...but instead, a new restaurant sent an e-mail out to a food critic blogger asking for a little pub to generate business.
The blogger wrote back and suggested that he and friend be invited to sample their new menu for free.
The restaurant wrote back and agreed. It happened about a week ago.
The result? A hilarious post by the food critic, "The Amateur Gourmet", and some incredible advertising for the restaurant (who, by the way, didn't give me a free meal...yet here I am plugging their restaurant! The power of blogging is amazing!)
Sales lessons for anyone in all of this:
- It never hurts to ask for free stuff in exchange for something that will benefit the other guy.
- Blogging is powerful.
- Could you have presented this kind of overview of the restaurant with a full page ad or a 30-second radio commercial? I don't think so, but that's just me.
- You never know where the best publicity is going to come from.
- Take another look at the bread tray they present to you at the restaurant: WOW! Does selection matter? You bet.
Great post, great restaurant, great method of advertising and getting new customers.
Smart guy! They say that publicity is about seven times more effective at getting noticed than advertising, and when you consider that publicity is free, it sounds great. I'm in the insurance industry, so a different approach would need to be taken if publicity was to be sought by a broker or insurance company. It would probably be a little harder for a company in this field to get publicity, but I'm pretty sure the pros in insurance marketing and public relations would be able to come up with some good ideas. Piggy backing on current events is always a winner, and depending upon how memorable or clever the publicity is, I think it would pull in greater insurance leads than a standard advertisement in a newspaper.
Posted by: Michaela Roberts | December 14, 2006 5:29 PM | Permalink to Comment