My last blog post was on coupons: remember the McDonald coupon.
A girl in my marketing class is writing her paper on coupons.
And yesterday, I had lunch with two guys who are building a platform for, yes, coupons.
The platform is to be called Beeclever. And indeed, the whole coupon idea is pretty clever.
I do remember that we often tried our hands at couponning at eBay/PayPal/Skype.
When it worked, it was one of the more powerful marketing tools.
Great activation or reactivation incentive.
Also pretty straightforward B2C: almost all consumers know what coupons are.
Perfectly measurable ROI too.
There’s even a movie on coupons. How is that?
The hard thing about coupons is the logistics and distribution as far as I am concerned.
Any company able to crack that can go far indeed.
(Note to self: must remember to incorporate the coupon word a little on IntroNiche.
See the existing samples, goodies & trials category.
Couponning is also a good cross-promotion marketing tool. See if it also works b2b)
In short, good luck Beeclever!
Good to know there are more belgian start-ups out there.
It’s no secret where I got the inspiration for this cross-promotional marketplace from.
It’s when I still worked at eBay, possibly the world’s best online marketplace.
Then again, I’m in good company.
Many ex-colleagues of mine have started their own companies.
For instance, Egbert and Marina who founded Myngle, a leading marketplace for learning languages.
You can see most of us have been thoroughly brainwashed about communities and marketplaces…
Or to put it otherwise: “You can take the man out of eBay but you can’t take eBay out of the man”.
(and for me it’s double whammy as I worked for another marketplace too: Bobex)
But I had no idea Youtube, LinkedIn and Slide were also founded by ex-eBay people.
And this weekend, I’ll check out the other sites (many German one’s - go .de!).
It has an anime look and feel - for which I also have a soft spot
I’d also like to quote Aki, the author on some specific cross-marketing ideas (even though the author calls it strategic alliances, what’s in a name?):
“How can you collaborate? The possibilities are endless. For example, you can run joint contests/competitions, set up incentivized referral networks, promote a co-op web product, create content together, exchange ad space or trade skills for exposure. There are many ways to collaborate for mutual benefits. It’s just about finding what works for you.”
I love the joint contests/competition idea.
Nothing like a good contest to engage clients in a good cross-marketing campaign!
The company advising me on search engine optimisation showed me something interesting today.
Basically, you need to type the keywords you’re interested in optimising and add the word add.url in Google.
You will then discover sites which discuss the keywords you’re interested in and which allow you to add a URL
linking back to your site if you link to their site.
Link building is one of the basics of cross-marketing. See for example this ad on IntroNiche.
I don’t mind linking to sites which discuss cross-marketing, cross-promotion or cooperative marketing.
So here’s a selection of sites I found searching for “cross.marketing add.url).
I left some IntroNiche url’s to see how it goes…
My CV has been pretty filled so far. Yet two places stand out for teaching me about online marketplaces & marketing.
One is called eBay and the second is called Bobex.
Basically, Bobex is a b2b marketplace for corporate services and goods. Corporate buyers can post request-for-quotes for basically anything ranging from webdesign, marketing consultancy, hardware or transport. Suppliers may then answer with quotes. Then buyers and sellers take it from there.
eBay on the other hand is an obscure c2c marketplace for stamps and collectibles ;-)
As IntroNiche has been kindly referenced in BelgaBlog, one of the best b2b blogs in Belgium written by Bobex,
I’d like to share some of the insights I got working there many many years ago:
Quality content is invaluable for a b2b marketplace: Bobex still checks every first-time request for quote for quality.
That is, a human being checks everything, not an algorithm.
Quality traffic is what makes a b2b marketplace tick: building partnerships with corporate and b2B institutions takes time but ultimately pays off.
Tenacity is a virtue: Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor is a decent marketplace.
Cost control saved the day when the dotcom bubble went pop.
Simplicity is more complicated than you’d think. Making the site quick and fool-proof to use is more difficult than adding one layer of sophistication on top of the other. And better too.
Hide your screen from your boss when browsing dating sites. You’ll hear from him ’till Kingdom comes.
Bobex started in Belgium and has since then expanded in local marketplaces for France, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. And now, they’re off to Silicon Valley. Think local, go global.
I stumbled on this great post by Nancy Sager from Marketing M.O.
It can basically be summarized as cross-promotion or joint-venture marketing 3.0., advanced class.
Enjoy! And feel free to apply these ideas on Introniche.com!
“Distribution channels for services: Big ideas, big payoff”
Last week James talked about the unglamorous but important topic of distribution channels. It’s one of the “4 Ps” (“placement”), but many marketers and smaller companies don’t think about it as often as they should. And it’s potentially the most important strategy in your arsenal.
When you sell a physical product, it’s easy to keep distribution strategy and channels at the top of the priority list. You may have a direct sales team, a network of resellers & VARs, a retail presence, a catalog and/or an e-commerce website.
It seems the past efforts to get this website indexed are starting to pay off.
Today I spotted IntroNiche has Pagerank 2.
Not a bad result for a website which has only been live for a month now.
We’re not playing the Victoria & Albert Hall yet. But we’re not hiding in the sewers either.
Some things must have helped:
1) Regularily updating this very blog as a placeholder for IntroNiche.com -
probably better than an “under construction” page. Content rules.
