Hot Marketing tips for on-demand services: IvyBrain chats with Joel York

Joel York, VP of Marketing at Conduit, talks to Vator.tv contributing correspondent and Ivy Brain's Reena Jadhav about tested strategies and tactics for marketing an on-demand business.

Here's a quick look at the Top 4:

1. Have a very simple, focused value proposition. One great example -- Google's home page is simply about Searching the web.

2. Choose large markets where the cost of customer acquisition is low.

3. Strive for 100% automation from awareness to close. Build the product all the way out into sales and marketing. Goal is to drive labor costs down.

4. You have to be an expert in online marketing.

Here's Joel's "must do" list of marketing activities:

* Search Engine Optimization - search is key and captures people in middle of purchase cycle and is the most effective advertising. Outsource to people who know how to do it. 

*Public Relations - should be free and viral. Choose a pr firm that understands social media

*Social media marketing - leverage the power of RSS, widgets and gadgets that can deliver viral distribution of your content.

*Syndicate your content - syndication is viral distribution and subscription is an extension of search. Syndication allows you to reach out and entice people that were initially not interested. It also allows you to connect with customers in a new form of subscription. Conduit is an example of a new form of syndication with subscription to blogs, podcasts and more.

Joel's Hot Tip: never underestimate the value of that "one" idea that has the exponential impact. Keep looking for that one viral idea that leverages an installed base of customers.