As the user database grows all the accessory behaviors of businesses looking for business are beginning to appear. Finding business is tricky and except for a small fraction of business owners, most of us have to put a great deal of effort into getting this half of the system going. The sucky part of marketing is so many get it wrong and when they get it wrong - it's sooooo wrong. Think of all the upper-case-super-punctuated posts on Craigslist that somehow beat the system and repost many times per day (bastards! - they ruined CL). Or better yet email spam. Well targeted marketing works but when it isn't well targeted it is not welcome and negative word of mouth is sure to ensue.
I pray we don't have to start working in spam and abuse filters before we get to 1,000 users but unfortunately we must assume it's a possibility for safety purposes. In the meantime - for all those reading this, take a moment to think about what you are doing to get attention and exposure. Doing it wrong can really make life difficult so start working on doing it right! In my own experiences there are two types of marketing I have gotten results from. (1) With Dog Walker NYC and the other (2) with Ekaweeka. Each was different and was a result of failing at other attempts.
I can already tell this is going to become a lengthy discussion so I'll break it up into a series of posts (which is also great cause I'll have something to write about for the next few days). So tomorrow I'll get into figuring out what kind of marketing will help you find your customers best, and eventually we'll get into what is acceptable and what is not. In the meantime take a moment to consider what you offer and who needs it (by need I mean literally cannot live without it). If no one needs your product as is the case for many of the members on Ekaweeka, just take some notes about who your customers have been. If you don't have any customers yet, think about businesses similar to yours and who their customers are. Knowing your customer is everything.
Check back tomorrow for more juicy posts on the amazing world of marketing. And if you're already going nuts wanting to hear more check out these books:
The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing (Paperback)
by Emanuel Rosen
They will rock your world and bring you much closer to having a successful marketing strategy that will in turn make your business more successful - and... well you get point.