Posts Tagged ‘buzz marketing’
Increase Your Audience – Online Marketing Goes Viral
Do you really need viral marketing software? Here’s a look at the five elements of an effective strategy. After you study these, you may decide that what you need is something different.
Offer something free. What you choose to give might be simply information, an ebook or even software. For example, you might offer a free download of a “basic” software program that you have created. However, to get the “premium” version or membership, the customer would have to pay for it.
Quite a number of video game providers use this method. You may play these games free, but to get certain features or limited time, you must pay for the “complete” version. People that love the game and get addicted to it in the trial, will often pay for the extended version. Viral marketing software cannot tell you what to give away. Only you or a company that offers personalized service can determine that.
The second element is to design a method that allows your specific offer to be transmitted from a single person to everyone they know. Most often, this is done through email marketing. When a person surfs the net and comes by something useful, funny or interesting, they tend to share it with on average up to 6 friends, according to surveys. You can envision how the number of people that you can contact grows very quickly, which brings us to the next element.
You must be able to effortless and effectively handle the increased influx of business. Oftentimes, this means that you need an auto-reply generator or other “assistants”. You might need to increase your stock, if you are selling an item or even overhaul your site to handle massive traffic. If you provide a service, you will need to determine just how many new clients you can handle. Is is possible that viral marketing software do that? No.
The fourth element is to take advantage of common reactions. So, for example, a reaction to a picture of food that looks tasty is hunger. If you sell food, you want photos in your e-mails and on your websites that are “appetizing”. Another example is the “what can it do for me” mentality. Consumers probably don’t want to know all the details about a car’s reinforced side beams. They really just want to be sure that the car will be as safe as possible in the event of a collision or accident. Show and tell a potential client what your product will do for them and you will have a new customer.
Last, but not least, is to take advantage of existing communication networks. That’s the one thing that viral marketing software might be able to do for you. But, it cannot offer everything that you need for your campaign to be a success.
Getting Word of Mouth – Online Viral Marketing Strategies
What is online viral marketing? It is basically a successful advertising campaign. The phrase was a creation of a business school graduate, popularized by the media and a media critic named Douglas Rushkoff. This simply refers to the potential to reach an thousands of people by starting out with only a small amount.
If you tell me something that I think is interesting, I will tell my friends about it. If they like it as well, you can guess that they will also tell their friends. They probably know people that I do not. So, the potential of growth is virtually limitless. It traditionally was called word of mouth advertising.
The main difference between word of mouth advertising and online viral marketing has to do with the sheer potential number of people that someone can or does speak to daily. Let’s use me as an example. In my personal life, I speak to my immediate family members daily. I might talk to my extended family members and my friends at least once a week.
Some, I haven’t talked to in years, “live”. I communicate to everyone at least once every day or so via e-mail and social networking sites. If I find something that I think is interesting or something that makes me laugh out loud, I will send it to a minimum of 30 people.
Surveys say that the average person shares this kind of thing with only 12 people. So, I may be a little outside of the curve. The point is that the 30 people that I know will share with others. With very little effort, the information moves through this mass of people. Will the free ride eventually end?
If you have an effective online viral marketing strategy, you may be able to generate numerous waves; when one crashes, another forms. There are countless different strategies, but all of the effective ones isolate one key element. There is a free item for people to share.
In some cases, it is simply a well-done commercial. Sony had one some time ago. It was posted on YouTube and people got it out there to people they knew. To date, it has had hundreds of thousands of views. How many people made a purchase? Who could be aware of?
The point is this. If you wanted to reach thousands or millions of people not so many years ago, your olny option would have been via television advertising. And, of course, you would have had to buy space on the most popular shows and the costs are prohibitive. With online viral marketing, you can reach that many people for next to nothing.
What a Good Marketing Agency Can Do For Your Viral Campaign
Before you hire a viral marketing agency, take a moment to look objectively at your website. A marketer may be able to drive tens of thousands of visitors to your website, depending on the technique used. However, you are defeating the purpose if your website does not or does not have the capability to sell your products or services.
If you are confident in your website and the products that you offer, then there are many companies you could choose from. You can even take a class and learn how to “do it yourself”. Take time to do your research and look around. Read about the company’s strategy and see if it makes sense to you. Find out how many people are part of the network. Research any available testimonials.
There is one company that operates very quietly, almost hard to notice. The method that they use may work, but YouTube would not be too pleased. Moreover, their services can not be customized. They recommend the same strategy for all of their customers.
If they are to effectively grow your business, a viral marketing agency should tailor their solutions to suit your products or services. They should offer ways to keep in touch with your current clients and turn your clients’ friends into your customers.
A highly effective technique is a regular newsletter, sent via email. If you have no clients, you may need to purchase a list of quality email addresses. Some of these lists were compiled by other companies. They ask their customers if they would like to receive information from affiliates. If the customer says “yes”, the company adds them to the list.
You might find an agency that specializes in viral marketing and could also provides this sort of list, as well as offering other services you may want to engage. To be most effective, you want the list to be targeted to include people in your niche market. If you are selling a toy, parents would be your target market. It would be a waste of time to send dozens of e-mails to senior citizens.
Another effective method you can concentrate on yourself is “social networking”. Become a member of an online forum or group, whose members have interests that are similar with your target. If you have yet to identify your niche, you may need a little more help than a viral marketing agency can offer. Everyone has a unique niche. Sometimes, it’s just hard to see it, from the inside, looking out. Someone outside of your business might offer solutions to help you find your target market and grow your business.
