while the information is very logical and straightforward, it's not something that I personally would have thought about myself (at least not without several failed investments first.)

One more tidbit I'll leave you with is that depending on your site, service, or product, local advertising can be equally, if not far more responsive and profitable.  If you're in an urban area with a decent population (or you're near one,) Craigslist is free and very effective.  Otherwise, check with your local newspapers as rates for advertising here are usually quite reasonable. But as always, think out your ad in depth and choose your wording wisely to avoid those just skimming through the ads skipping right past yours.

Let us know in the comments any luck (good and bad,) you've had in getting your products and services to the end user.