Two Marketing Questions

[DaveinHackensack]

I am having two subscription-based websites developed. One will offer a service that is unique and I think may be of broad general interest. For this one, I am thinking of using a professional P.R. person, as I think he or she could get some traction with it with mainstream journalists. My first question for the board is if any of you could recommend a P.R. professional -- ideally, someone who has had some experience getting exposure in national print media, but who has fees reasonable enough for a start-up entrepreneur. I've already gotten a promising referral, but I'd like to speak with two or three vendors at least before making a decision.

My second question relates to the other site I'm having developed. This one will also offer a unique service, but more of a niche one, and this particular niche has some negative connotations. For this reason, I don't think it would get traction with mainstream journalists, so I was thinking of different approach. One idea I'm considering is commissioning a short, edgy, animated clip to generate buzz for the site. I think I have a clever concept for such a clip, and my hope would be that others would find it clever or interesting and by e-mailing it and posting it in various places, generate some publicity for my site. I found a talented animator, but it looks like the cost of a quality animated clip would be almost as much as the cost of developing the site itself. My second question is: based on the limited information I've provided here, do you think the animated clip might be worth doing despite the cost?

Thanks for reading this, and I look forward to reading your thoughts and input. I should mention that I do plan to pursue standard methods of marketing these sites as well (e.g., SEO, referral incentives).

[officer_dibble]

The video clip will need it's own marketing strategy as unless you are very lucky it will not go viral on it's own.

At the very least you should consider seeding it on the relevant sites yourself rather than hoping for others to do. And consider some PR with relevant blogs/media (even if non-mainstream eg trade)

Otherwise - one of the most effective things I've found is getting a relevant celebrity to blog about it. If the celeb is niche but has a strong internet following (cult) then so much the better.

I usually avoid virals because they are risky - unless you can put it together for very little. Find a college student rather than a professional animator perhaps?

[Chris H.]

Dave,

Congrats on your websites. I've owned my membership website for 10 months now and am launching a second one in a month or so. It's a lot of work!

I'm not sure what software you are using to run your sites, but I highly recommend Membergate.

Regarding your marketing questions, I urge you to join MembershipSiteOwner.com. This is run by Tim Kerber, the ceo of Membergate. You will get all of the marketing information you need from that site. The forum is very active as well. There is no way I could have launched my sites without being a member of MSO.com. They have a $1 trial so you can test it out and see if you like it. I know there is an article on there about creating a video/animation like you're talking about to help launch the site.

Here are my two sites if you want to check them out to get ideas:

www.LandscapeLeadership.com
www.FromDesign2Build.com

Chris H.

[DaveinHackensack]

A good point about the risk of an attempt at a viral video. In this case, the cost of a 30 second animated clip could be almost as much as the cost of building the site. Also a good point about reaching out to niche bloggers, etc., which I plan to do.

Chris,

I'll take a look at MSO. My sites are pretty programming-intensive though, because of the tools they'll offer, so I'm having them developed by a team that includes comp sci grad programmers as well as web designers.

Thanks again for the ideas.

[kamakiri]

You really want to find someone local for your PR. Not only is there the financial considerations of hiring a national PR agency (6 figure bills), but you want to have someone who will know the local press and have the contacts. As a small player you have a much bigger chance of being a big fish in a small pond and your stories have a better chance of getting picked up. From there the story usually spreads. I still get calls from Tokyo media as the result of simple local store marketing. Also, what are you looking for? "A PR person" is pretty broad. Specifically, what would you like them to do?

For your second question, you are thinking about viral video. It is not that easy man. There was a company, thecommotiongroup.com who, in checking their web site seem to have "gone on to bigger things". It was run by a Stanford Grad who is way ahead of the game. There again, the prices were enormous. You can track him down here possibly (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/), but again, his cost will be huge. His first quote for a product of mine was about the same as the price I paid for my house.

[DaveinHackensack]

Thanks for posting the link to that article by Ackerman. Very illuminating. In many arenas there are the stated rules of the game and the "real rules" that the winners follow, and if you don't know the real rules you've got a problem. That Ackerman article was an example of "real rules". Based on that, and the cost of getting the animation done in the first place, that viral tack looks like an overpriced lottery ticket. I'm going to pass on it. Thanks for helping me make that decision.

Re PR, I wrote about this recently on my blog ("I have been too harsh" (http://thehackensack.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-have-been-too-harsh.html)), but it seems like most PR firms are focused on big corporate clients instead of entrepreneurs, and for good reason. I can't blame them, really: we entrepreneurs are more tight-fisted and results-oriented. Far easier to charge more with fewer results expected of you. So I'll probably just take a DIY approach here, unless I can find a PR guy that promises real results for reasonable fees (and by results I mean stories in major media).

I did act on a piece of advice from that article you linked to before from the Wired editor (about reading the blogs of journalists before you give them story ideas). There's a financial columnist at the NY Times for whom at least one of my sites would fit in his beat. So I e-mailed him saying that I enjoyed his columns and asking him if he had a blog as well. He wrote back, thanking me for asking him, and saying he didn't have a personal blog, but would be contributing to an NY Times blog in the near future. I'll hit reply to sender when I tell him about my site in the future, and he'll see that we corresponded before. In fact, I may be judicious and just tell him about my second site, which will be more appropriate for his audience.