YouDoIt.com

Q: How do you get your consumer to market your product?
A: Put your product on the internet.


Amazon.com is a special place where you can buy almost anything. It is the Sears Roebuck catalogue of the 21st Century. Though Amazon is an outpost for everything from chapstick to wedding dresses to car parts, Amazon happens to have a corner on the book selling market. One of the things that makes Amazon terrific (for the average consumer) and dangerous (for your local bookseller) is the fact that Amazon can read your mind. Amazon knows what you want to read before you do. It knows what new releases you simply must read, and it knows the classics that might have passed you by. It can recommend a title that you didn’t even know existed, and it does this simply by keeping track of what other people are reading. The magic of Amazon boils down to a formula: a+b=c (wherein a= the book you search, b= the books other people search who also search a, and c= your new favorite book). It’s so simple, and yet, pure genius. Amazon doesn’t need to have someone standing around at an information desk to field questions and offer recommendations. Rather, they let their sales records do the work for them.

Just like Amazon, user generated recommendations are popping up all over the internet. My new favorite site is Groupon, an enchanted land where expensive goods and services can be purchased for 50% off or more. Every day, Groupon offers a new deal, but the offer is only good if enough people buy it. They use this as a motivating factor for the consumer to spread the word to their friends. If I want to get my “deluxe massage” for $60, I need to make sure that 200 other people buy it. Now that Groupon has been around for a while, the buying public has expanded enough that the deals usually go through in a matter of minutes. So, how does Groupon continue to expand? Well, word of mouth for one thing. But even more effective than gabbing is monetary incentive. Groupon offers a $10 Groupon credit for each person you successfully refer to the site. This is another stroke of genius. The consumer acts as the marketer. By offering the incentive, Groupon has gotten people to actively seek new customers for them. (On that note, if anyone is interested in joining Groupon, feel free to follow this link and earn me $10: http://www.groupon.com/r/uu599544

One potentially profitable marketing tool used by many sites, including Google and Facebook, is pointed advertising. The ads that appear on my page differ than what appears on others’ pages, and it is all based on what we each answer in the “about me” page. I essentially filled out an advertising profile of myself and posted it on my page for them to use at their will. For example, when I took the time to write all about my “favorite books,” the longest, most detailed section of my profile, they got the impression that I am an avid reader, which accounts for all of the ads about books that pop up when I sign in. I don’t think I have ever followed any of those ad links, but I am sure there are some people who do. This ability to pinpoint advertising tactics based on personal interests is something that the internet pretty much revolutionized.

In the end, whether direct marketing is involved or not, the best of the internet does end up rising to the top. Popular sites become popular for many different reasons, but the more people that visit a site, the easier and easier it gets for others to find it too. Google (supposedly) ranks in order of the most popular hits, but sometime ago, the popularity contest turned into a good old-fashioned battle of funds. Whoever is willing to pay the most will get top billing in Google’s search pages. However, a sites popularity will make it easier to find. For one thing, when something really good finds its home on the internet, it generates a buzz. People will talk about it, blog about it, make YouTube videos and parodies about it, and eventually, it might even make the TV news. A sort of culture develops around these sites, and a circular pattern of searching emerges. All of this boosts the visability and accessability of the site. Though the site has not moved its location on the web, it has become much easier to find. It has expanded its market simply by existing. The internet has given us a tool to put marketing in the hands of the consumer, whether they know it or not.