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.
Back in November, I wrote a predictive article about Manhattan real estate called:
If you are a New York Times
reader, run...don't walk to your nearest newsstand Sunday morning. The
Times is doing a special on High-Tech Real Estate in the Real Estate
section this Sunday (February 11, 2007) and an advance edition is on
the internet today.