One of my plugin developers is just finishing off a plugin that will enable you to swap in and out different parts of a WordPress page or post based on date and time.
At this moment you may be thinking “What use is that?”, but it’s something I realised I was doing quite a lot of by hand.
Let me explain.
Imagine you’re running a time-based sale on one of your blogs…
Aha! With me?
There are suddenly several scenarios that jump to mind.
#1 – You’re running a sale from 6.00pm on the 15th December for 48 hours. You want the sale to automatically go live at 6.00pm and close two days later on the 17th at 6.00pm.
#2 – You start at a heavily discounted price, and after 48 hours flip to the regular price.
…and variants of the above.
Marketers do this kind of thing all the time to reward their regular customers and subscribers, and also seed the marketplace with a new product to get it talked about. I do it for those very reasons myself.
Here’s another good use and one I’m planning to do in January.
You write several blog posts that actually constitute an ebook or short report.
Your subscribers get to read it for free, and in return for this free content, you ask for comments and feedback. You let everybody know that the content will auto-expire at a certain date and time and will then only be available for purchase when you release your ebook.
Suddenly you’ve given what (on the face of it) is free content, a LOT of value.
And you’ve picked up testimonials and suggestions for improvement along the way.
Most importantly, all the while you’ve been doing this, you’ve earned the gratitude of your subscribers.
Take careful note of the above. It’s marketing dynamite (on a timer) when used carefully.
On Wednesday 15th at 6.00pm I’ll be running a 48 hour low cost introductory sale of this new plugin.
It’s another one of those steps to turning WordPress into a total marketing machine, and you need this one in your marketing arsenal.
More on this on Tuesday.
-Frank Haywood
