American History 1988
Chapter 63 - 59 Advertising Push

Chapter 63: Chapter 59 Advertising Push

Ever since Dean learned at Morgan Tailer’s in Galena that the federal government’s ban on online commerce had specific targets, he accelerated the commercialization of Price’s List.

Although Meshnet only operated in Ohio, it was still a considerable market. Profitability was not Dean’s main concern at the moment – what mattered was at least breaking even.

In the wild era of internet development, the first to capture the market and establish a brand image would lay a solid foundation for Price’s List to dominate the classified services websites in future.

Just like in the letter sent by the president of AT&T, Vail, to shareholders at the beginning of the 20th century, "It’s not a viable long-term plan to use two communication systems in the same community. If people can reach everyone they want to with just one system, nobody would want to use two."

In other words, once AT&T had more users in a certain place, other communication companies would find it hard to compete.

This is known in information science as "network effect," and even more reliable, it is the "direct network effect," one of the thirteen types of network effects.

What Dean wanted to achieve with Price’s List was this kind of effect. As long as his website attracted enough users and captured a large enough market share early on, it would be very difficult for other classified websites to compete with Price’s List later on.

This would be his moat, and the most reliable kind. So, for most of the next half month, Dean and Simon were acting separately, pitching Price’s List’s classified ads to property management companies and human resources firms.

It was March, and that day Dean didn’t go out to be a salesman. He and Simon were all gathered in the dormitory, quietly waiting for the first rental advertisement on Price’s List.

"Dean, Arthur Andersen says they have their own recruitment channels and online hiring is not in their procedure," Ophelia hung up the phone and relayed the disappointing news to Dean.

"OK, no worries, we have other options," Dean, sitting on the beanbag, laughed and patted the spot next to him.

Ophelia’s face lit up with a smile, then she walked sweetly over to Dean and sat on his lap.

"Trust me, Ophelia," Dean wrapped his arms around her soft waist, "one day those big companies will beg me to post their job ads."

"I believe you, Dean," Ophelia wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him her passionate kiss.

"Hey~hey~ guys, didn’t you see that there’s an innocent person working hard for his friend, while that guy is enjoying a damn and enviable hot kiss with his girlfriend?" Simon, busy at the computer, couldn’t stand this scene of shameless coziness and immediately raised his hand in protest.

"Simon, you’ve got Alisa," Dean laughed, turning his head and gesturing toward the windowsill where Simon’s new girlfriend, Alisa, was on the phone.

Seeing everyone looking over, Alisa pointed to the phone in her hand, indicating she was busy.

"See, another victim," Simon defended his girlfriend, the Spanish girl he met after that party. Like Ophelia, she was drawn into temporary duty as a customer service rep due to Dean’s lack of manpower.

"Alright, Simon, I remember everything you’ve done. If Price’s List is a success in the future, it’ll be partly thanks to you," Dean was not planning to exploit Simon and his friends; he would give them a generous reward in the future.

"Although I also hope Price’s List is successful, it seems those big companies don’t really care about us," Simon said helplessly, spreading his hands. The very Arthur Andersen that Ophelia called earlier was proof of this.

This was an accounting firm with quite a reputation in Cleveland. Dean wanted them to post job ads on Price’s List under their official name. If achieved, it would undoubtedly enhance the website’s authority.

Therefore, to push his strategy, Dean specifically brought in Ophelia and Alisa to take on the role of telephone sales. After all, a girl’s cute voice is more likely to win someone’s favor.

"Westinghouse Electric also rejected our proposal," Alisa said as she hung up the phone, bringing not so good news to Dean and the others.

"Oh~Shit!" Simon couldn’t help but push back his chair and curse.

"Relax, Simon, after all, this was expected, wasn’t it?" Dean comforted him, his expression steady as ever. Any new thing is initially rejected by most people, but this doesn’t mean it will definitely fail.

"At least we’ve found some who are willing to believe in us," Dean referred to midsize companies like Cheap Rent and David HR.

"Right, their first batch of job ads is going live today, maybe we should check out how effective they are," Dean patted Ophelia’s shoulder, who obediently stood up and joined him at the computer.

