October 25th, 2009 at 11:16 am
With advertisers constantly on the lookout for new ways to spread their message, the new social networking phenomena of the late 1990′s became a perfect venue. Viral marketing is a form of advertising that relies on the enthusiasm of the end user to actually pass on the message to others.
Using easily self replicated processes like individualized affiliate squeeze pages and interactive games or flash movies, the viral marketing ad can spread from the original ad to the friends of people who liked the ad or program. It is through this beyond-the-advertisement spread of interest in a product or service that gives it the name “viral”, like a virus spreading a disease.
Viral marketing techniques include researching who among the social networking websites has a high user potential. Then advertisements are formulated to appeal to this particular segment of the population.
It is hoped that with targeted marketing, the message will garner enough interest for the user to pass it on to his friends who might also be interested in it. While sample giveaways can be useful, one must make sure their viral marketing campaign is not in fact viewed as merely a publicity stunt.
There is a dark side to viral marketing that needs to be avoided. “Undercover” or “stealth” marketing involves having someone in the guise of a regular user promote and recommend the product or service to everyone he can.
If this tactic is discovered then the backlash from people feeling they have been unfairly manipulated can have lasting ill effects on future advertisements from the company.
As an added benefit beyond just creating good search engine optimization, the social potential on the Web2.0 makes it easier to target a specific niche and customize more precise and effective ad campaigns.
People are readily affected by sound and pictures so Viral Video Optimization has come into being used with the quantitative marketing algorithms to determine who has the highest Social Networking Potential, ads that entertain as well as inform stand the greatest chance of being passed on to others.
On a smaller scale viral marketing can be used in even simple places like the signature lines in forum posts. Provided you can add helpful information when you post, you will give the appearance of being savvy about the topic at hand and thus make your recommendations seem to be of greater value.
An effective e-mail signature line can also help keep the potential word-of-mouth advertising information passing around the web.
Whichever approach you take to fitting your advertising to a specific market, be careful not to disenfranchise other potential customers. Even though one niche may accept the risqu
April 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
Arguably, the best way for you to market your business is to have someone else do it for you for free, over and over and over again!
To many marketers this may sound like just a ‘dream’ but it happens everyday via ‘word of mouth marketing.’ You know the kind I’m taking about. That’s when you’re chatting with a friend and they start to tell you all about this new ‘gizmo’ that they are using and how much they like it.
And because they like it so much they personally recommend you buy it too. In fact, they may even encourage you by telling you “you have to get it!”
This of course is every marketers dream because the referral comes with a built-in testimonial (product endorsement) from one personal friend to another and it doesn’t cost you a dime!
Often times, friends have a powerful influence over how we act, and even what we buy. Just think of how many things you have bought in the past simply because a friend recommended it. Have you ever gone to see a movie at the recommendation of a friend? How about that restaurant they recommended?
We are naturally more inclined to do something if a friend tells us to because we know, like and trust their opinion. This is the power of word of mouth marketing.
Understanding this, the trick then becomes figuring out how to get one friend to virally pass your message along to their friends, who pass it along to their friends, and so on.
But before we discuss how to do this, first let’s take a look at what I like to call the ‘Goo-Tube’ phenomena.
Chances are, by now, you have heard about Google Video and Youtube. Well there is good reason for that. You see, Youtube.com is the 8th most visited site on the net today while Google is the 3rd.
This is good to know because both of these websites offer free video sharing services allowing you to tap into their massively trafficked sites virally!
If you have been on the net for a few years you’ll remember how expensive it can be to host large files such as audio and video on your server. Even if your site got just a small amount of traffic to it that watched your video or listened to your audios you could expect a hefty bill in the mail from your web hosting company for “exceeding bandwidth”. I don’t know about you but the term ‘bandwidth’ quickly became a bad word in my office.
But like always, especially on the Internet, times are quickly changing. When it comes to hosting video on or web sites, we no longer have to be concerned about that awful thing called bandwidth. Nope, no more.
Both Google Video and Youtube have graciously provided a central location for people like you and I to upload and host our videos for free for other people to view and PASS ALONG!
That’s right — pass along. Ah, I love those words. Why? Because they equate to free, word-of-mouth marketing!
Do not underestimate the power behind this marketing strategy. Google certainly didn’t. In fact, in November 2006, Google bought Youtube (TIME magazine’s 2006 Invention of the Year) for 1.65 Billion in Google Stock!
Presently, both Google Video and Youtube.com remain separate web properties. But who knows what the future will bring. Only time will tell if the two get married and give birth to a big beautiful baby named “Goo-tube”!
As marketers though, what this all really means is a huge opportunity to tap into these incredible resources and drive targeted traffic to your website for free!
