Ever take one of those two week ‘mini-semester’ classes in college? Or do a workshop or seminar series live or online? Well, this posit is going to be even faster than those classes by a long shot! But it will introduce you to an important topic, and you’ll rapidly see the value and importance.
Cross Marketing is a form of synergy. It is working together to achieve the ‘win-win’ or as our writer Mike DuPure likes to call it, “The Double Win.” It employs elements of Tim Connor’s fine article on a related topic as well, what I learned as the ‘Rule of Reciprocity’ by psychologist Robert B Cialdini, PhD whose book Influence was called “A landmark publication in furthering the persuasion process.” per Jacob Jacoby, PhD, the Director of the Institute of Retail Management at New York University. Influence is a great read by the way, I recommend it. Cross Marketing is what savvy promoters do. You point the finger of praise at person A, they share the pat on the back with you.
When done sincerely and properly, Cross Marketing is amazingly effective.
Movie makers love to cross market. You see the names of the stars; Star A adds a pull that the other stars alone don’t get. As I’m writing this, I picked up a video off the shelf: Lethal Weapon 4. Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Chris Rock, Jet Li. There are many forms of cross marketing at play here. There was the original Lethal Weapon Movie (by the way, we could be talking about Rocky, Star Wars or any number of ‘series’ of movies). There was the original cast, the original stars – in the case of Lethal Weapon, it began with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. In Lethal Weapon 2, Joe Pesci was added. In Lethal Weapon 3, Rene Russo joined in on the fun with the cast from 2. Each star, each ‘name’ brought new people in to fill the seats, the original ‘names’ already had a following of their own, and the movie series itself had its own following. Cross marketing. Synergy. Win-win.
As an interesting aside, do you think that the politics of each of these actors named above are the same? Not a chance.
Mel Gibson, for example, is strongly pro-life. In Lethal Weapon 3, one of the characters is wearing a ‘pro-choice’ t-shirt. But these professionals ignored parts of the story that contradicted their own beliefs, pulled together for a specific project and they set the other issues aside to complete their project professionally and successfully. The differing styles, religious or other belief differences, were all set aside. By making movies like Mad Max or Lethal Weapon, Mel Gibson earned millions that allowed him later to do what he wanted to that was more in keeping with his core values. The point of this aside is, you have to be able to set aside some things in order to achieve other goals that may be of importance! This ‘aside’ is in fact an element of cross marketing too.
Book publishers cross market all the time. You see an author, say John Grisham. He wrote The Firm, The Client, A Time to Kill and a whole host of other novels. You’ll see the name of other books by the same author on the jacket or cover of the latest book. This is a form of cross marketing. Trailers before a movie starts, is cross marketing.
Now bring these illustrations of cross marketing closer to home, by using the following example.
Let’s imagine your factory built housing business website as your ‘podium.’ You are in a room with some people. You state your message. That’s good. You tell people why they should do business with you. That’s good. You may even have a testimonial or two. Good as well.
But now, imagine this. Person A is on a different website, and they are praising you, or giving you a Pat on the Back from their website. Now, that has added power!
Says, who? Well check out this video (if you haven’t already) on Bob Stovall’s article list to see the stats. Social media, what some call Socialnomics is perhaps the hottest trend in marketing. I was walking in a nearby, upscale mall in a posh Chicago Northshore neighborhood, and saw this huge ad for a university, and where did they want to drive their inquirers too? Their Facebook page! Why? Because being on Facebook or Twitter is a form ‘social’ form of cross marketing. To millions it feels more like a third party endorsement than an ad does.
Imagine you open your store up on a busy street. That’s good, a whole lot better than some quiet side road that millions will never find. What can be better is to open in a busy mall. Lots of people are coming around, right? They may be coming for Store B, and all of a sudden, they find YOUR store, Store A, as they are walking by! That’s a form of cross marketing. But to take cross marketing one step better, the savviest of those store fronts do their own advertising and marketing. They want to bring you to THEIR store. They don’t just count on the mall’s message or the mall’s core traffic. Have you ever seen a dead store in the middle of a busy mall? I have. Dollars to donuts; that dead store is doing zero or close to it direct marketing. You don’t want to be at either extreme on the spectrum. Get that combo of direct marketing and cross marketing going, and everyone, everyone in the mix wins.
