Strategy Three: New Wave: Give Away Events

There is one thing that has to be said about Internet marketers. They are advertising innovators. Internet marketers simply tossed out all of the written-in-stone advertising policies of brick and mortar advertisers and devised new and effective ways to reach their potential customers.

The Internet itself changed the way that people buy things. People no longer have to get dressed, drive into town, find a parking place, stand in line or wear out their shoe leather searching for the products and services that they want. Three cheers for the Internet!

Internet marketers devised ways in which to reach their customer base that were unheard of in the brick and mortar world of advertising and now these giants of innovation have come up with yet another method that defies all of the principles of advertising that have been established over the years.

This new and innovative marketing technique that I’m talking about is called a “give away event” or a “Joint Venture give away event”

Can you imagine a group of brick and mortar stores getting together and agreeing to give free ‘stuff’ to one another’s customers? I can’t either. It isn’t likely that Sears is going to give something free to JC Penny customers, is it? Brick and mortar stores wouldn’t even dream of giving something free to stores that are not in competition with them. JC Penny would never give something free to customers of an automotive store even though JC Penny doesn’t sell automotive supplies. It just isn’t done in the brick and mortar world. But it IS done on the Internet.

When this marketing technique first came on the Internet, the Joint Venture give away was done only between October and mid-December to try to take advantage of the holiday shopping season but now the Joint Venture give away happens all year long.

The idea here is that people are more than one-dimensional. People who are deeply into Internet marketing, for example, also have spouses, kids, dogs, cats, like to ski or buy boats. People who are avid fishermen may also be interested in getting the best interest rate on their savings or learning to play a guitar. People may belong to one mailing list that reflects their main interest but that doesn’t mean that they are not interested in other products or services.

The fact that people are more than one-dimensional was noted by innovating Internet marketers. They devised a plan to take full advantage of the varying interests of people by putting together the now famous Joint Venture give away.

A Joint Venture give away is usually limited to a specific number of partners. Each partner offers a free gift which is almost always digital and downloaded from his website. These free gifts are usually E-Books, special reports or utilities that are valuable in some way.
Once a Joint Venture give away is organized, every participating partner sends the entire list of free gifts to the members of his mailing list. Those who sell Internet marketing E-Books on their websites will send offers for E-Books about ski vacations and guitar lessons to the members of their list. Those who sell ski equipment will, likewise, send free gift offers for Internet marketing E-Books to their lists.

Every partner advertises the free gifts offered by themselves as well as every other member of the Joint Venture give away and each and every partner in the Joint Venture give away has the opportunity to build his or her list.

As I said before, when the Joint Venture give away was first conceived of it was usually limited to the holiday shopping season but that is no longer the case. The fact is that it has proven to be such an effective list building opportunity that there is almost always a Joint Venture give away or two or three going on at all times of the year now. That number is growing by leaps and bounds as marketers realize the value.

The phenomenal success of the Joint Venture give away begs the questions, how does one put together a successful Joint Venture give away or find one to join?

The answer to finding one to join is really rather simple. You just do a search for ‘Joint Venture give away’ using your favorite search engine and you will find more than a few. Choosing which Joint Venture give away to join can be a little tougher. Remember that you are going to be required to send all of the offers in a joint give away package to all of the members of your list. You want to be sure that the offers are ones that your members will not find objectionable so you need to know who the other participants will be and what they will be offering as free gifts.

Creating your own Joint Venture give away is probably the better option. It is fairly simple to put together a Joint Venture give away but it will require a good deal of hard work. Rather than advertising for Joint Venture partners to participate in your Joint Venture give away, seek out each partner individually and limit the number.

For example: if you are selling Internet Marketing How-to books, you might choose two or three other marketers who sell similar products. Then you might want to look for other marketers who sell products that are totally unrelated to your niche like a marketer who sells fishing supplies and one who sells guitar lessons, for example. Make you Joint Venture give away as versatile as you possibly can.

People really do have many dimensions. They are interested in many different things and those who belong to one mailing list may very well be interested in belonging to another mailing list or even buying the products and services that they find through a Joint Venture give away.

Internet marketers are always looking for new and innovative ways to build their lists and advertise themselves and their products and services. The Joint Venture give away is only the latest way that they have found. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next!