Darren Contardo's Netrepreneur

Flamenco?

Sometimes you just have to talk about something other than marketing and this is one of those times. I was at a local Spanish restaurant the other night called Embrujo Flamenco Tapas Bar and the Tapas were amazing, but more importantly the flamenco dancers were outstanding! Great guitar, great dancing and pure entertainment. It's great to see that this little gem caters to a niche (hey, this sounds like marketing talk?) and create a total experience. This little restuarant doesn't seat more than 50 people, the menu is printed on authentic-looking Spanish paper and the Tapas are purely Spanish. If you're in Toronto, I suggest trying this one out.

PR is your friend

So you know that PR works, but it seems intensive to get your word out there and to whom? Well, there's a company known as Maxwn.com that syndicates news to ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and many more. Imagine, one PR contact that syndicates your company news to the big players out there?! It's just that easy and proven to work.

Online Games and Viral Campaigns

To view an example of brand building, online gaming, and viral marketing working together then you have to take a look at the creative website. They use a similar system I used as mentioned in the Marketing Sherpa Wisdom report. Unfortunately, the campaign I ran was taken down after the contest was over.

Make sure you click on the Zen Challenge, finish the game, and send it to your friends.

MarketingSherpa Wisdom Report

The 2006 MarketingSherpa.com Wisdom Report is now out and jam packed full of great lessons on Marketing. Learn from over 110 Marketers and Agencies on what works and what doesn't. Oh, and pay close attention to lesson #7 from yours truly. By the way, the report is 48 pages of completely free lessons. Get yours now!

E-Consutancy Best of 2005 Papers

E-consultancy has just released it's E-consultancy's Newsletter Interviews - 2005 Compilation and it's Best of E-marketing Essentials - 2005 Compilation. These are great papers that the experts are using as a guiding force for 2006. So here they are right before you. Enjoy!

Why isn't anybody coming to

Why isn't anybody coming to our shows? Last night I went to my girlfriend's improv show. Her troop has a spot at a local bar here in Toronto every month or so. The show runs for about 2 hours and has great entertainment value (very similar to Whose Line is it Anyway?). One problem though.....they can't get many people to come! Why? Because flyers don't work! Ads don't work! Well then, what the on earth can you do to get people to your product or service? Let's talk about some ideas...

First thing is first, ask yourself the question: Who cares?
The reality is, nobody is going to buy your product or use your service (in this case a improv show) if they have no idea what to expect, primarily based on one aspect "interest".

Second thing to ask yourself: How can we get people talking?
There's no doubt that awareness is the first stage of customer acquistion, but your ads won't get people talking. What will? Other people! In this case, focus on viral marketing. Viral marketing is another fancy term for Word-of-Mouth (WOM). One key element to WOM though that's worth considering: people need something worth talking about! If your product or service is just like everyone else's that's boring...who cares. People will only talk about things that are different, remarkable, or controversial, or shocking. So rather than focusing on your marketing efforts to acquire customers, make your product/service the selling feature. Once you do that customer will tell other prospects faster than you would every imagine.

There's a little term known as 6 degrees of separation. Basically, the term describes if you know at least 6 people and all of them know 6 and so on and so on, that you have reach to everyone in the world today. That's 6 Billion people! Question? Can you afford to market to 6 Billion people on your budget? Didn't think so.

Third question to ask: What can I do to facilitate the virus (WOM)?
This is back to marketing now. What can you do to make more money with these influencers/sneezers who are going to spread the virus that is your product/service idea? Many, many things. Here's a few:

1. Email marketing - forward to friend
2. Contests to get more people and offer extra entries for people who spread the word (Bell and Air Canada have done this recently)
3. Limited access to services/products until your tell more people

For some good examples, just look at hotmail. They got 50 Million people using their product within 1 year! Watch Gmail (google's email) beat that today!

Hope these ideas are useful. Cheers!