How many of the following can can be outsourced to enthusiasts? What market segments and specialized demographic targets need special attention? Do any friends or family want to help? The flash intro for the site is up at www.youfitter.com. Have a look. Is it good [enough]? We launch in strong beta in the next two weeks. It better be.
Word of Mouth – start a whisper campaign for the site... like that you could use it with porn... which I guess you could... think extreme fitness-oriented sex! Or maybe something slightly less edgy, like a rumor that you can find beautiful people doing sexy exercises. Or that you can learn kung fu!
Blogging – I don't know of too many fitness bloggers, but I bet I can find some if I look hard enough. I have a blog for the site on www.alexevasion.com. I don't want really want to start blogrolling to try to get links and attract eyeballs, but I if that is indeed the best to get coverage of the site in the blogosphere, I'll try to do it with style. It would be nice to have some kind of forum like that for the site anyway... since we won't really have much “site news” to offer right now. Also, if this is going to look less like a pure business model and more like social entrepreneuring, I'll need a place to air my own concerns (and ideas) to receive public feedback and show that I'm working out the site transparently.
Social Networking – I don't really want to go around on MySpace creating profiles for YF and then trying to accumulate friends... that seems lame... but maybe I can get someone else who enjoys that medium to do it for me. I need another alternative for marketing on these sites... perhaps video is the best way to go. I need some case studies of how similar web sites have been able to use social networking tools (outside of the business networks) to advance themselves. I'll also be trying also to use ryze and linkedin to network with hungry businesses people who might want to sell their stuff on YF.
Public Demos – I would love to go around to colleges, gyms, and other health conscious public places (military bases?) and do YF demos. We could have some kind of small literature package and laptops with projectors to show a crowd how the site can be used for different purposes. We will need smart and beautiful people (like me?) to facilitate these events in order to draw maximum attention. It would be so much fun to set up some fun little events at college gyms where we film people doing obscure exercises and show how to upload them to the site.
Publicity Stunt – This could be a public campaign to encourage people to stay away from traditional fitness media. Or I could start a public tiff by insulting some fitness industry personality (think Jimmy Wales) or their product line. I think there could be much to gain (for YF and in general) through lampooning certain areas of the fitness industry and thereby starting a public debate
Promotion Materials – this could include business cards (ready), flyers, stickers, Tshirts, drinking containers or anything else that would bring some kind of attention or name recognition to YF. These materials could also be sold through a cafepress style outlet or our own product pages on the site. However, I'd probably have to give them away for free initially and I know that people are more wasteful with free stuff than they are with the materials they actually buy. My T-shirts would probably end up as grease rags in someone's garage.
Search engine optimization and social bookmarking – This is not so much marketing as it is web savvy. Placing the name of the site and its content in the right places of documents and html headers in other media providers could bring huge traffic to the site. Social Bookmarking and surf software like stumbleupon will be a huge help in getting more potential users looking at the site, but again, I don't want to start spamming the name everywhere. Don't worry, I'll never write its wikipedia article. There are lots of SEO specialists, so maybe I just need to read more of their stuff.
Synergy - Get fitness companies and other potential clients to advertise for YF through their traditional outlets and through their websites. And of course, there is always advertising online via google adwords. I wouldn't mind that too much, but I'll have to look into the costs.
YouTube Videos – If we could create some really funny and entertaining workout videos using YF and then post them on the GoogTube. That would would really help get a buzz about the site started, but obviously I need a some funny videos first.
Create an affiliate program or charity – youfitter.org? The accessibility angle could get us some free plugs from other altruistic types – and fitness industry people too if I don't piss them off too much first. In my dreams I meet with Arnold (liberals gasp) or other fitness celebrities with power and public appeal to see if they dig the idea. If YF could demonstrably make fitness and exercise knowledge available to more people in dire need of it, we could certainly promote such successes in press releases.
Promote the money making angle – We actually offer that true Web 2.0 dream of profit sharing with content producers... the one YouTube has been promising for a year now. So, attracting narcissistic fitness enthusiasts (like me) with enterprising spirit shouldn't be so hard. The deal just needs to be sweet enough and well publicized.
