If you happened to be in the small, out-of-the-way town of Bradford, Vermont on a Sunday evening, and you went to the Colatina restaurant on Main Street, you would enjoy a good meal but you might not realize that you were participating in a highly successful buzz marketing campaign.
Every Sunday evening, Marko the Magician goes from table to table at the Colatina, performing truly astounding magic tricks for free—and he’s been doing it for years. My grown children still talk about some of the mind-blowing tricks he’s done at our table. In fact, we went there last night because we have a relative from Germany visiting, and we wanted him to see Marko at work.
And Marko didn’t disappoint. For one trick, he handed our visitor a bottle of bubbles and asked him to blow some bubbles into the air, which he did. Marko reached out his hand and plucked one of the bubbles from the air; it instantly turned into a large marble which he dropped on the table with a thunk.
Why does he do all this for free—and keep doing it for years? Because he knows that it generates attention and buzz, which leads to gigs. In fact, Marko travels far and wide in his trademark Hummer (with Magic 1 on the license plate), and has even done tours in Europe. He has been invited by Dan Brown (author of the blockbuster, The DaVinci Code) to perform at a party. Brown also lives in New Hampshire. (You can read more about Marko at www.markomarko.com.)
Granted, you may not be able to give people an experience as remarkable as Marko does. But from a buzz marketing point of view, there are a few things that can be learned from this example and applied to other businesses.
1. Nothing Sells Like a Free Sample. Marko is successful in part because he is willing to give so much away. Why not brainstorm some unusual ways in which you could give away “free samples” of your product or service? At the very least, you could give away free advice on your website or in emails (like I’m doing here.)
You may have heard the true story about the young man who, after completing his business degree, interviewed for a certain company. He was told that they didn’t have any job openings at the time, so he said, “Would it be all right if I came in Monday and worked for free?” The interviewer said, “I guess so.” He came in, started hanging around, looking for ways to be useful. Eventually, people got to know him and started giving him chores to do, which he performed with skill and enthusiasm. After a while, the company felt they had to pay him something, so they did. You can probably guess the outcome. Years later, he owned the company.
2. Remember the 250 Rule. When Lyndon Johnson was running for office, he always spent an unusual amount of time meeting people and shaking hands. He said that he believed that every hand he shook was worth 250 votes.
It’s important to remember that every prospect, every contact, every customer represents a much wider social circle. Marko appreciates this principle and makes it work for him. Investing in making lots of contacts and keeping his circle of influence wide leads to more and more business.
So don’t think of marketing as being limited to your communications with qualified prospects. Just about everyone you contact knows someone who knows someone who could be a prospect for your business. So look for ways to keep expanding your circle of influence.
3. Do Something Remarkable and Memorable. In his book, Buzzmarketing, Mark Hughes tells about an executive who once told him, “In business, most of what you have to do won’t really matter very much, so every year you should try to do two or three remarkable things and do them very well.” (See www.buzzmarketing.com.)
Marko understands the power of doing something remarkable to create buzz. Likewise, you could brainstorm ways to do something remarkable and attention-getting.
A plumbing and heating company could line up all of its trucks and have a parade through town, handing out candy for the kids and coupons for the grownups. A restaurant could offer free bottles of wine to couples who come in for dinner on slow nights (hey, it’s better than having empty tables!).
An appliance store was having a sale on refrigerators and freezers, but they realized that many customers were simply going from store to store, price shopping. They wanted to do something to stand out, and to ensure that customers would not leave their store and go to other stores. So they offered free ½ gallons of ice cream to all shoppers—and they promoted this fact in their advertising. This not only generated a lot of store traffic, it also guaranteed that customers would leave their store and go straight home so the ice cream wouldn’t melt! (This sale was in the middle of summer.)
Sales went through the roof!
Henry Ford famously said that no one ever went broke trying to figure out how much he could give for a dollar. Make this principle work for you. Brainstorm ways that you can give remarkable experiences to people—and watch it work like magic.
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