自动推广不用愁

公司：WyzAnt

地点：伊利诺伊州芝加哥市

    快速成长的全国家教市场公司WyzAnt在2005年初创时仅有10,000美元投资。共同创始人德鲁•吉安和麦克•怀舒恩可谓白手起家，当然对营销费用也是能省则省。他们号召公司名下近60,000名家庭教师通过社交媒体来宣传公司。Wyzant网站上的教师资料页面都带有公司的标识，还有内置按钮，一键就能在Twitter和Facebook上完成分享。WyZant拥有博客平台，还提供工具帮助教师制作广告视频。这些带有公司标识的视频也被上传到YouTube，在教师自我推销的同时，也提高了WyZant的知名度。公司CEO吉安宣称，由于这些措施和其它营销努力，公司的销售额增长已经在年内实现了翻番，而公司会在教师的收费中获得提成。吉安说：“我们总算不用再吃冷冻披萨和方便面了。”

Auto-promotion

Company: WyzAnt

Location: Chicago, Ill.

    Bootstrapping this fast-growing national tutoring marketplace since it launched with just $10,000 in 2005, WyzAnt cofounders Drew Geant and Mike Weishuhn have spent their marketing budget frugally. The company has enlisted its nearly 60,000 tutors to promote the service via social media. The Wyzant site includes profiles for tutors that carry the WyzAnt logo, with built-in buttons for sharing on sites like Twitter and Facebook (FB). WyZant also offers a blogging platform and a tool that helps tutors produce branded videos advertising their services, which then get syndicated to YouTube. When tutors promote themselves online, they raise awareness of WyzAnt. The company, which gets a cut in tutors' hourly rates, has seen sales grow at about 100% a year, thanks to these and other efforts, according to CEO Geant. "We're not eating frozen pizza and ramen noodles anymore," he says.

搜索引擎争排名

公司：GoVacuum

地点：弗吉尼亚州尚特利市

    吸尘器及其配件的在线市场竞争极为激烈。自从在1999年开设网店GoVacuum之后，吸尘器经销商比尔•阿南德就一直在设法提升公司网站在搜索引擎中的排名。公司销售及推广副总裁贾斯汀•哈沃发现，张贴针对小众市场的产品介绍能够起到一定的作用。比如，网站销售“宠物版”的SEBO公司X4型吸尘器，产品带有强力清洁附件。为了编写产品介绍，哈沃从网站Fiverr雇用了自由写手（某写手为篇幅长达500个词的产品介绍仅收费5美元）。除了新的产品介绍，公司还在YouTube发布用户的评价视频。在这些营销措施的共同推动下，公司的销售额获得了“惊人”的提升。“我在Fiverr找的人真不错，”哈沃说。“而且只要5美元。”

Search engine optimize

Company: GoVacuum

Location: Chantilly, Va.

    The online market for vacuum cleaners and parts is particularly fierce. Since vacuum retailer Bill Anand opened his online store GoVacuum in 1999, he has constantly looked for ways to improve his company site's search engine ranking. His vice president of sales and marketing, Justin Haver, found that posting product descriptions that target a niche audience helps. For instance, the site sells the SEBO X4 vacuum with a set of high-powered cleaning attachments in a set called the "Pet Edition." To write the product descriptions, Haver hired freelancers through the website Fiverr (where he found one contributor who is willing to write product descriptions of up to 500 words for $5 a pop). In conjunction with other efforts like posting user video reviews of its products on YouTube, the new product descriptions have improved sales "tremendously," says Haver. "With Fiverr, I have a very high success rate," says Haver. "And it's only $5."

