Café taps viral marketing

Ben Delaney isn’t worried about word of his new business, Junebugs Café, spreading around Spokane. Scheduled to open Jan. 3, the café already has a customer base of at least 150, and Delaney’s secret to success is hardly a secret at all.

He started a Web log in June to promote the café, and visits to the site and sign-ups for its accompanying mailing list have been increasing in recipients every month since. The site averages 125 different visitors a month, and about 150 people receive the electronic newsletter.

“It seemed like just a natural thing to do because we did have a fairly low budget for advertising,” Delaney said. “As long as you can get that address in people’s heads, it’s a great way to get your message out.”

Called viral marketing, the popularity of this word-of-mouth-through-the-Web advertising is increasing rapidly across the country and around the world.

Spokane resident Jay Cousins, general manager of the marketing and Web site development business WebMaker, said viral marketing’s popularity and advertising power have yet to be tapped for its fullest potential, particularly here in Spokane, where many businesses have been reluctant to embrace the Internet at all.

“I think Spokane is now in the somewhat unenviable stage of playing catch-up,” Cousins said. “But at least they woke up.”

The value of viral marketing lies in people’s innate tendency to talk with one another and share news through e-mail, Cousins said. =

While some are reluctant to pick up the telephone to share innocuous things like Web site links, Cousins said e-mail allows a person to take just a few seconds and share things with everyone on his or her contact list.

That’s exactly what Spokane resident Julie Denlinger did to share her interest in Junebugs Café.

Denlinger discovered the café’s site through an Internet search of her Perry District neighborhood, where Junebugs Café is located.

A mother of two toddlers and a fan of healthy, fresh foods, Denlinger was attracted to the café’s promise of a family-friendly atmosphere and health-friendly food. She sent the Web site’s address to the approximately 20 members of her mothers group, whom she said all share her taste in food and desire for a child-friendly restaurant.

Soon, Junebugs Café had at least 20 new potential customers who had signed up for its newsletter.

“Nobody even knew it was opening up until I was like ‘Oh my gosh, have your heard about this new café? You have to check it out,’” Denlinger said.

Delaney has taken out two print ads in Spokane publications for his café, but he credits the Web site with providing the most publicity. The print ads ran in October and included the site’s address, which Delaney said led to that month receiving the largest number of Web site visits to date.

That’s one benefit of Web sites and Internet advertising, Cousins said. Whereas print ads usually are only viewed once, Cousins said, Web sites can be updated regularly and visited over and over again.

Delaney tries to update the blog regularly with information about the progress made toward opening the café, and he plans to use the site to post work schedules that will be viewable only by employees with a password.

Cousins said such uses are an example of where Internet marketing is headed and where small businesses in Spokane should start looking to go.

Businesses in the community “are all very reluctant to get into and adopt this kind of technology early, and it costs Spokane a terrific amount of revenue because of it,” he said.