The Marketing Power of Discussion Lists

Hundreds of thousands of discussion groups on the Internet can be a marketer's most powerful weapon.

(Shel Horowitz's Frugal Marketing Tip, September, 1999)

This is a lot longer than usual, but I think you'll find it worth it.

For years, I've been advising marketing clients to participate in Internet discussion forums (yes, I know, it should be "fora")—e-newsletters, newsgroups, web-based forums, bulletin boards... Whatever technology you choose, you want to find at least one community where you can grow personally and professionally and at the same time market to your constituency. For those who understand the medium and use it patiently, it can be the most effective free marketing tool you can find.

Participation in discussion groups brings me an average of 40 clients a year, plus numerous book orders. It takes time, but costs nothing out of pocket. I look for groups where I can both learn and teach, so that my reading is not only mining for contacts, but also professional development. I'm a much better publisher, for example, because of my participation in publishing discussion groups online.

My experience: outside of an occasional book order, I can figure on about six months of active participation before people start inquiring about doing business with me.

But this summer I had an interesting experience: I posted to the new I-PR list for the first time—and immediately got four inquiries from prospects—two of whom have become clients so far (two months). And two other lists I've joined in the past two months have already generated inquiries. Either my name is simply getting more known in Cyberspace, I'm getting better at using the medium to self-promote while providing genuinely helpful information, or Internet Time has speeded up again and the curve has shrunk significantly.

Here's this super-successful post, and then following is some analysis of why it worked so well:

<<<<<<<

> My firm does not offer a
>tailored pr solution to our clients. However, we want to offer
>some pr service and are looking at partnering with a email
>distribution service. None of our clients are large enough to
>generate huge amounts of publicity, however we are looking
>to service around a 1000 small to medium sized clients
>covering a broad spectrum.

This is as good a time as any to introduce myself, having been listening (the PR-guy's version of lurking, with a more positive spin) since Issue #1

My name is Shel Horowitz (the "or Dina Friedman" part of my return address is my wife, who doesn't do mailing lists). I've been online since 1994 and doing PR since 1974. I know many of you from I-Sales, I-Help, I-Adv and various other lists.

For many years, I've operated a rather limited PR shop, doing just the parts I enjoy: writing and strategic planning, always emphasizing low-cost, high-return solutions. For example, I let other people *send out* the releases and get on the phone with reporters to actually *place* stories. But I get a great deal of satisfaction when my clients send me newspaper clips that are verbatim reprints of my news releases, or close to it. And I also get the good feeling in my heart from helping people who thought they couldn't afford professional PR, but find the $150 or so they pay me to write a release is within reach if they can do the distribution themselves. In fact, I've even subcontracted to more full-service agencies.

To me, one of the greatest things about the Internet is the ability to develop partnerships that expand one's reach. Since I'm not a one-stop shop, it's been crucial to me to have resources either to partner with directly or to refer out. For instance, there's a news distribution service I've recommended to many of my clients—and the service provider, in turn, has sent me some copy writing work.

The other thing that was interesting to me about Kumar's post was the client base: small fish with limited budgets. Those have always been the kinds of clients I go after most actively. They may only have a couple of quick jobs every year, but there's essentially no hassle factor. And I find some of these smaller businesses are actually much more appreciative of the value of my skills, and they make space in their budgets for frequent work from me. I've even been put more-or-less on retainer by some companies with only one employee (the boss).

Kumar doesn't say what he intends to do for these folks—but clearly there'd be room for partnerships if they need services he doesn't offer. My only dealings with Kumar are that he offered me the first affiliate commission program I signed up for, several years ago, on a pay per action to visit a freebies list he had—and there was a card deck associated there also, I believe. Now for me, as a copywriter, to be able to partner with someone who mails card decks, for example, makes a lot of sense.

One final point: the Internet allows people to appear much larger than they are. I have put together a 220+ page website at http://www.frugalfun.com, with lots of articles aimed at helping entrepreneurs run their businesses more effectively and with less outlay of money. This makes my shop seem much larger to the casual cruiser than it actually is. It's been easy to get writers to donate content in exchange for exposure, and I've built the site into a major resource, working on it just an hour or two per week on average. This, in turn, has helped me expand from a local client base to one that spans three continents—at a cost I couldn't touch through any other medium.

Best,
(sig followed)>>>>>>>

Some theories about why this post worked:

1) I started with a very lighthearted but important point: that I'd been "listening") (respectful, interested) rather than "lurking" (shark-like, waiting for prey).

2) I reminded those who know me of our previous contact in cyberspace—and reassured others that I've been kicking around the ether for a while.

3) I described what I do for work—but did so in the context of responding to Kumar's question—and at the same time, was able to point out my far-below-the-competition price structure without any screaming headlines full of dollar signs.

4) I used Kumar as a jumping-off point to expand the discourse into a new but related discussion on virtual partnerships (while subtly plugging both the usefulness of my website and my expertise that's good enough to attract clients internationally as well as those willing to put me on retainer).

Find discussion lists at http://www.liszt.com, http://www.onelist.com, http://www.egroups.com, http://www.listbot.com, http://www.oaknetpub.com, and many other places.

Thank you reading this back issue of Shel Horowitz's Monthly Frugal Marketing Tips, published every month since May, 1997; please click here to view the complete archives, grouped by subject. Shel is an internationally known copywriter and marketing consultant, author of Grassroots Marketing Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and several other books, and creator of the Frugal Marketing web site. Please click here to contact Shel.


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