| Summary:
Like many start-up businesses, PrescottWeddings.com didn't
have much money for marketing. On top of that, we had two major challenges (three counting
the limited budget):
Armed with those challenges, we went to work. Now, just
over two years later, PWC enjoys well over 40,000 hits a month and has increased its
advertising base by over 600%. On top of that, PWC is well on its way to establishing a
reliable brand in not just Prescott but throughout Yavapai County. So how did we do it? A
great Web site with great content plus three main marketing strategies.
I decided to try something a little different and
illustrate the marketing challenges of a small business. I'm using one of my clients,
PrescottWeddings.com.
PWC is an online resource guide for couples planning their
weddings. Along with a ton of information for brides and grooms, the site includes a
resource guide where local businesses can advertise their products and services.
We launched PWC in November 2001. Like many start-up
businesses, PWC didn't have much money for marketing. Yet we had two major challenges
(three counting the limited budget):
1. PWC had to attract two kinds of target markets to the
site -- advertisers and couples -- essentially at the same time. And if that wasn't bad
enough, we had to appeal to each group even though one was dependent on the other --
advertisers wanted brides and grooms logging onto the site, and brides and grooms wanted a
complete resource center.
2. Several bridal print publications had come and gone in
Prescott -- and had burned their advertisers while racing out of town. Businesses were
understandably hesitant about sinking their money into another bridal venture.
Armed with those challenges, we went to work. Now, just
over two years later, PWC enjoys well over 40,000 hits a month and has increased its
advertising base by over 600%. On top of that, PWC is well on its way to establishing a
reliable brand in not just Prescott but throughout Yavapai County.
So how did we do it? A great Web site with great content
plus three main marketing strategies:
- Using print to drive traffic online
- Thinking small
- Frequency, frequency, frequency
I'll cover number two and three in the next two articles.
Today we'll talk about number one: Using print to drive traffic online.
The cornerstone of PWC's marketing program has been print
advertising, more specifically monthly advertising in the local newspaper. Print
advertising is an excellent choice for many businesses -- from small to large. In fact,
it's not uncommon for small and medium-sized businesses to build their advertising program
around print.
The strength of print advertising is its flexibility. Print
publications come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They can appeal to a broad readership
or a narrow one. They can be published every day or once a year. This variety gives you a
lot of flexibility in fitting print advertising into your campaigns.
You can also track print to a certain extent (coupons in
newspapers for example). Print is physical, allowing your customers to carry something
around with them.
However, print's weakness is also its strength. It's a
visual medium only, so it requires more effort and interaction from your audience to make
an impact (they need to stop and read it).
In the case of PWC, we chose monthly advertising in the
local paper as the foundation of our marketing program. We decided upon the local
newspaper because it has the broadest reach. Prescott isn't big enough to have its own
evening television news, so the newspaper is the best vehicle for local news.
If you live in a big city, the local newspaper may not be
practical because of cost. In that case, you may want to try a niche newspaper or
magazine, like a business or lifestyle journal, or maybe a regionalized newspaper. In
Phoenix for instance, the Arizona Republic is the main newspaper, but all the cities
around Phoenix, like Scottsdale and Tempe, also have their own papers.
Because PWC is a Web site, there's an assumption we should
be using only online methods to advertise. Online methods are good, and PWC does use them,
but they only take you so far. Print is a part of the "real world" -- something
you can touch and pick up, not virtual like a Web site. Print has also been around a lot
longer, and carries more trust with it. We found by using print, some of that trust and
"real world" essence rubbed off, making PWC seem less anonymous and more like a
"bricks and mortar" business (a business with a store front).
Also, since we were trying to drive local traffic to the
site, it made sense to advertise locally rather than attracting people from all over the
world. But even with our local advertising, we still have a substantial number of visitors
from around the state, including Phoenix and Tucson, as well as all over the globe.
The point of our marketing program was to advertise
regularly so we could both build the PWC brand and drive traffic to the Web site. Yet it
was essential to keep our costs down. So we leveraged our monthly newspaper advertising to
stretch our marketing dollar as far as we could. More on that and how we "thought
small" in the next article.
Copyright © 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek Writing USA
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