Wow.. Local niche with offline works!

bsgjunkie · #1 () 02-13-2005, 06:55 AM

I keep reading about your local niche site. I couldn't really understand how it could be as effective as a well advertised content driven site. I could see getting local buddies and "friends of friends" to sign up through a local site. I didn't understand the concept of getting a player emotional involved.

Last week when I was at the local book store placing business cards, I picked up a online marketing workbook for a class at my college. There was a section on emotional advertising.

Last Friday evening I put it to the test. We had a party at my place. I turned a normal party into a advertising event with very little preparation or money. I created a new bonus code. The code was the name of our house, which everyone knows. I have a media center hooked up to our large TV in the front room. I printed off 150 full size 8 1/2x11 fliers that said "Special bonus for the SpyGlass House. Visit Partypoker.com and enter code SPYGLASS for a free $25" in huge text and the URL for the local niche site I created for our house. I made a flier holder with a clear folder and put it on the top right hand corner of the tv screen. For their viewing pleasure I used the standard windows desktop. I loaded up Party and opened 2 party poker NL ring games on the big screen. I created a new background for my desktop that had the bonus code and the URL.

People were showing up just before 8 and I printed off another 100 fliers at 9:30!!!!

I didn't do any advertising on the net and only uploaded my site on Thursday morning. Since I didnt have time to do much, it was a basic index page with a handful of banners, minimal content, and a forum with a topic of local home games..

I've received 31 real money accounts from that flier in 1 weeks time. My forum now has 76 members, but over 400 unique hits (must be from word of mouth because we didn't have that many people at our party). I'm very happy considering all I did was watch some idiots lose their ass in a NL game on party and make 250 fliers. I didnt even have to hand them out. People took them on their own free will.

I understand that not everyone has the opportunity to do the same, or similar, but this is just an example of what offline and niche advertising can do. Its only been a week and I've already exceeded my monthly goal of 30 new players for party.

I don't know if I could have that much success again, but I'm going to try. We didnt have another party scheduled until April 1st, but I taked my roommates into one sooner.

Thanks again to Jeremy. I would not of thought of this without his help.

Junkie

P.s. If anyone wants the info I got out of the workbook, let me know and I'll scan it somehow and send it to you.

bsgjunkie · #2 () 02-13-2005, 06:57 AM

Sorry if thats confusing.. I'm not currently sober. I'll fix it tomorrow afternoonl..

Ex Croupier · #3 () 02-13-2005, 08:27 AM

beautiful...

straight to the point....

people take notes!

Congrats!

h34r:

El_Maximo · #4 () 02-13-2005, 09:04 AM

You had some excellent results with a good idea. I would try and repeat this process. Look for ways to do this over and over again. You can hold more parties but eventually you will run out of people to invite. Look to create subs and have them host the party. You could do all the set-up and demo the software. Alot of profitable companies generate most of their sales through this technique. I love your post and keep the good ideas coming.

#5 () 02-13-2005, 10:36 AM

Please send me my cut................

Nice Job, that's what my book and this forum are all about, making us all better affiliates and sharing best practices that will put more money in all of our pockets.

One other suggesstion I would say now Bsg would be too set up some private tables at Party and advertise these cash games in your forums. I'm assuming your at a University? People love to play with others they know. This will keep them playing longer by having private tables set up where they can play with others from the same school and chat about things they are all familiar with.

Again, Great Job!

richardb · #6 () 02-13-2005, 12:00 PM

junkie,

Good job man. 31 RMP's from one flier, that is sweet. Stuff like that confirms my belief that we are just at the tip of the iceberg and there are still millions of potential players out there. They just need a little convincing to help motivate them to sign up.

Ritch111 · #7 () 02-13-2005, 01:29 PM

Great Job Junkie.

I played with friends last night in a home game and could sense they were interested in what I had to say. I explained to them what I was doing and 3 of them all ready had Party acounts. I asked them when they joined and they said within the last 3 months. I wish I jumped on them sooner.

I asked what took you so long to join?
Answer from all of them was, they weren't sure about the depoist part. Security, trust etc... Once we get past this, which has gotten better and better, this will become a no brainer. Keep the good stories coming.

Ritch

bsgjunkie · #8 () 02-14-2005, 01:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by richardb@Feb 13 2005, 11:00 AM
junkie,

Good job man. 31 RMP's from one flier, that is sweet. Stuff like that confirms my belief that we are just at the tip of the iceberg and there are still millions of potential players out there. They just need a little convincing to help motivate them to sign up.

Thanks,

I have to agree. We're a the tip of the iceberg, but I think that tip is offline. There has been a lot of promotion online, and obviously it still works. I think I'm going to take Jeremy's advice and work on the local offline niche's. I may ot be able to reach as many people as online advertising, but it seems as though the conversion rate will be a lot higher.

I am in a college town. Its perfect due to the fact that there are 2 schools within 6 miles with a total of 25k students. Thats a very large niche for me to jump into.

Chris

#9 () 02-14-2005, 03:10 AM

Junkie,

Fantastic post, a great deal of my revenue comes from offline advertising. I won't undermine websites and online marketing.......but too many people forget about the low hanging fruit that is right in front of them. Here is an offline example from my book that worked awesome at a huge firefighter convention that I went to.
...............bottom line, Don't underestimate the power of offline advertising!

Quote:

One other unique but crazy thing I did was made up business cards that were also firefighter related with my Bonus Code on it and placed them on the urinals at all of the bars! My friend thought this was crazy but WOW, this got me a great deal of exposure. If I had to guess, this is what attributed to the most success of that weekend. Think about it, when guys are at a bar they are certainly going to use the bathroom at least a few times throughout the evening. I can tell you as a guy that when you’re standing at a urinal doing your business, there is really not much more to look at. Now any firefighter who played poker even occasionally was certainly going to have their interest sparked and more than likely pick up a card.

The following week after this promotion I had 27 real money sign-ups at Party Poker. Keep in mind though I had exposure to over a thousand firefighters. As you can see promoting Party Poker offline is not rocket science. It really comes down to thinking outside the box and trying new things. I will go over niche marketing more in the online promotion section, but this is a MUST for offline marketing as well.

I love using the firefighter example because it shows that you need to focus on a certain niche and do things that are going to appeal to that niche. If I had just placed banners and cards that said Party Poker on them around Indianapolis that weekend, most people would probably not have paid any attention. But because I had flames, fire trucks, cards, and cash on the fliers they tweaked the interest of firefighters, especially those who were poker players

Webgator · #10 () 02-14-2005, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bsgjunkie@Feb 14 2005, 12:41 AM

We're a the tip of the iceberg, but I think that tip is offline.

I have to agree about it being offline. That would definitely explain the ads for Party and Pacific popping up in magazines and television. Capitalize on this and the goldmine should start flowing!

My wife and I were in the mall today I placed several cards in poker books in the bookstore, on a table where they were advertising signing up for a chance to win $10000, and of course visited the men's room to put cards above the urinals. When I left several of the cards were gone so I immediately put up some more up!