The Bridge Networking Group, Inc.

Everyone is looking for a FREE way to get noticed….well, here it is.

The Editor of the BBV wants your informational articles.  Who knows your profession better than you?  Educate our 2200 readers and get noticed.  And save the issue of the BBV to show potential clients you are a published professional.  Send your articles to Editor@thebridgenetworking.com in Word format.  Please limit your words to 750.  Photos are accepted with the articles.  Articles must be approved by the BBV before being published.

The New Way to Market 

In the past, we all kept in touch with our client base through the mail.  With the expense of printing and stamps, it makes financial “cents” to send an E-Newsletter once a month instead.  You reach everyone at one time and you get exposure at a fraction of the cost of mailing. 

The good news is that you don’t have to do it yourself.  Many of the Bridge Directory companies offer this service at an affordable price.  Give your clients educational information, what your company is involved in and a special offer for the month. 

Some sell advertising on their newsletters, this will help off set the price of the newsletter and you are helping another business reach new potential clients.  Or team up with a company you work closely with and do a newsletter together.  You not only share in the cost, but also your client base.  It is a win-win for both companies.

The Suspense Hook 30 Second Commercial

Ever feel like a kid when someone tells you just half the story and makes you wait to here the rest?  I can’t stand not knowing.  I have to find out the rest of the story.  This is called the Suspense Hook.  You can use this when writing your 30 second commercial.  Give just part of the story, say “my time is up, if you want to hear the rest, see me after the meeting – call me for coffee – call me this afternoon. You will be leaving the juicy part out.  You will be surprised who contacts you for the juicy part.  It’s a great way to get everyone’s attention. 

Purchase one, two or three $5.00 Starbucks gift cards and go to a networking event that does a raffle.  Before the raffle tickets are drawn for your gift cards, tell the guests that who ever wins must have coffee with you for a one on one meeting.  You not only get noticed at the event for bringing a raffle gift, but you will make some wonder friends and business associates.  This idea comes from Bonnie D’Angelo, Peace of Mind www.peaceofmindswfla.com.  I loved it when she did it at a Bridge Networking event.  Instead of picking the person to connect with, let the universe do it for you.   It may bring you the best connection you have ever had.  Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you.

Impossible! Can’t be done! Not enough time!  – Right?  There’s a long time common response to those reactions. Most Super Bowl commercials are only 30 seconds long and companies pay dearly for the privilege. In fact in 2009 NBC is charging 3 million dollars for a 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl - and people are headed to the refrigerator for that next drink (or going to get rid of the last drink) instead of paying attention. Thank goodness our “spots” at local events only cost the amount of entry or lunch. What a bargain!

So, with all the commotion going on can our infomercials possibly be effective at these events? You bet they can. As a matter of fact, your 30 second infomercial is about the most important thing you do at most networking events. Let’s think about why people are at the same event you are. Some are there networking one way, some are networking another way. Some are looking for that immediate sale, some are looking to build relationships. Some are hunting and some are farming. Some are just socializing while others are strictly business. WOW, that’s a lot of different things for one event. They all have something in common. Everybody is there for only one reason. TO CONNECT. Because they want to connect, people are paying attention to what you say and it only takes one small piece of information to make you the gatekeeper to what somebody else there wants. That may not mean business for you immediately, but it gets a relationship started that could lead to a referral later on.

The thing about infomercials is this: remember everybody there is doing one. You are competing against everyone else there to have yours be the one that is remembered. You are planting light bulbs in people’s heads so when something happens later on that day or even later on that week it sparks a memory and that light bulb goes off and they think of you. You need to make it as memorable as you possibly can. There is no one right way to do this. Have fun with it. Your infomercial can be funny or serious. It can be a song, a poem or a true life story. It can make people laugh or it can tug at the heart strings. Whatever you are comfortable doing that will make people remember you and want to listen to you again. There are just a few points that should always be included in your infomercial. First should be your name and the company name. If the company name doesn’t tell what you do then you need to give a very brief description of what product or service you offer. Ask for what you want and be very specific. The more specific you can be, the better. If you’re looking to meet a certain person ask for that person by name. Remember it only takes one person there knowing the person you are looking for and you could have an introduction. The last piece of information should be a memory hook. Invest the time to come up with a good memory hook for yourself. It makes it easier for people to remember you. Having trouble coming up with one? Just type “memory hook” into google and you can explore all the possibilities. One final thing to think about. If your infomercial is supposed to be 30 seconds keep it to 30 seconds. You may think what the heck I’m only going 10 seconds over.  It doesn’t work that way. Everybody else is playing by the rules and keeping theirs to 30 seconds. You don’t want to be the person everyone else feels isn’t playing fair. You’ll have 30 seconds of a great effort and that extra 10 seconds will make it all for naught.

Infomercials lay the groundwork for your word of mouth marketing efforts. With a good solid format, the rest of your team can more easily duplicate your information and find you what we all want. More referrals.

Have fun – Good luck – See you at the next event.

Mike Whitman