Ever since I’ve been in business I’ve had a never ending stream of sales and marketing letters – and not just from people in business lines that are not connected to mine, in fact I get a lot from my direct competitors.

There is a simple reason – I have put myself on their mailing lists.

One thing I have never been too proud to do is to learn from my competition – not only do they get to make all the mistakes in perfecting a technique or idea, but I get to see what they are doing and they pay the mailing charge to get it into my hands

I received a really good novelty item last week – it was a set of darts – pretty fancy and I must confess to being partial to a game myself – but what really got my attention was that this gift was just a teaser.

The marketing promotional blurb advised me that if I pre-registered for a trade show event and visited their trade show display at an exhibition near me (which meant I had to fill in an online survey on my buying intentions for the product line they were offering) – then, and only then could I also get the matching dartboard that went with the darts they had already given me.

I like this idea and I like it a lot.

It is simple and direct, it makes me want to action the message and fill out the online survey as well as book my slot at their exhibition – something I really like with marketing collateral – a clear and definite call to action.

Afterwards I’m going to use this gift for some time to come and it is going to stick in my mind where I picked it up and I have absolutely no doubt, other people are going to be asking me about it as well.  That’s what we call “viral messaging” and this gift and technique of giving it has got this in heaps.