推广比赛赢眼球

公司：Vero Linens

地点：佛罗里达州威尼斯市

    最近一轮经济衰退期间，向精品酒店批发高端床上用品的生意也出现萎缩。史蒂夫•卡拉达诺不得已尝试了新方法。他在在9个月前建立了一家网站，直接向消费者出售床单。卡拉达诺称：“去掉零售商的中间渠道之后，平常标价1,100美元的床单套件我只卖500美元。”为了在新市场树立良好的口碑，他联系了几家室内设计博客的编辑，比如Habitually Chic, Cote de Texas和Coco & Kelley。除了向他们提供机会，评价这些在意大利手工制作的产品，他们的粉丝还可以参加小型竞赛，优胜者的奖品就是一套床上用品。“他们就是小号的奥普拉（美国著名主持人——译注），”卡拉达诺说。“粉丝对他们言听计从。他们给公司带来了信誉。”奖品还在博客上引发了设计爱好者对床单的大讨论，当然也增加了网站的销售。卡拉达诺自己的博客现在也出现在公司网站上，还为顾客提供咨询，比如告诉那些新近离婚的男人怎样选购床单，这也给网站带来了额外的访问量。他说：“一年前，没人访问我的网站。”而现在，如果顾客搜索“意大利床上用品”之类的关键词，他的网站会出现在谷歌搜索结果的第一页。

Use contests

Company: Vero Linens

Location: Venice, Fla.

    When his wholesale business selling luxury linens to boutique hotels slowed during the recession, Steve Caradano tried a new approach, launching a website nine months ago to sell sheets directly to consumers. "I can take an $1,100 sheet set, bypass the retailers, and sell it for $500," says Caradano. To build the reputation of his brand in a new market, he got in touch with editors of interior design blogs such as Habitually Chic, Cote de Texas, and Coco & Kelley to offer them a chance to review the products, which are handcrafted in Italy, and to award a set of linens to their followers in small contests. "They're mini-Oprahs," says Caradano. "They have people who are intrigued by what they say. They bring credibility." The giveaways led to discussions of the sheets among the design aficionados on the blogs -- and purchases from his site. Caradano has now added his own blog to Vero Linens' site -- offering advice like tips for recently divorced men on how to buy sheets, which drives additional traffic to his site. "A year ago, I had zero traffic," he says. Today, he notes, his site appears on the first page of Google search results when consumers type in terms like "Italian bedding."

热门视频来帮忙

公司：Chicago Music Exchange

地点：伊利诺伊州芝加哥市

    Chicago Music Exchange是一家具有传奇色彩的乐器店，专门出售全新吉他和二手货。在YouTube的一段视频中，该店的天才员工亚历克斯•查德威克弹奏了100首曲子，向大家讲述摇滚音乐的历史。视频页面在4周内就获得300万的访问量。“就像观看体操运动员在奥运会的表演，”店主戴维•考特说。“他的技巧让人叹为观止。不管是吉他手，还是乐迷都被深深吸引。”总计成本：约2,500到5,000美元，包括人工和营销公司的费用。视频发布之后的一个月内，该店的网站得到额外的20万独立访问量。考特说：“我们店的线上和线下销售都大有长进。”许多人到店里来除了一睹亚历克斯的风采，还会购买一件Chicago Music Exchange的纪念T恤。

Invest in (hopefully) viral videos

Company: Chicago Music Exchange

Location: Chicago, Ill.

    Chicago Music Exchange, a legendary retailer of new and used guitars, scored more than 3 million page views in four weeks with a YouTube video of a talented employee who told the history of rock and roll by playing 100 riffs. "It's like watching an Olympic gymnast," says owner David Kalt. "You can totally appreciate his craftsmanship. It appeals to both guitarists and music lovers." The total cost: About $2,500 to $5,000, when Kalt factors in staff time and use of his marketing firm. After publishing the video, the store saw an extra 200,000 unique visitors to its website in the month immediately following its release. "We've had a nice uptick in transactions online and offline," Kalt says. And viewers have starting coming to the store looking to meet the employee Alex Chadwick, and buy Chicago Music Exchange t-shirts as a souvenir.

客户为你拉生意

公司：Ditto Trade

地点：加州洛杉矶市

    如果某位金融专业人士或者业余投资者的粉丝希望复制偶像的交易，在线经纪商Ditto Trade会允许他们代表该粉丝买卖股票。例如，你是个股市高手，你的岳父和表兄想让你替他们进行交易，那就使用Ditto Trade的网站吧。为了吸引新的客户，创始人乔•福克斯最近通过姊妹公司Followable.com免费向发布电子投资通讯的理财顾问开放自己的通讯平台。福克斯的想法是：通讯订阅者会顺便让顾问在Ditto Trade网站代表自己进行交易。通过降低顾问和其他“带头大哥”的交易佣金，公司希望利用他们的号召力带来订阅者加入网站。该计划实施1个多月来的结果令福克斯很满意。他说：“带头大哥天天来，新进客户节节高。”