Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Challenge - Pr On $0 Budget

Posted by Anonymous on 9/6/2007 at 8:02 PM ET 250 Points
Dear all,

I have just started working with a new online venture. I am tasked with coming up with marketing tactics on exactly 0 dollars and 0 cents (or very close to it) that will drive traffic to the website.

The company is called Protege Sports and we sell videos of professional athletes providing tips and drills that amateur athletes and/or coaches can purchase.

We are already teaming up with sports retailers to provide them with expert content on their website, in return for branding, but I am trying to come up with other methods to generate a buzz about the company and the website.

Any suggestions well received. There are a few things we are already doing (posting on relevant forums, leveraging press relationships to get stories in newspapers, and trying to get some popular gift reward companies to take some of our videos as lower tier prizes), but we would like to try as many as possible to drive traffic to the site.

Many thanks in advance.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by michael on 9/6/2007 at 8:39 PM Member
    Hope they're paying you more than that.

    Craigslist for one.

    There are also several traffic exchanges like
    trafficg.com
    hitharvester.com
    trafficswarm.com

    you get what you pay for


    Michael
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 9/6/2007 at 8:58 PM Accepted
    If you already have videos for sale, edit them all down to 2 minutes to give samples (ideally, you have these in hand). Post each of these on YouTube, GoogleVideo, etc. You can edit yourself (if necessary), using desktop video software. Make sure each of the teasers have a at least start with, and end with your company name & website (if you can, put a title bar across the entire video). Make sure to use appropriate keywords to be found during video searches.

  • Posted by Harry Hallman on 9/7/2007 at 7:16 AM Member
    Create an affilates program via Commission Junction or Linkshare. You pay when something sells.
  • Posted on 9/7/2007 at 9:40 AM Accepted
    Posting the videos on you tube are great ways to start. Sometimes you have to get back to the basics.

    Little leagues and Pop Warners are starting new seasons everywhere. Little league moms are notorious for trying to get their son or daughter to the next level. Set up a table at the park and show the pieces of the video. Talk to the moms one on one. Usually you can find a mom who is the leader of the pack and she will often tell everyone she knows.

    Also, most leagues have meetings and you can attend and show off your product. If you get the league on board your sales will increase.
  • Posted by ilan on 9/7/2007 at 10:36 AM Member
    The days of claiming no budget for marketing but a great desire for success are gone.
    With all due respect to everybody here, and there are some good suggestions here, investing $0 in marketing will bring very close to $0 in income.
    I've had clients who told me the same, I advised them to do the PRWeb thing, no results. Google brought many leads but no buyers etc.
    You should have a good business plan to begin with, one that allocates at least 10-15% to marketing
  • Posted on 9/7/2007 at 11:11 PM Author
    These are some wonderful ideas.

    Ilan, believe me I appreciate that it's difficult to achieve any real income off the back of "guerilla marketing", but there are certain channels being exploited which will should give us traffic and revenue in a few months (once the deals are finalized and everything is implemented).

    However, until such revenue starts coming in we are trying to do what we can to market the product as cheaply as possible. I love the idea of trying to connect to little league and pop warner parents and coaches. We'll try to find a cost-efficient way of doing this.

    Thanks for all the input folks, it's been really useful.
  • Posted on 9/9/2007 at 7:13 PM Member
    I'm afraid Ilan's comment is most likely to prove accurate. There are no free lunches.

    If I told you that you needed to drive from New York to California in 4 days, but only gave you 5 gallons of gas, no money and no credit cards, you'd immediately tell me it's not possible.

    Well, that's what you're being asked to do with no budget. Try all the things others have suggested. They are actually good ideas. But my prediction is that you'll be back here in a few months to tell us that it wasn't enough to get the company off the ground. It might work if you had years to wait for the result, but not if you expect results in a few months or a year.

    Sorry, but Ilan is right.
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