I'm reading Rieva Lesonsky's post, How to Create Buzz with a Brand-New Product. It's a 6-paragraph profile of how one company launched a new product with a buzzworthy marketing strategy.
The company, Sport Technology, sent a tour bus to action-sports trade shows, the ESPN X Games, and the Warped Tour.
In less than a year, sales soared.
Cool. Great, honestly.
But one tactic they used didn't cost much money. That's their use of marketing student interns...nationwide to create MySpace pages and post videos of their tour bus and attendance at events on YouTube. Like Rieva said:
Building credibility among the target audience, and saving money via interns? Smart guy.
Yes. Mike Kern, the company's owner is a smart guy.
And then I realized there are a lot of smart guys in small companies who are one step ahead. It's a critical headstart.
Small businesses have already built their foundation of credibility among the target audience.
Small businesses already have a loyal following.
You already have an extablished connection with your customers. You know your customers by name, not user name or online profile. You know them in person, their families, their moods, their business, are they sick or healthy, on vacation, or have a new pet in the house.
Why? Why do you know that? Because they trust you. You're friends. You didn't require they share their personal information before they entered your shop. They shared it with you and you with them; it was shared as a natural part of your daily interaction.
Small business you have such a huge start over companies with bigger budgets, cooler products. Mike Kern is a very smart businessman. But his first investment after buying the company was mandatory. That was going out and building what you've built steadily over the years: credibility among the target audience.
If you're talking to your neighbor, you'd describe it as 'I love that company'. Or I trust that company. I've done business with them for years. [That guy] is someone I trust. That's real credibility among the target audience. That's sustainable.
I wrote last week over at Small Biz Survival about how small businesses have what the global brands want. You have loyalty and connection, real connection, look them literally in the eye type of connection, built over the years, growing together, you know them by name and not user name. You can recognize them on the street and they you. That's called accountability. (We're a bit short of that in some areas of business, nationally...)
And in that post, I offered an idea. That idea was to consciously reach out to them. You've done a great job so far. You have a solid relationship of trust, loyalty, repeat purchases. You two clearly like working together. What if...what if you asked them for their insights, or suggestions, or ideas in creating your products? Right there, in person. One-to-one.
And what if they said yes? Well, then you'd have another source of ideas and suggestions...a very important source: your customer. They're describing what THEY would buy.
What if you set up a 'community forum' in your store where you'd share their ideas and enlist others. Community forums can exist offline. I hope that's not news. And the power of that buzz...in a small town where the relationships already exist...VERY powerful. That buzz moves faster than buzz on the blogosphere, I guarantee.
Then what if you shared that story outside your community using the digital media resources of YouTube or blogs or podcasts....make everyone in your store a star and your business a success.
What if? You've already got a head start. You've got what the big companies lust for: a deep and personal connection with your customers and their, your, community. Now celebrate it and expand it.
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