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Guerilla Marketing In The Internet
Age
Source: INTERNET WIRE
Publication date: 2002-08-13
Peg Stocus, president of New York-area contractor KO Electric
Fiber & Data, recently had a little lesson in the
power of online marketing.
Quite frankly, it shocked her.
It happened when she was calling on a firm that was considering
using KO for a large project. "I put my business
card down on the table," she recalls. "They
took one look at it and said 'is this you?'" Her
soon-to-be clients pulled out an authoritative paper on
the intricacies of "sound masking installations"
of which Stocus's firm does nationwide installations.
The article in question was authored under the careful
direction of the New Identities Agency and posted to hundreds
of web sites and referenced in thousands of newsgroups.
"They told me they had been using the paper as their
Bible of sound masking," she recalls. "They
couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it!"
Not long before that meeting, Stocus had hired Internet
traffic, marketing, and branding consultant Jim Bock and
his New Identities Agency to market their company-she
just hadn't expected his work to generate these kinds
of results so quickly. In fact, like a lot of people,
she had grown a little skeptical of Ad Agencies and the
Internet as a cost effective marketing tool.
"We had been casting around for years," she
says. "We worked with all sorts of people who called
themselves marketing professionals. But we've never had
results anything like this. My God, this really works!"
So what happened? How was New Identities able to get such
great results, while more and more big Agencies are failing
miserably?
The answer is simple: New Identities focused its efforts
on "Pin Point Direct Marketing" and as a result
was able to provide a positive return on investment within
12 months.
Savvy Marketing for Savvy Consumers
At the core of New Identities' "Pinpoint Direct Marketing™"-
give people what they are looking for when they are looking
for it.
"Pin Point Direct Marketing™" - is in direct
conflict with traditional "Interruptive Marketing"-
which gives you something you aren't looking for when
you are expecting something unrelated.
"The big difference," explains Bock, "is
that Pin Point Direct Marketing gives you a solution when
you are thinking about a problem."
For example, let's say you are sitting at a table in an
airport restaurant eating a bowl of complimentary pretzels.
After you toss a few salty pretzels in your mouth, you
notice the table tent which says "Reward Your Curiosity
- Try a Vanilla Coke Today".
That's an appropriate message at the right time and is
the basis of Pin Point Direct Marketing.
Interruptive Marketing, Bock explains, is when you are
sitting at a table and start eating some pretzels. Just
when you would be ready to order a drink, you notice that
table tent which says, "Get the feeling. Toyota."
Great ad campaign, but at the wrong time.
"Pinpoint Direct Marketing™", on the other hand,
promotes a company and its services at the exact moment
that the person is ready to buy-offering what the customer
wants, when the customer wants it.
According to Bock, "The foundation of our campaigns
is to begin with determining "DEMAND" and "LEVEL
OF COMPETITION" relating to our client's specific
product or services and then to establish whether a viable
community of potential customers exists."
With modern technology, New Identities is able to quickly
determine what is hot and what is not.
"With sophisticated Internet database queries"
Bock says, "we can advise our clients what people
are looking for in search engines, level of competition
online and provide an educated assessment of offline interest,
determine achievable levels of traffic to newly developed
web sites and even probable response to television commercials.
Then we develop a ROI analysis prior to developing expensive
web sites or other marketing initiatives."
Additionally, New Identities can determine which Hollywood
Stars, vacation location, new fad or new slang term companies
or politicians should tie their products or campaigns
to for the best response.
Once it's clear what potential customers are looking for
online, New Identities positions the product or service
so that it is accessible to them.
Unlike traditional Internet developers that may build
a million dollar web site for a company that has 10,000
products - the New Identities Agency has taken a different
approach.
New Identities might determine that of the 10,000 products
being sold by their client, only 2000 have enough online
traffic to achieve a positive return on investment.
"In this case", Bock says, "we might develop
2000 small web sites at $5000 each instead of one web
site offering 10,000 products that might cost $1,000,000."
Bock explains that people don't search online like they
shop at the mall. As the Internet has grown, 'surfers'
are learning that they need to be very specific in their
searching efforts.
"If someone is looking to purchase 'ladies golf shoes'
and search for only 'shoes', they will find 5 million
web pages listed, quickly get frustrated and overwhelmed
by the amount of garbage. The experienced and savvy 'surfer'
is now searching for "ladies golf shoes" and
finding exactly what they wanted."
Some products and services have so much related search
engine traffic that they warrant the development of numerous
related web sites-providing third party endorsements and
positioning the client as the "expert". Something
to remember is that what is often the MOST important thing
a brand can accomplish on the Internet is to establish
credibility. No Credibility = No Sale. Without the use
of multiple Internet channels and utilizing offline channels
it is often impossible to establish enough credibility
to close the sale.
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