"If a dude and a dude want to get married, why would I care? To be honest with you, I would check no opinion on the survey box if I was asked that question. The only thing I care about is the where the economy is headed! Period!" At the time I was enjoying a spirited debate about some of the issues facing the country in the upcoming elections. My friend from Denver (originally from Madison, Kansas) is quite the politico, he was putting up a steadfast fight against some of my opinions. Sin City is a great place to blow off some steam, and my friend and his buddy were doing just that. "Furthermore, I might add that I'm not going to vote for either Obama or Romney! Neither one of them is going to do a thing to help Rob Astle! I'm a registered Libertarian, and I'll be voting for Gary Johnson." Johnsons' name is going to appear on the ballot in Nevada so I'm going to vote for him, if his name wasn't on the ballot? I would write it in. "Enough about politics, let me tell you about an idea I have, and you let me know what you think." I've known this gentlemen and his family for most of my life. His brother is one of my best friends.
"Now think about this for a minute Spencer. We all know that organic growth is all the rage nowadays. Everyone talks about it, but know one really knows how to do it. I'm here to tell you I've got the plan, and Las Vegas is the perfect place to launch it." No question about it, my friend is a very creative person, and he knows a thing or two about website development.."Let's here it genius, I'm listening..Get to the point." That's all I needed to here from his mouth.."The thing that is cheaper than anything in Las Vegas right now? People power. You can hire all sorts of people to help you promote a cause. That's if you can make the cause cool and sexy. My research tells me that we can can get lots of people on the cheap! Way cheaper than any other place I can think of. Basically, lots of people in this town are up for an idea. Well, we could hire a number of people on piece meal wages to help promote a product or service. Are you familiar with the term Guerrilla Marketing?" My friend nodded and said he was a little.
"OK, let me give you an example of how we could use Guerrilla Marketing to bring attention to a product or service. This weekend BMX is holding a big festival in Las Vegas. It's a two day event, and the anticipated turn out is 15,000. Booth space is going for $600. If someone sets up a booth and hires a couple of people to promote. The object is to get face to face with as many people as possible and let them know what your product or service is. To make it really appealing! We would give away an I-pod or something like that in a grand prize drawing. Think about it for a moment? If we pull a couple thousand emails out of an event like this. A certain percentage will convert to users! The key is making the experience as memorable as possible for the people we encounter! That's why I would suggest hiring attractive people. Good looking girls and guys are a dime a dozen in Las Vegas, and I know a bunch of them." I could talk forever about why I think organic growth and Guerrilla Marketing is the correct way to get things started nowadays, but then I become overbearing to people, and that's something you want to avoid. Besides, both my friend and his buddy were nodding in agreement with my statement.
My buddy than asked me this.."How much is it going to cost to get a user of the service using the method your describing?" That's a legitimate question that I've researched thouroughly. My reply. "The key is being consistent in your marketing. Based on the prices I've seen for a number of the festivals in Las Vegas. I would recommend budgeting $1500 for every event. That number would include entry, marketing slicks, and labor. If were going to give away a prize for entry, add another $250-$500 to the total. Break it down a little more. Let's say we get 1500 emails out of an event, that works out to a dollar an email..That's a very attractive rate for an organic approach to getting emails. Break it down even more. If 10% of them create accounts? That's 150. Break it down one last time. If that 150 spend an average of $50 a year on goods and services..That's 15k. The key in achieving a number like this is two-fold..A kick ass E-commerce site and guaranteeing that a potential user has a memorable initial experience when we introduce them to the site..Basically, the site and the experience need to be sexy, cool, and marketed at street level consistently! That's how stuff gets started nowadays!"
I like to end every post of mine with a thought I'm having call it the village idiot of the day.."It was nice seeing my friend and his buddy. Both of them are very intelligent and creative people. One thing stuck out when I was talking to them, as I was leaving I asked them this question.."Both of you guys agree that the times are a changing and some of the ideas were talking about make a lot of sense." They both looked at me and said "Yes!" emphatically. I'm going to take that as a sign that I've found some people who are sharing the same beliefs as me..That's a good thing!
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