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Whether you simply market the product or service and/or you are the owner, it is important that you understand your marketing audience. One of the most critical reasons for this is due to some products or services getting a little more scrutiny at times than others.

If you find yourself having to market products or services that garner a little additional attention than most others, what is your strategy? Do you even have a strategy in place? If not, it would behoove you to take the added time needed to craft a sound strategy. Doing so will make it easier to get your product or service to market. As a result, you will see your revenue stream (or the stream of those you represent) improve too.

That said what extra efforts are you putting into marketing certain products and services to get them sold?

Use Myriad of Marketing Maneuvers

So that you can be a winner with any and all marketing products and services you put out there, the key is leaving no stone unturned.

For instance, are you marketing medical marijuana to the masses? While medical marijuana has gotten notable approval in many corners of the country, some feel it is a prelude to abusing marijuana and potentially other drugs. As a marketer for any companies backing medical marijuana, how do you put your message out there in a positive manner?

For starters, if you are touting the positive results of one getting a marijuana card online, use examples of individuals battling health problems to have benefitted from getting the drug.

Such examples can be shown in your blog posts or even videos on your website.

As an example, some testimonial videos from men and women having used medical marijuana to their benefit in fighting cancer or other diseases can do wonders. It not only sends a message of success with the product, but it gives others in that position hope.

With your blog posts, talk about not only some individual examples of medical marijuana success, but also trends in the overall marijuana industry.

Get Credible People Backing Your Marketing

One of the best groups to have backing your marketing initiative would be those in the medical community, notably doctors.

Countless doctors have seen first-hand how medical marijuana can give hope to those battling illnesses, diseases, pain and more. As a result, it is not uncommon these days to hear more and more physicians backing medical marijuana.

As part of your marketing initiatives, using some information from said doctors would help back your cause. In many cases, people are more apt to get behind something when credible individuals say they support it.

Gambling with Marketing Initiatives

Another example would be gambling.

For decades, there have been supporters and non-supporters behind the idea of not only casino gambling, but also online gambling. As a result, millions and millions of dollars’ worth of marketing (for and against) have been spent on gambling ads and more.

If you back gambling, your marketing initiatives would want to show how the proceeds from gambling go to help residents of the respective states (senior citizens, children when it comes to schooling, public transportation etc.). If you are against gambling, your marketing efforts are typically directed at showing how some people can lose everything. While there are many responsible gamblers out there, some do not know when to call it quits. As a result, they can end up losing pretty much everything when all is said and done.

As you can see, marketing some products and services can at times prove challenging, but that is why having a sound strategy is so important.

In being a marketer, how do you go about marketing certain products and/or services that some individuals and/or groups may be against?

With marketing being such an important cog in the business machine, taking that extra time and effort in some cases can make all the difference.

Photo by BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business and marketing topics on the web.

By Diana Gomez

These days, it’s not enough to post a picture of what your business has been up to this week.

Sure, some customers may find interest in which food truck is parked at the office today, but that’s not the kind of thing that will go viral.

To move up the ranks in Google, you need as many eyes on your pages as possible. This means the content must be eye-catching! Think about creating headlines that leave the readers hanging; make them want to click to find out what’s coming next. Let their curiosity lead them further into your website.

As far as the content inside the post, here are a few ideas for you. These types of posts must be in your regular rotation if you want to keep up with the rest of the web in the second half of 2014.

Videos

Photo tutorials are superb, but audiences are really going nuts for comprehensive video tutorials.

Do you have something you can teach your customers? Whether you’re a retail clothing business with advice on sewing buttons or a hairstylist who can teach customers how to create a topknot, a how-to video is a terrific tool to draw some attention to your business.

Videos can also go viral simply from their entertainment value. As long as it’s funny or out-of-the-ordinary, it’s worth talking about. Be sure it’s high-quality and only one or two-minutes long.

It’s rare that a five or ten-minute video goes viral like a short-and-sweet video will. Also, be sure you place keywords into the title and description. Hosting it on YouTube will ensure that your video will be easy to share on social media, because going viral is all about making it easy for users to get to the content.

Top-Ten Lists

Ever hear of a little website called Buzzfeed? This site has blown up over the past year as audiences increasingly latch onto the short-and-sweet visual concept. Lists organize information in a way that makes it easier to absorb, and our brains seem to love clicking on headlines like “Five Foods that are Making You Fat.”

Our noggins naturally want to make sense of any information that’s presented to us, and so when some of the work has already been done, the decision to click is a ‘no-brainer.’ It’s such a phenomenon that the parody site The Onion has just created a new parody site having a laugh at Buzzfeed – cleverly titled Clickhole. One funny headline example is “16 Pictures of BeyoncÃ© Where She’s Not Sinking in Quicksand.” There’s a reason why everyone (ahem, see title of this very blog post) is jumping on the list-making bandwagon, and you should, too.

Competitions

Everyone’s a sucker for free stuff, and that’s why you should be offering your readers incentives for clicking through to your site. Spend ten minutes on Facebook and you’ll likely encounter a slew of contests, all of which require some sort of interaction on social media to win. Examples: someone shares a musician’s Facebook status for a chance to win a record box set. An interior design firm blogs about an author and offers its readers a chance to win the author’s latest book if they “like” the author’s Facebook page and leave a comment below the firm’s blog post (which is a clever double-win for two parties).

By asking users to share and follow you, you’re making yourself visible to entirely new audiences/friends of people who already like you. And when there’s a free offer involved, your posts are all-the-more attractive. Asking a like-minded blog to offer its readers your product will almost always be accepted with open arms. The blog’s readers like it, therefore the blogger loves it, too. It’s a simple concept, but it works, and it’s fun.

High-Quality Images

The success of Instagram and Pinterest prove that what people want is a beautiful photo (or ten) to gaze upon. High-quality cameras can be found on most phones nowadays, which is super fortunate for us amateurs. Filters galore are available now that can turn an ‘OK’ image into something interesting that people will want to like and post elsewhere.

Do you cook? Post your creations to your blog, and make sure your posts have the Pinterest Pin option available. To make a pic extra Pinterest-friendly, post one collaged image that includes something like a four-step (and four-photo) recipe. Again, users are in search of the short-and-sweet and the quick-and-easy stuff.

Are you a mechanic? Post cool photos of vintage cars to your business’ Instagram account. Be sure a link to your blog is obvious on your profile so that users can see what other content you can offer them. Use appropriate hashtags that will help interested users find you, and while you’re at it, go ahead and tap the Twitter icon to simultaneously reach another social media medium. Every little bit helps, right?

What social-media medium works best with your business?

Author’s Bio: Diana Gomez is the Marketing Coordinator at Lyoness America, where she is instrumental in the implementation of marketing and social media strategies for USA and Canada. Lyoness is an international shopping community and loyalty rewards program, where businesses and consumers benefit with free membership and money back with every purchase. Check out Lyoness on Facebook.

Image licensed via Shutterstock