Today, Cathy Waters recalls how the founders of AbeBooks used the media to spread the word.
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One of the interesting things about starting a new Internet company, in a time before Google, Facebook and iTunes, was how to promote the website. I don’t mean promoting the website as in banging your own drum, but how to get buyers to come to the site so our booksellers could sell books.
It was an interesting dilemma because we didn’t have a lot of money to advertise. We put ads in book magazines when we could and even took out a three-line advertisement in the classifieds of the New York Times. Not a cheap proposition.
We brainstormed and determined that as we did not have a lot of money, we had to promote AbeBooks through word-of-mouth and by getting written up in the press. As much as we didn’t want to bang our own drum, that kind of publicity is what drove customers to our website. The interesting thing about AbeBooks, was that it was a great story. Two couples build this terrific website from scratch without investment. It’s the great American dream (although we’re Canadian). I remember when the Globe & Mail (one of Canada’s major newspapers) wrote an article on us. We were thrilled when we saw it come out on the front page of the business section. Pretty heady stuff! The local press in Victoria was always favourable to us. We live in a city where hi-tech is one of the largest employers, and the press loves touting the successes of our local companies that are competing, and making it, in the global marketplace. In a way, the principals of these hi-tech companies become minor celebrities.
When I purchased my store, The Grafton Bookshop three years ago, I hired a wonderful lady to handle marketing and promotion. The goal was to let the public know the store had changed hands, but that the store would continue to be the charming English-style bookshop that everyone loved. She contacted one of the business writers at our local paper, Victoria Times-Colonist. The reporter interviewed me and they sent a photographer around. I was expecting a small mention in the weekly business column. Imagine my shock when I picked up the paper the next morning to see my face splashed on the front page of the newspaper (albeit, below the fold, but still!). That kind of press brought so many people to my store.
When AbeBooks had its 10th anniversary last year, I was more than happy to help with the promotion of the big event. Again, there was a good story. It was about my coming full circle, from owning a bookstore, to creating AbeBooks, to going back to my roots as a bookseller. That kind of publicity has brought more people to my store, not just local people, but people from all over the world.
It’s very strange having my store as a tourist destination. I’ll be in my store and as people walk by, I have heard them comment about AbeBooks and that the lady who owns that store started AbeBooks.com. I didn’t really start Abe, it was a group effort. Even now, a year and a half after the birthday celebrations, I have tourists coming into the store and they tell me they read about my bookstore and they wanted to come in and thank me for starting AbeBooks. Again, it wasn’t just me. I am glad we started Abe. I believe in and support the staff’s continuing efforts to help book buyers find the books they’re looking for and to help booksellers sell their books.
I can’t really describe how odd it is to be recognized for what we did. Complete strangers (although, not for long) have asked me “Do you know what you’ve done?†Well, I like to think it was a good thing.
Cathy
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