How Google Inspired Me to Create Printed Marketing Collateral
Over at the SMB Marketing Guide, I wrote a two-part article about how Google inspired me to create a piece of printed marketing collateral I use to drive traffic for my online business.
It all started around 4 years ago. One day out of the blue, I received a small spiral-bound booklet in the mail from Google. Here is what the booklet looks like:
After getting over my shock at receiving snail mail from Google, I realized what a gem it was. The booklet is all about how to make more money on your website by running Google AdSense units. It consists of 8 tips contained in the little booklet, and it drives you to a microsite, which is still live several years later, for more information.
That Google booklet inspired me to develop a booklet of my own. However, my own booklet didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to — I just didn’t execute it as well.
I wrote about my experiences, including my analysis of why the Google booklet was so effective – and what I would have done differently in creating my own booklet.
Check out my article about the Google booklet:
What Google Can Teach Us About Printed Marketing Materials
And then read the article about my own booklet that Google’s inspired:
Lessons From Home Grown Marketing Collateral
(And if you think the articles are helpful, please vote “yes” over there!)
Founder of Zimana
Author of Do-It-Yourself PR Kit
Anita,
Very interesting. I have just started a course (Quick Ebook Creation Video Workshop by Maritza Parra) on how to create an ebook. After I finished the course and created the ebook, I am interested in creating a booklet that I could distribute in different ways.
Do you have the URL for the Google Adsense microsite?
I love really great collateral, too. I have little books and booklets and items I’ve saved over the years. Every so often, I pull them out and see what I can learn anew, or what I find is still the same…
In the era of the ebook and instant download, it is so important to remember that a real, tactile, thinking person is on the other end of our communications. A guy I know always send a handwritten note and he swears that’s what gets him new business. Not email, not eBooks, but a plain old-fashioned handwritten note. No one does it anymore, so it is unique and captivating. Maybe the new handbook should be titled:
The Luddite’s Guide to Online Marketing…
[...] I realized what a gem it was.
TJ, I am definitively not a Luddite due to the anti-industrial ideology. But that said, I like to receive a handwritten note!
Excellent Anita! It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that some of our target market does not spend as much time as we do online. Organizations that don’t look at the big picture (online and offline strategies) when determining their marketing strategy are leaving a lot of money on the table.
Oh that’s nice.
Very interesting! When will I ever receive a snail mail from the big G?
It’s funny how we find inspiration sometimes. Even after 4 years, you’re still intrigued enough to pick it up and write about it. Now that’s great marketing.
I had a little different experience but similar. Many years ago before google existed, the forerunner of the whole sponsored search industry was goto.com (later changed name to ‘overture’ then bought out by yahoo). I spent a few bucks over there (no great amounts) and they sent me a cool black ballcap with the “goto.com” logo on the front. I wore that thing religiously for at least a year. It made me a walking poster for their company and, in essence, a member of their team. All for ball cap that probably cost them $3 in bulk plus an equal amount to package and ship.
@Amanda – I thought about the comment you made and wow, that’s so true — what a great piece it must be to have Anita pick it up after so many years and write about it.
@Martin — You are definitely no Luddite, Martin. I don’t even know how to write by hand anymore. Do I even own a pen?
Hi Anita,
I’ve always been a fan of printed marketing materials. Especially in an era when people are using e-mail for everything and opening less and less of it, it’s helpful to be able to give someone something they can hold in their hands.
I also believe that, if you go this route, it is very important that your materials are quality printed. Because they are, after all, a reflection of your business.
Best,
Daria
Google has done a really nice job like this in the past with a number of the advertising campaigns. It’s always interesting to see what they send out.
TJ: I am writing by hand too. I have started to use a digital pen called Pulse Smartpen by Livescribe. You use a special paper with “microdots” and you could link your writing to a recording of for example a speech or your own “notes to self”. You could then share your notes with others and “translate” your handwritten notes to text if you use an handwriting recognition application called MyScript. You could see my video introduction to this gadget in my post, Do Not Miss A Word With Livescribe. Click on “Martin Lindeskog” Says.
It’s good example of remaking of positive experience!
You are quite right!
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