"To ensure our clients truly benefit from the effectiveness of advertising, I think it’s necessary for us to find precise potential customers for them," Dean’s face displayed a sly businessman’s smirk.

"You’re absolutely right, the first success is very important," Simon also liked occasionally dabbling in such harmlessly mischievous acts.

"So, is everything ready? Those potential users we’ve meticulously selected from the backend?" Dean clenched his fists and wrung his knuckles, ready for action.

"Of course, the email formats have already been edited in advance." Simon skillfully opened the backend, where several sets of templates were completed, just missing the final links.

"Good, then let’s take a look at the ads from Budget Rental and David’s," Dean opened Price’s List’s housing section. What used to be mostly posts from students looking for roommates was now starkly interspersed with several striking message titles.

The reason these posts were special was that they were all highlighted. Not only that, but their titles were also in green, which, when placed alongside other blue posts, were extraordinarily eye-catching.

In the publisher column were the words "Budget Rental Company" in red, followed by a golden "V" symbol, as well as the word "official" annotated separately by Price’s List.

Eye-catching green pinned titles, the unique name of the publisher, and the official certification from Price’s List. This was the custom advertisement Dean had tailored for Budget Rental; after all, they had paid for it and deserved to enjoy some special benefits.

Dean briefly looked over the rental ads selected by Jerry. Most of these apartments were located in the public square area and the vicinity of Euclid Avenue.

It was undeniably a wise choice since all these places lay within the university town radius. When selecting the apartments, Jerry had clearly put in effort, aiming his first attempt at the student demographic.

The ads he posted offered both long-term leases and short-term rentals for hosting parties. The apartment types were diverse, and so were the uses.

Not bad, Dean nodded in satisfaction. He roughly counted, and there were a total of ten rental postings. However, considering the user experience, Dean divided these ten rental ads over two pages, ensuring that no more than five ads were shown per page.

This was the limit Dean set for Price’s List; any more would irritate the users. Five ads would be displayed at the top of the page, with the rest of the posts sorted by normal popularity below.

A similar approach was taken for David Human Resources. As a formal operating company, Dean had set up official accounts for them.

However, to kickstart a positive commercial cycle for Price’s List, merely doing this wasn’t enough.

"Simon, put the Budget Rental’s ad link in an email, and send it to those users who have recently been browsing the housing section frequently." Now there was no talk of big data, but Dean could still carry out manual selections.

The users’ visit logs on Price’s List were all saved on the server. Dean just needed to pull them up and carry out targeted selections. This way, he could roughly find the data he wanted. It might not be very precise, but it was enough to cope with this advertising effort.

"Aha, I’ve been looking forward to this moment," Simon expertly inserted the Budget Rental’s ad into the email template, mixing in the hottest news stories as a disguise.

With the addition of hot news that everyone followed, local events, and Budget Rental’s ads, only such a multi-layered email packet would not antagonize the users, and they would welcome emails from Price’s List in the future.

In plain terms, Dean wanted to earn money without effort, garnering the users’ affection on one hand while attracting advertisers’ favor on the other.

This was a compromise, as Dean strove to find the balance between user satisfaction and advertisement.

Gently tapping the keyboard, Simon clapped his hands in excitement. "Dean, I’ve sent them all out. Over 800 emails, sent in four batches."

"Excellent, keep an eye on the website’s suggestion box. If someone complains about the ads, we’ll make another fine-tuning." Aggressive ad pushing was undesirable; Dean preferred a slow approach.

The reason for splitting the 800 emails into four batches was that Dean needed to keep the number of emails sent at once below 240.

Any more than 240, and he’d have to pay extra for the public channel usage occupied. This was a rule he had figured out over the past few months, which the foolish American web hadn’t discovered yet.

"We’ll take care of sending out David Human Resource’s promotional emails," Ophelia and Alisa sat at another computer, beginning to compose emails specifically targeting users who browsed the job listings section.

"Great!" Dean snapped his fingers, "Our beautiful ladies are eager to take the initiative."

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