Meet Darryl Wood. Darryl wanted more customers. So he got very granular with his goals then he set out to use digital tools and social channels to meet those goals. AND he succeeds in a very small, niche market.  So read on for some great examples of how clever strategies can generate revenue.  Darryl has a lot more to say than is contained in this interview so if you want to reach out to him, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for his email address or see his contact information at the bottom.

Background

Darryl graduated with an Honors Music Degree from the University of Western Ontario. Currently he works in Sales and Marketing with Midiworks, a music technology company which is a division of Artisan Classic Organ Inc. He also handles artist relations for MIDIjet which provides wireless MIDI systems. Previously, he worked extensively in the insurance industry and Fortune 500 manufacturing. Darryl is also a musician and a songwriter.

MN: When did you first understand that digital marketing and social sites were important to a company's marketing initiatives?

DW: Mostly, I was doing a lot of active listening to prospective customers when they phoned and emailed. They said: "I saw this guy on YouTube, he said he got his stuff from you" calls. Obviously, his behavior was getting me calls. So I decided to see what I could do to encourage more of this behavior.

The customer happened to be a programmer. We bought some of his services (in this case a website he had produced and a list of upgrades to the site I wanted) and he agreed to be paid in my product instead of cash. He, in turn, used the product in subsequent videos which advertised more of my products.

I think it's worth mentioning a few key points. 1) I didn't pay him to make more videos. I enabled him to do more of what he was already passionately doing. 2) I paid in product. This has a high perceived value but a much lower actual cost to me.

MN: The lead generation solution to "find an instrument near you" is a great example of defining the problem then using web-based tools to solve it. Can you please elaborate on this?

DW: We have a direct to consumer business model. Our brick and mortar retail is highly regional, however we sell 95% outside Canada. Our items are also high ticket items where orders are typically in the $4K-$8K range.

People really want to know what the playing experience is like before they drop a lot of money. So people would phone me all the time asking "where can I try these products so that I know whether or not I really want them?"

I would try and find one of our customers in their area for them to go and visit. Our customers were always thrilled to show off their systems. So I devised a way to automate the process with our "find an instrument near you" program.

It taps into our user database assigning Google GPS co-ordinates to the city each customer lives in. Then the site places blobs all over a Google map in the area around the searcher. The searcher can choose a deliberately anonymous blob near them and request a visit. People who have hosted multiple requests show up with a different color as an "ambassador".

Requesting a visit sends all of the requester's information to the potential host. The host can use search engines or other means to vet the searcher and responds "yes" or "no". If they respond "yes", then the host's contact details are released to the searcher and they can begin a dialogue.

MN: That is an excellent solution. What are some of the things you have done with your website to increase traffic and conversions?

DW: We developed a site for users of a particular software package that heavily utilizes our hardware. (So, yes, basically it promotes a product for a 3rd party). The site allows users to upload and share MP3s and MIDI files of the music they create. Other users can download or stream the files. They can also create custom playlists of any music from the site and post those MP3s to Facebook or Twitter.

We know that we get a large percentage of customers from that base of software users. So, I figured, if we promote and increase the number of overall software users, our customer base will grow proportionately.

We funnel new customers back into that site to grow that site's marketing influence further. We get over 100,000 listens per month with the average time spent on the site at 6+ minutes. (For classical organ music these are huge numbers.)

MN: I can see motivating promoters has worked well for you. Can you provide some advice on this subject?

DW: Scour YouTube for videos where people use your products. Regular "Joes" instead of the pros. YouTube is the #2 search engine after Google.

Look at how many hits they are getting. How many videos have they produced? If they have a substantial audience already and have a habit of putting your product in front of many eyeballs, contact them. Give them a great deal on your latest and greatest. Say you gave it to them at wholesale and they showed it off to 30,000 people. That advertising cost you nothing!

Ask them only to mention your website in the video comment field with a website link or put the address in the actual video itself. Then your web team can track the upswing in traffic to your site as a result of the video.

MN: What are some other things you do with social media to increase and maintain your customer base?

DW: We are now in the process of extending this "encouragement of evangelists" philosophy to train and enable passionate entrepreneurial users to build their own businesses using our products. My pilot project is going really well. I guess that we're kind of using a "social philosophy" to conduct business which encompasses whatever social channel is natural to the people we partner with.

I do pay per click ads to drive people to our user site instead of to the actual product site. I want to get people fired up about the result and contact me to duplicate that result for them.

MN: Do you have some final thoughts for companies, based on your experiences with digital and social media marketing?

DW: John D. Rockefeller said "I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people's efforts than 100% of my own efforts". Use social media to find the 5% of your customers who are successful evangelists of your product. Empower them to do more of what they're already doing with your product.

In Summary

Darryl's strategies are excellent. He demonstrates you can achieve results regardless of your market size. He has an understanding of how consumer promotion generates awareness, he uses available tools and technologies and he created some clever solutions that DIRECTLY turned into sales. How can you use Darryl's examples to create new lead generation programs for your company?

If you would like to send Darryl an email  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can also find him at the following address or you can view his LinkedIn profile here.

Classic Organ Works
2800 John St. #4
Markham ON CAN L3R 0E2
Tel: 905 475-1275, 1 888 812-9717

There is a wonderful book about creating, fueling and measuring customer promotion. I highly recommend it to all marketers. It is called "The Ultimate Question" by Fred Reichheld.