If you get Dan Kennedy’s No BS Marketing Letter, you know there are local chapter meetings every month.  I like to associate with like-minded people so I’ve been to the last two meetings in Phoenix.  The speaker at this month’s meeting was Josh Beistle

Among other things, he talked about radio marketing.  When he explained the concept I recognized it but I had never heard of it referred to as radio marketing before.  Real estate agents commonly use radio marketing to increase their business.

For example, when an agent sells a house in a neighborhood, if they’re smart they’ll broadcast their success to every homeowner in the neighborhood.  It’s not difficult to get a list of homeowners by address from a service like the Criss+Cross Directory or InfoUSA.  The radio marketing message could be delivered on a postcard or in a letter.  The message would something like they just sold your neighbor’s house for $250,000 in 34 days so give me a call if you want to sell your house quickly.

All kinds of service business can use radio marketing.  Anything from installing home security systems to painting houses to building fences, installing pools, etc, etc.  Radio marketing works well because most people naturally like to know what their neighbors are up to.  It also serves as “social proof” if you’ve read the Psychology of Infuence by Cialdini.  People are inclined to do things they see other people doing.  It’s human nature.

For example, if Joe & Sally just had a pool installed, others in the neighborhood might want to do the same.  And if the neighbors who got the radio marketing message happen to be friends of Joe & Sally, you can bet they’ll ask Joe & Sally who will give a glowing testimonial if they’re happy with the service.  This type word-of-mouth advertising is very powerful and postcards are cheap.

So radio marketing is an offline concept…but can it be applied to an online business?  I think it already is but it goes by different names.  In the bigger picture, radio marketing should apply to any group with a common interest.  Offline, the commonality is that everyone owns a home in the same neighborhood.  And since they live in close proximity, they’re likely to be friends (or at least acquaintances) who might have some influence on buying decisions through word-of-mouth.

On the Internet, a cyberneighborhood might be something like the blogosphere or maybe a group of blogs on a similar topic or a forum if you think of all of the members as “neighbors.”  There are also social networks like MySpace where you can build up a huge group of friends.  There are tell-a-friend scripts.  And maybe the biggest opportunity is someone who sells a product in the same market as you and has a list of buyers.  Those are your potential JV partners.  All of these examples are groups of people with common interests and an existing relationship that should have a positive influence on purchasing decisions through word-of-mouth advertising.

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