Does anyone know about Woot? I'm ADDICTED! In fact, there is a good chance that especially today, there has been a tiny loss in productivity here at VerticalResponse because of Woot.
Why? I'll Tell You.
Woot.com, one deal, one day. When supplies run out, there just ain't no more. You can get everything from a watch, to a computer, to what they call, a "bag o' crap". You don't know what you're gonna get and for $5 it sells out. Whatever it is, you don't know until you get it! And on top of it all, to make matters worse for me, they've made an Apple Widget, so all I have to do is hit F12 and one click takes me to an order page.
Today is Different
Today they have a Woot Off. It's when they have a real limited supply of a bunch of items and they rotate all of these products in, till they're gone. They even have a bar going across the page with a siren light flashing when they are almost out of the product! Talk about success with "limited supplies". This is why there is a loss of VR productivity, even I'm hitting F12 every hour.
Why Does it Work?
- Supplies Seem Truly Limited! - They keep their promise, when they're out, they're out!
- Community - Anyone can chime in on the boards about what they know about the product and where it might be cheaper/more expensive, what's good/bad about it.
- Podcast - Very fun clips of music and chat about the product.
- Blog - Talking about the product and directing people to the boards to comment.
It's brilliant. They also have a Wine Woot as well you must check out.
Has anyone ever been? What do you think? Maybe you have some limitied supply of a product or limited number of spaces at an event. Make sure you get the momentum going...
I agree, Woot is pretty great. The woot-like marketing model seems to be perfectly suited to be complimented by an email marketing effort.
Curious to see how they implemented email marketing in their promotional efforts, I was surprised to find that they didn't maintain an email list (I might be wrong).
Instead, a member of the community (Russell) started WootAlerts to fill the gap, providing people with email and text alerts when woot throws a new product up. Pretty remarkable to have a community that is passionate enough to conduct marketing on your behalf.
Russel's also been asking for donations from people using his free service. If he read this blog, I think he'd pleasantly surprised about how much value he can get from his email list.
The overall recipe is pretty simple:
Add one dedicated community member, mix in a responsive audience, then put it into the VerticalResponse pot and stir.
Posted by: Ephram Zerb | October 13, 2006 at 11:12 AM
Even though I am a picky consumer, I use the Woot widget, too.
Woot's genius is that they pick products that will appeal to one niche or another of consumers and then present it in limited quantities, and at a compelling price. Add to that some very clever marketing (the Woot podcasts range from kinda funny to wet-your-pants funny) and you've got yourself a online sales machine.
Having lurked on Woot for several months, they finally found my sweet spot the other day by offering the Scooba (the aquatic cousin of the Roomba) for only $229, or $50 less than Amazon.com. The only person who hates mopping more than me is my wife, so it was an instant sale. Forgetting the timely delivery, good customer experience, and everything else...it was just a brilliant application of simple marketing to a product that can be impulsed purchased by the masses.
To quote the Guinness guys: brilliant!
Posted by: Nick Marden | October 12, 2006 at 03:11 PM