Two examples of how nano-sized businesses exploit cost-efficiencies of difital media
I've recently redecorated my house and one of the jobs was to paint the front door. One of my friends is doing spray-painting and he kindly accepted to help me. His company is small, in fact there's only 3 people in it. But, they are more than busy, having to sometimes turn people down for jobs.
It was quite surprising to me (despite the familiar madness with DIY every spring). The secret is, he explained, in Google AdWords. They place them every month and it works - they get a constant stream of prospects.
What really stunned me, though, was the size of their budget: only £30 per month. So, for the price of a main course in a better London restaurant, he keeps his business thriving using the utterly democratised digital technology. His business area is not very contested, so the bids are a total bargain. He pays per click so the flow of prospects is enough to ensure a healthy conversion.
And that's it. No fancy advertising, no DM, not even flyers. Just a tiny boxed ad placed in a relevant place at the relevant time. And Bob is your uncle.
The other example comes from Ireland, where I recently went on (wet) holiday. We decided to do some seal watching and booked the tour with a small company in Kenmare. The owner was a marketing man's delight! He did everything right.
His commentary (pre-recorded) was fantastically informative and funny, giving the feeling of really understanding seals and their habbits; he served coffee and cookies on board; he had clean blankets to protect the passengers from high winds; he told great jokes.
But even more, he made the whole purchasing and consuming process a treat. When we called to book, he asked where did we hear about them; he tried to upsell accomodation immediately, but without pushing us; he asked us to sign the visitor's book; he asked, politely, for the email address as well, promising only one email during the season, with seal puppy photos; he also asked us to add our message to the appeal to protect the bay from speedboats and to restirct unplanned building of houses around the bay. Most of us did whatever he asked us to do, purely because he did it in such a charming and geunine way.
So, his email database is growing and we can't wait to receive our seal puppy photos. A perfect example of a great 'request marketing', if there ever was one. If only our bigger companies can learn this lesson.
