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Fresh Marketing Ideas

drskillzz's picture
Submitted by drskillzz(1181)
Frequent contributor
June 20, 2011 - 9:49am

Need advice! I've been grappling with this subject for awhile - (inexpensive) marketing ideas to promote an online product or service to a mass audience quickly. How would you market your business? What's one clever, perhaps even outlandish idea you might try as part of your marketing efforts? Let's compile a list. :D

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JaiyLove
JaiyLove47 weeks 5 days ago

To get the creative juices

To get the creative juices flowing, I need to know the target demo (age/gender/income) and psychographics (common begaviors/habits/interests). Then what value/benefit should the product or service provide to your audience. I believe the target should be your niched, mass audience, not general, mass audience. Exposure to all = mass clutter!

drskillzz
drskillzz47 weeks 5 days ago

Good point. Target demo 18 -

Good point. Target demo 18 - 35. Interests in entrepreneurship, and may dibble-dabble in the areas of music production, film, web dev, writing, journalism as their hobbies. Young professionals seeking to escape cubicle nation. Habits: have a range of skillsets, highly creative, perhaps low attention span, very tech savvy, voracious readers, non-conformists, very much natural-born leaders among their inner circles. (i.e. YOU). 

Specifically, let's take this website as an example product/service being offered to such an audience with the value proposition being access to an online forum that provides peer-mentorship, networking, and advice to help this target demo make supplemental income through their own creative interests and talents. 

Spiegro
Spiegro47 weeks 4 days ago

Facebook marketing: it may

Facebook marketing: it may seem unimaginative, but Facebook gives marketers all kinds of access to folks' information, which allows you to hyper-focus on your target audience. A Facebook ad does wonders.

Contests: user-submitted content for prizes draws people in like nobody's business.

Live events: Maybe it's just me, but when an internet company has a live event, it makes that internet company seem more like a regular "company." Makes it more than just a website. A concert, poetry reading, Skillz Summit (ooooh snap!), or even a club night or something.

Just some starter ideas, nothing ground-breaking.

JaiyLove
JaiyLove47 weeks 4 days ago

  Ha! That's very much like

 

Ha! That's very much like me :) Thank you! 

The first step is to "listen" to your audience.  What are their needs?  What problems are they looking to solve?  What information are they looking to share with others?  

Setting up target keyword searches like "Creative entrepreneurs" or searching for creative personality types who are constantly looking for change and development, like "ENFP" with Google Alerts will be a good start.

The key is to find where your audience hang out, rather online or physical. When you find the mediums to advertise or start conversation, the exact strategy will depend upon what will likely stand out in that avenue.  

Ex: I'm pretty desensitized to Facebook. I barely see all posts unless I search for them.  I usually volunteer for contest where there's a good likelihood to win a gadget, free subscription, books, gift cards, etc...but all which pertain to a goal or interest I'm in pursuit of.

To market Skillology, I'd need to be presented the value of joining and it'll need to be specific to my area of interests.  This is especially true since there seems to be a new social community every where you turn.  An interactive Facebook page with active conversation and participation.  Targeting the niche market with Facebook ads to begin.  This is to test its effectiveness.  If some of the candid conversations we had within Skillology can be demonstrated on this FB page, it will give motivate others to sign up to see what's "different" about this community than the collage of others on the market.

There are other ways to begin, but this is the lowest risk to start with minimum budget to dedicate.  I'd reach out my geographic area to DC, Philly, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Charlotte, Omaha, Seattle, San Fransico, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, San Diego, San Jose, New Orleans, Nashville, Denver, Phoenix, Raleigh, Las Vegas, Norfolk, Memphis, New York, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Fresno.

I chose these cities to encourage diversity.  Not all are tech savvy, yet many tech savvy people are moving to these towns to capitalize on the market.  Yet, cities like Memphis and Nashville have some of the most talented and creative musicians.  It's a good toss up.  Once you get this up and you learn your core demo more, you can begin campaigns, polls, and conversations to encourage it to grow more.  The most important goal now is EXPOSURE!

JaiyLove
JaiyLove47 weeks 4 days ago

I love the idea of the live

I love the idea of the live event Spiegro.  Skillz Summit will be a great name for it :) I believe this idea will be best for a major milestone.  Like celebrating 250 or 500 members.  The best medium to host would be via FB page with Ustream or some other streaming service.  That way others on twitter and FB can join in and be directed back to Skillology to get acquainted with everyone else.

That trend could also continue once a month with podcasts, guest DJs, artist showcase (Haelog1) - all of which could be rebroadcasted on Skillology, YouTube, and FB.  I do however see these are future goals and not the immediate strategy. The first goal is to grow membership and the value proposition of the community.

drskillzz
drskillzz47 weeks 4 days ago

Wow, GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE!

Wow, GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE! I wholeheartedly agree with hosting live events. In fact, cdrizzle and a few others have been actively planning our first live event here in the DC/MD/VA area, more details to follow. Great ideas ya'll.

Spiegro
Spiegro47 weeks 4 days ago

Great! I've been looking for

Great! I've been looking for an excuse to head back to DC...

cdrizzle
cdrizzle47 weeks 4 days ago

Spiegro, Well, you better

Spiegro,

Well, you better start planning to come to the DMV, b/c it is going down in a couple of months! Once we have a set date, we will blast it and put it on the community calendar.  We plan to have dancers, spoken word artists, singers, and guess what.... FOOD!!!!!!!!

Spiegro
Spiegro47 weeks 2 days ago

One request/suggestion, and

One request/suggestion, and admittedly it's a tad selfish: Could you try to make it on a weekend or holiday or something so a brotha doesn't have to use vacay time to attend? I was just converted to a reg FT employee with my employer from a contractor, so I definitely don't have the vacay time to take off (yet). Just a humble request... As you were...

cdrizzle
cdrizzle47 weeks 1 day ago

Haha! I will take your tad

Haha! I will take your tad bit of a selfish request into high regards, as we designate a specific day and time. 

To be honest though, we figured most people would like the weekend; therefore, it will most likely be on Fri/Sat. evening.

dcolemanturner
dcolemanturner36 weeks 3 days ago

Skills - I'm a lil late to

Skills - I'm a lil late to the party, but if you want a quick way to gain exposure you need to empower your users.  Similar to Reddit.com, they entrust all the content on their site to be farmed and organized by admins.  

Let a few of us rip into the CSS / backend and unleash our creative skills on this site.  You'd be amazed at the results.

Market this site to every minority that is graduating from college in the 21-30 demo.  In the beginning, target a certain school at first like a large DeVry campus, Art Institute of "insert city here", and University of Phoenix.  Hands on approach though.  Get to know a few students on campus, ask around a bit and find the "influencers".  Ask them to test drive it in the library.  Offer snacks, candy, and shit.  

You can do it :)

drskillzz
drskillzz36 weeks 1 day ago

Thanks D! Appreciate it.

Thanks D! Appreciate it. Those are really good ideas. Everyone - great stuff... thanks.