Last year I was quietly sitting at my desk doing some work when I received a phone call.
The caller introduced himself as Dr. Neil Baum.
I immediately thought that was quite odd because I don't usually get phone calls from doctors.
Dr. Baum mentioned that he subscribed to my newsletter and that he enjoyed the marketing tactics that he received each week.
He went on to tell me that he had written a book about how to market a medical clinical practice and that he was working on his updated third edition of the book.
NOTE: This book is the "Bible" for marketing a clinical practice. (I'll reveal why in just a minute)
Here's what Dr. Neil Baum's book looks like.
Dr. Baum mentioned that he had read an article that I did about developing winning yellow page ads and asked if he could use some of my material in his book.
I, of course said, "Sure."
We continued to talk about a bit about how his book came to be and during our conversation he mentioned something that nearly made me drop the phone out of my hand.
How to Sell 120,000 Books With a Single Phone Call
Dr. Baum mentioned that he had sold over 120,000 copies of his book and that he had done it with a single phone call.
I knew enough about the publishing industry to know that, that was a staggering amount of books and with one phone call.....ugh?!
So I leaned forward and asked Dr. Baum how in the world he was able to sell such an amazing amount of books with just a phone call.
He told me how had tried many different methods to distribute his book.
He tried and tried with no luck.
Finally, he thought that perhaps a large manufacturer might be interested in giving away his book as a gift to their customers.
The manufacturers he was referring to were the big pharmaceutical companies.
You see, the pharmaceutical companies have very strict regulations on what they can and cannot give to doctors.
But educational products were no problem.
So Dr. Baum picked up the phone and called the Bayer company and asked if they'd be interested in giving his book to their customers (other doctors) as a gift to show their appreciation for their patronage.
Well, within a week, Bayer had purchased over 120,000 of Dr. Baum's book and sent it to just about every important doctor in the United States.
Today, Dr. Baums, "Marketing Your Clinical Practice" is on the shelf of just about every medical clinic in the U.S.
Amazing.
How Can You Use This Same Marketing Tactic?
Do you have a product or service that you can give away as a gift?
Perhaps, maybe an introductory product or simply an information product such as an audio CD or video.
If so...think of all the other merchants that market to your same target market. Make a list of them.
Then just do as Dr. Baum did, pick up the phone and start calling them.
Make them an irresistible offer.
Allow them to give your product away as a free gift as a way of saying thank you or as a bonus to what they are already selling.
Remember to provide some type of "bounceback" in your gift so that you can capture their name and address or get them to buy additional products or services from you.
This underused marketing tactic can be used in just about any industry you can think of and it's a great way to advertise (or sample) your product or service.
David Frey is President of Marketing Best Practices Inc., a small business marketing consulting firm and the editor of the Marketing Best Practices Newsletter. His products include The Small Business Marketing Bible, Instant Referral Systems, and Coaches and Consultants Marketing Bootcamp.