Good Marketing: Epinions.com

As a graphic designer, I really appreciate a good marketing campaign when I see one. Epinions.com has a really great one going on right now- write 10 reviews and get $10. Why is this so great from a marketing standpoint? Namely- users, as well as Epinions benefits from this.

This campaign does three things for Epinions from my point of view: 1) increases traffic to their website, 2) provides incentive for users to get invested and integrated, 3) costs them VERY little to boost traffic and user interaction. The rules stipulate that a max of 30,000 reviews can be received to qualify for this promotion. Hmmmm... let's see, 30,000 divided by 10 equals 3000. Yep- a promotion that, at the most, costs Epinions (a company valued at $30.5 million in 2003) only $3000 to generate massive user interaction and interactivity. Not only that, but it is more than likely that Epinions will receive excess entries over and above the 30,000 qualifying ones.


I'm a dork I know, but I couldn't help but admire a well-thought out promotion like this that saves money and maximizes business productivity. My goodness, did I just give free advertising for a promotion? What a dork...