I posted an idea about six months ago on Active Rain called Barbershop Marketing. It was essentially a way for Realtors to integrate new media with traditional media by presenting Active Rain posts to local consumers.
The premise was this:
I've gotten a good deal of business from brochures in barbershops. This weekend, I'm working on a new project for my barbershop marketing:
Blog Books. You see, not everyone reads the girlie magazines in the barbershop. Some men actually read Maxim, just kidding. Seriously, men always have to wait 10-15 minutes to get their hair cut. When you get in the chair, you tend to read whatever you were reading while you were waiting.
I'm making up some blog books for the 8 barbershops I'm in right now. I'm going to have 3-4 of them in each shop. I bought some 3 ring binders and a lot of page protectors. I'm going to fill up those books with pages of well-written blogs.....starring...YOU! I'm going to update them every two weeks with new and improved content, authored by...YOU!
There were 15 or so comments about the viability of this novel idea. Kristal Kraft referred to it as "hard copy viral marketing. More than a few of you wanted to know how it turned out.
Here was my experience:
I posted about 20 "blog books" in hair salons, barbershops, and doctor's offices around town (My follow up piece was called Doctor's Office Marketing) . Note that I used a three ring binder to secure the "blog book". I wanted to be able to update the books on a weekly basis. My plan was to show up every week, update the book and hopefully have a conversation or two; that never happened. I didn't update that book very much until this week.
I visited the locations this week and the proprietors were livid with me! The books were a shambles. Pages had been torn, ripped out, stolen, written on, folded, spindled, and mutilated. They were a mess because they had been read. A barber in Encinitas, CA told me that over 10 of his regular customers have actually read my weblog on Active Rain (and many of yours) and openly commented about it in the shop the next month. Many of them talked about how they refinanced their home based on my advice. One listed his home and talked about the great advice he got on Active Rain.
Nobody called us (including me) when it was time to utilize our services. Guess why?
I didn't follow through with my promise to stop in and update them weekly.
My idea was that the blog book would give me a reason to spend 15 minutes or so chatting with the proprietor's customers. That's a lot of work if you're in 25 locations. It's easily 1-2 full, 8-hour days work. Multi-media advertising is extremely effective. Online weblogs, print brochures, and personal visits are a sure fire way to increase your business. This concept should be quite simple for a local Realtor to implement.
Why do this? Do this because there's tremendous content on Active Rain. Leverage your relationship by putting mortgage, inspection, title, escrow, and other real estate agent's posts in your blog book. Update the books monthly with fresh content. Most importantly, visit the locations and ask for feedback from the proprietor, the customers, and other people who might come in contact with your blog book. It's a multi-media three touch approach: print, online, and in-person. I know it's work...but...
WE JUST WANT TO START A CONVERSATION WITH THE CONSUMER.