The modern ‘auto-malls’ or ‘magnificent mile of cars’ are a form of cross marketing. Back in the day, Shields Boulevard was an amazing form of it for manufactured housing! In the early 1980s when I got my start in the retail side of the manufactured housing sales world, Shields Boulevard had 52 retail centers (back then, we called them dealerships) on a 3 mile stretch on South Shields. Ma and Pa locations were next door or down the street from the ‘Big Boys’ and they were hoping their little sign – direct marketing in the midst of cross marketing – would attract people into their location.
So how do you cross market in our industry? On the business to business level, let’s take a look.
As was noted in a feature article on LinkedIn, and alluded to above, social networking is a form of cross marketing. Professionally and intellectually, an ezine or Manufactured Housing INdustry trade journal like www.MHMSM.com can be a platform for cross marketing too!
You see people writing here about a variety of themes. There are featured articles. There is our popular, new INDUSTRY VOICES Guest Blog. There are news items to bring readers, the photo gallery, press releases and a growing number of resources. Speaking of all of that, an association leader who I spoke to not long ago was telling me ‘Wow, it is amazing how much you information and how many resources you have up here!’ A company president said, ‘You’ve accomplished in a short period of time what _____(think, big name pro)_____ wanted to do but hasn’t pulled off yet.’ I am routinely pointing to our team of writers, volunteers and our webmaster Bob Stovall – because without them, this would be one person on a soap box; not the chorus of voices that we are professionally singing like Handel’s “Messiah!”
Do you think all of us agree on every little thing? We may on some items, but may not on others. Why would someone like Thayer Long, who heads up 75 year old MHI, why would he want to be here? Well, there are many reasons. Cross marketing is a nice phrase that can catch them all. But let’s look at the power of cross marketing for a moment, and use MHI’s Mr. Long as an example.
The Google search above was done at 8:58 AM 2.24.2010
Now keep in mind, that Thayer’s own website and a host of other venues would have his name. Yet, thanks to some SEO wizardry by our masterful Web Master, you see that many top ten results came from our interview called a Cup of Coffee with Thayer Long and also his TRENDS 2010 Survey replies. A win-win for all involved? As they say in neighboring Wisconsin, youbetcha.
Another well known industry personage recently joined our ranks whose name is well know, whose cross marketed with others too. Chad Carr of Rainmaker software joined just about 2 weeks ago, and already his writing with us ‘pays off’ in the form of good cross marketing and good SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Google search done at 6:42 PM, 2/24/2010
These are examples of the power of cross marketing.
Now let’s go back to our examples. You may not be impressed by Writer X, they may not connect with you for whatever reason. As a quick aside, I learn from every Industry writer, even if I may disagree with some part of what they are sharing. Why? Because they give me a fresh perspective! They can keep you or me from getting locked into a straight jacket of thought. I’ve often gotten ideas that paid off handsomely from someone I disagreed with, by analyzing their position or method, and then refining it into something that worked for me or my clients. Equally important, sometimes that person that I thought was ‘wrong’ turned out to be dead-bang right! Okay, so Writer X may not connect with you, but Writer A or B does! Writer A or B may or may not know each other, but the reader traffic that Writer X attracts can help them both.
Sometimes Writer A will look better to a given reader precisely because Writer X is in the mix.
Remember, since your tastes, mine and the next person’s differ, this isn’t about ‘better’ or ‘worse’ it is about some writers ‘connecting’ more with a segment of readers than another. To go back to our hit fiction book author John Grisham, noted above, some people love his work; others would never pick up a book written by him again. Go figure. But a good book store – which deals in a type of cross marketing by offering a variety of authors, genres, etc. – gladly features Grisham, even knowing he won’t connect with everyone. Different strokes for different folks.
