This year, I have found two marketing inspirations. The first epiphany came in November 2009, when Cédric Donck, Tagora’s CEO, introduced his company and its mantra – “It’s all about dialogues”[1] – to my fellow students and myself. The second one, was listening to an interview on mixergy.com[2] with the successful startup UserVoice.com’s co-founder, Marcus Nelson. Both of these insights have helped me tremendously when I was figuring out how to tackle Eat ‘n Meet’s marketing strategy.
Before the Nelson-interview, we, the Eat ‘n Meet-team, had been frantically examining every possible element of the more traditional marketing mix. Why? Because we didn’t realize what other options were out there. Undeniably, Eat ‘n Meet was about to pay heaps of money to put those prehistoric flyers in “Guido” student welcoming packs and to rent genuine Eat ‘n Meet “stands” on student-events. We were going to invest in advertising space on other, related websites. Heck, we were even going to throw our own multi-thousand-euro events.
And then, UserVoice’s Nelson came along. Can you feel the “eureka”? I sure could.
What Mister Nelson made me realize, is that what Mister Donck had taught me (“it’s all about dialogues”) should not just remain an inspiring yet theoretical thought. On the contrary: it is totally applicable on the marketing of Eat ‘n Meet!
The best part of this kind of dialogue-marketing is: it’s for free. Twitter, Facebook, blogs… All you have to do is be out there, join in on the conversation, be interesting, be unobtrusive, be nice. Also: make sure that people know you, talk to them face-to-face, gain their trust. Listen to your users – even if they have something a bit less positive to say. Use their feedback – it will give you ideas that you and your team wouldn’t have come up with in a million years. An open dialogue, ladies and gentlemen, is everything. Especially because it’s free.
Oh, and another good one: don’t worry, be crappy.
Yes. Not a typo. Sheer genius.
What it means? It means that, as soon as you have your million dollar-idea, you throw it online – even if that means having to use the beta-est website mankind has ever seen. All you have to do is: get some critical (and I mean critical) people to comment on what you’ve got. Adapt it as you go. After a few months, leave the beta behind. Stay focused on the product. Be passionate. And, whatever you do, however crappy your website (not the idea, though, never the idea!), make sure that “feedback” is the most-used button on your site.
[1] http://www.tagora.com
[2] http://mixergy.com/listen-to-users/
