Marketing Monday talks about an impressive internet marketing effort by a business, person, or non-profit. Have an idea for the series? Contact Nicole; she’s always looking for new features.
I had the pleasure this past weekend of getting the heck out of town and finally checking out Rabelais, which is a bookstore in downtown Portland with all books about food. Interesting concept.
What I found more interesting is their online presence, complete with website, blog, and Facebook page. And they are leveraging it all rather nicely. Here’s how:
Rabelais Bookstore comes up third on a Google search for ‘Rabelais’. Impressive.
So to those of you who don’t know, François Rabelais is a famous French author who wrote a book called ‘Gargantua and Pangruel’, which I actually had to read for a French literature class I took in college. It’s sarcastic and funny, you know, by 16th century French literature standards anyway.
Calling your bookstore ‘Rabelais’ sort of on par with calling it Steinbeck or Tolstoy. If there is a ton of information on Rabelais online, how do you get your bookstore on the first page of search results?
I’m guessing good keywords, lots of links, regularly updated content, and patience got the Rabelais bookstore relatively high on the list for search. Regardless, I’m impressed they are so high up on the results page.
As a specialty store with higher end items, it’s essential that Rabelais do ecommerce in addition to having a storefront.
While Rabelais continue to work on the ecommerce portion of their site, they have taken steps to list their first edition and rare books on their website.
So rather than waiting for ecommerce on their site, Rabelais is using this opportunity to at the very least sell some of the higher end books off their website now. Because if you can make some money online in the meantime, why wouldn’t you?
Rabelais has a blog.
Rabelais may not be keeping up with their website but they are keeping their blog updated. There is some argument about whether you should have a blog on your own domain (yourdomain.com) or on another website linking to your domain (yourdomain.someservicelikeblogspot.com). In any case, keeping fans informed via a blog and/or email list (Rabelais has both) is never a bad idea, for search engine ranking or overall niceness.
One thing I will say is the Rabelais blog is that it displays oddly for me. What about for you?
One thing is certain, while awaiting a website redesign, Rabelais is continuing to have an online presence that is easy to find via search engine. Also, I can tell you for experience their storefront is very charming, and they have a signup for their email list right on their counter. Online and real life marketing working together: it’s a delicious thing.