I plan to do at some point an article about writing and its power, but hopefully these ideas also suggest a start to that timely topic. We’ve all heard that “the pen is mightier than the sword,” well if so, then the Internet’s Ionic Pen is mightier than that Bic pen will ever be! I’ve got a thin volume on my shelves entitled, ‘Will you put that in Writing?’ because executives often want a memo, power-point or paper on a topic so they can share it with others, and study it themselves. In some professions you must “publish or perish.” More and more, in the Internet era, publishing is a wise move too. So if publishing is good, then being published even more is…even better! Writers write for a reason. I don’t just publish on our www.MHMSM.com industry trade journal website; I’ve been published on others too. All of it is good cross marketing.
Savvy writers submit their work here at www.MHMSM.com in part because it is a form of cross marketing. It is a win-win for EVERYONE involved; the readers, the writers, the industry. Everyone participating wins. Those who don’t – currently – participate can begin to win simply by jumping in!
At a time when our industry has trended down for a dozen years, we HAVE to have a wide variety of ideas and view points to consider! It isn’t enough to have one or two people on a topic. We need and want ‘the proven veterans,’ the known names; but we also need and want the new names – or at least new on the national stage – they may be well known in their own market. We need those new ideas, test them against the wisdom of the past and in the exchange of ideas – in the cross marketing of ideas – see where it takes us.
I’ve been told by people who’ve published in this industry that we get tons more comments their print publication ever did. Precisely because we are online – YOU, our reader have the ability to comment. When can you connect? Well, if you wanted to – right here, right now! Right here; Right Now! – now there’s interaction! We could show examples where just a COMMENT posted by a ‘known name’ in our industry on a blog post earned him a top ten rating in a google.com search done earlier today. The more who are ‘on the stage,’ the more who ‘share the podium,’ the more traffic you get individually and collectively! This is cross marketing online at its finest.
So even beyond writing or posting a comment, there are other advantages beyond cross marketing. Via comments on articles and blogs, via news from sometimes opposing camps in the industry and comments on those, a conversation or discussion can develop over time. Posted comments – especially when you register and then log into our Disqus system – allows you to follow the threads of comments, jump back in and also to post your name and company website. It can be a simple form of cross marketing…
…then, when you connect on Facebook as a Fan, follow on Twitter, or get LinkedIn with me or other writers, you’ll simply be amazed as to how Socialnomics, how cross marketing can benefit you AND the others involved.
Don’t look at someone else in our business and think ‘competitor.’ Think cross marketing. Think Synergy. Think Win-Win. The more you do, the further ahead you will be. The further ahead you get, the further ahead the industry gets.
The Turn-Around can be easy, we need to think about free opportunities like www.MHMSM.com or low cost – highly effective – Cross Marketing in ways like The Virtual Louisville Housing Show © can provide. Be at the virtual ‘auto mall’ cross marketing approach and be part of the future that is growing, not the past that may be dying or dead!
We hope this intro has stimulated both your thinking on cross marketing and helped you to understand some of the ‘thinking behind’ and some of the behind the scenes work and benefit that goes into an INdustry © project and platform like www.MHMSM.com!
Cross marketing, it can be a wave for the future success of whatever it is you are doing or promoting. Give the other gal or guy some attention. Be part of the group, not just sitting on the sidelines. Be part of the conversation, even if it is just to say, well done, or I see it differently because of x. Keep comments clean, don’t attack a person, but politely question or differ with their idea if you have reason to do so. Be happy if they have a different viewpoint. It all creates interest, it can provoke thought and thoughts can lead to the cures for our industry’s ills. Interest and discussions boil down into opportunity. Opportunity, if you knock and keep on knocking, is the door that when opened leads to success. Make cross marketing part of that success.##
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