This free pine tree reminded me of 2 key marketing trends

Today, I am holding this pine tree. Now that may seem like a curious thing and perhaps it is, but this pine tree is a terrific example of two marketing trends.

Give Value and Create Conversation

First, this pine tree is is a fantastic instance of marketing sideways. Marketing Sideways is where you don’t talk about your products and services per se, but talk about something else that your customers would value, using that as a way to create a relationship with those potential customers.
You see, this particular pine tree was given to a friend of mine in Colorado who subsequently sent it to me to feature on the blog, and this pine tree was actually left on his driveway, accompanied by this note. So pine tree + note.
The note says, “This Austrian pine is one of 27 ways to make your home more valuable, make a one foot diameter hole, do not compact the dirt, do not fertilize and water daily, call me if you want more free trees delivered to you.” This note and the tree was left by Ed Tomlinson from Ed Tomlinson Real Estate Services.
Very, very smart. Because like most Realtors, Ed can say “Hey, I’m a great Realtor and I do all these great things and I would show your home and I’d blah, blah, blah,” but you know what, that’s not differentiated. Every single Realtor in the history of real estate does those things. Not every Realtor gives you a free tree.
But Ed doesn’t just let the tree sit there, he doesn’t just believe in marketing sideways at the exclusion of trying to drive behavior, because this tree actually has a call to action on it. “Gift Certificate, $1,000 off your next real estate transaction!” Great job by Ed, terrific example of marketing sideways. An example of using something else of value to create a relationship and spark a conversation.

Small Business Can Do Creative Marketing

I said this is an example of two marketing trends and the second one is small business. For so long we’ve celebrated big business and how they do marketing well, and of course there are tremendous examples of big business successes in marketing. But now with this type of marketing sideways, with digital, with Youtility, many, many, many, small businesses can use those same kind of plays and have real success like Ed Tomlinson.

Watch for My New E-Book for Realtors

I am also really intrigued by this example because I have a brand new e-Book coming up called “Youtility for Real Estate”. It’ll be out November 4th. All kinds of examples like this one, and you can get it right now on Amazon or Barnes & Noble for pre-order. It’s just $2.99.

Sprout Social Shoutout to Adam Buchanan

Today’s Sprout Social shout out is for my friend Adam Buchanan. Adam is the head of social media for Cabela’s and actually sent me this pine tree. It was left on his driveway in Colorado. Thanks so much Adam for sending it, if you don’t follow him on social media you absolutely should.

This video is from Jay Today is my near-daily 3-minute video where I talk about social media, content marketing, business and life. JayToday is available on Youtube, iTunes (as a video podcast and now as an audio podcast too), and at JayToday.tv.
The show is sponsored by Sprout Social (which I use for my social media), and Candidio (a great video editing service).

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