Viral Marketing at CornerBarPR.com®
Spreading a New Virus
Guerilla Tactics and Other Low-Cost Ways to Create Buzz
PRSA 2005 Southwest District Conference
11 Feb 05
Bar References (If we missed one, it was unintentional):

CornerBarPR
Contacts On Tap
The Bar Rag
The 5:01 Club
Proprietor
Patrons
Spiked Articles
News Munchies
Today's Special
Top Shelf
Premium
Lite

Gimmick:

Attitude, tone, style, snappy writing, sass, entertaining, but relevant and useful. Did we say "attitude"?

Marketing (A few not yet implemented):

Basically, anything to keep our names constantly before our target audience.

Matchbooks
Coasters
Martini Glasses
Shot Glasses
Bumper Stickers
Bar Rags
Shirts
Hats
Contests
Send Job Titles to Fast Company
Discussion Groups and Newsgroups and Special-Interest Groups
IABC and PRSA Newsletters
Personal Involvement in IABC and PRSA
Articles
Presentations
Training Sessions
News Releases
Interpersonal Networks
Emails to Friends and Acquaintances Each Time We Hit a Milestone
... And sometimes just for the hell of it!
Key Influencers
Testimonials
JOTW
Partnerships
Free Media
Marketing Promos
PR
Mentions in Others' Columns
Selective Link Trades
Snowball Effect
Reward Referrals
Customer Pass-Along
In technical terms, our loyalty program rewards correct behavior.
Experiential Marketing -- Let Patrons "Experience" How it Works
Customer Retention
Requiring Customer Identification for Further Contacts
The Longest, Most Dreadful, Most Entertaining User Agreement You'll Ever See!
Survey New and Existing Patrons
Personal Contact
Phone Contact
Offer Reprint Rights
Search Engine Seeding, Marketing, Positioning, and Optimization
Key Word Programs
Email Tags
"Free"
"Low-Cost"
Money-Back Guarantee
Non-Profit Discount
Competitive-Knockout Rebate
Commitment to Service
Personal Service
Interest in the Small Practitioner
Product Differentiation
Developing New Products
No Pop-Up or Pop-Under Marketing
We?re marketing to ourselves, and we hate this stuff.
Avoiding the Dreaded Spider
Early on, one of our consultants actually recommended that we spider email addresses. We nixed the idea and are VERY glad we did.
We've Just Begun Tracking Blogs

There doubtless are more, but that's what comes to mind here. We've done a small amount of advertising -- certainly less than $10,000 worth in 3+ years. It's all viral, baby, viral. And guerilla, and grass-roots, and milking that "tell-a-friend" approach. Doing good work, and encouraging everyone to tell everyone else.

www.TellAFriend.biz - Be sure to tell a friend!

Richard B. Barger, ABC, APR - Chief Curmudgeon - CornerBarPR.com - Kansas City, MO 64131-3264
Rich@CornerBarPR.com - 866-272-2777 - 816-472-7727