November 27th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Why do people often think video when they talk of viral web marketing? Could it be because multimedia has done an excellent job of capitalizing on the viral marketing process? Yes, that could be it, but that simply leaves a world for you to reach using other viral approaches.
Let’s look at several ways of creating excellent viral marketing messages.
* Viral Videos
* Ebooks
* Cartoons
* Jokes
* Text messages
*** Viral Videos ***
Our first stop is to the creation of viral videos. I would imagine most everyone has gotten a link to a cool video in his or her inbox at one time or another. While the video may have taken some work to put together, creation of the multimedia was not the major focus of the creator. Rather getting you to consider that the work was done with enough…
* Emotion
* Charisma
* Uniqueness
* Or what have you
So that you will send the video to your friends and they in turn will watch it is the absolute key of the makes of a viral video marketing project.
*** Ebooks ***
Another excellent way of creating a viral product is through Ebooks. Electronic material is best made viral by creating high quality rich information that your target audience will find valuable enough to give to those who would be within the same focused industry. While it may take some time to put together such writings, once it is done it can be worth its weight in gold especially if you distribute it for free. While it’s true your not going to become wealthy giving away your hard work, it will create brand awareness and you can include income producing links within your free Ebook.
*** Cartoons & Jokes ***
If you haven’t yet received a viral video in your inbox, then surely you’ve seen text or graphical cartoons or jokes. Many people send these to one another just because. Imagine the results available if the picture included your URL in a visible but non-evasive position. Or perhaps your written joke referenced your website within the joke itself. The point here is that without much difficulty you can add a marketing message that everyone everywhere will be more than pleased to send throughout the web.
*** Text messages ***
As technology changes and builds upon itself the methods of distributing viral web marketing will morph accordingly. One of the best examples of this is using text messages through free services like Twitter.com where you are allowed to send text messages to other peoples cell phone devices.
*** Conclusion ***
No matter which process you use for your viral campaigns, be sure to use such processes, as they will help your Internet marketing endeavors in a large variety of ways. The more viral marketing you have on the web the higher the chances of massive traffic being driven to your web creatives.
September 15th, 2009 at 9:38 am
In this day of YouTube, My Space, and Face Book viral web video has become an important marketing tool. The point is not to actually advertise the product you are selling, but to intrigue your audience and tempt them to watch your video, slipping the advertisement in on them without warning. Often such ads are also shown on TV, but with the increasing cost of prime ad time, companies are looking for more cost effective and novel methods to introduce their products or services to you.
A successful viral web video will take on a life of its own, as everyone will want to see it – and when they see it, they revel in sharing it with their friends. It can spread like a virus and have much more impact than what you might expect from traditional advertisements. Viral videos offer greater retention since people talk about it, thus increasing exposure and hopefully your sales. This viral marketing trend is expected to grow in years to come since online video in general plays an increasingly important role in online content delivery.
How to do it:
You must first determine if your brand is right for online video. Is your brand compelling and simple? If so it is perfect for viral web video. If your brand is a more complex, regulated industry it’s going to require more thought… You must be able to entertain your audience and advertise subtly. It is the entertainment that is the key to the viral propagation. Comedy is often the entertainment style of choice. Content driven only by an advertising objective is at risk of being a flop. If you want people to share your video, it must be entertaining, funny, provocative, outrageous or very interesting and target the interest of your market audience.
If you decide that viral web video is appropriate for your brand, first you need to develop a brief of your idea, and then you must find a creator for your web video. There are several ways to do this; hire your agency, a professional video production company, or contract with a third party that represents a variety of proven creators. Each of these options has its advantages and disadvantages.
Research shows that successful viral web video initiatives increase the awareness of your brand and changes the preference of your target audience. How to create and convey that message and how to use social media to do this successfully is an art. Done correctly, you can pull in the viewers you want to your website, without spending a fortune on ad placement. To get the most out of the video, it should be integrated with the company’s web site to steer viewers to “home base”.
You can’t make a video viral, but your viewers can. Viral web video often has a TV approach: attract the most eyes possible first and promote brand attributes second. The reason these videos work is this, the product isn’t the star…a person or the story is, and people are entertained by it. They watch it, share it with their friends, who share it with their friends; this is how the viral effect is achieved.
Target audiences must be made aware of the company’s existence and must be made to comprehend its relevance to their needs. Audiences must be made aware of how to interact with the company. The process of moving potential customers easily and conveniently from awareness to the sale must be smooth and transparent.
RESOURCE
In this age of the Internet, even the smallest companies have the opportunity to advertise via viral web video. Horizon Film and Video, www.horizonvideo.com, is a professional Austin video production and video production Austin, post production and multimedia company located in Austin, Texas whose staff is ready to help you with all your video branding needs. Horizon is experienced in branding and selling products and services through the power of video. Horizon can help give your company the edge in this competitive global economy
April 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
Viral marketing is a technique that uses social networking to spread the word about their brand. There are several ways viral marketing works, often times companies send out an interactive game, text messages or video clips and hope that these are passed along.
How many times have you gotten a forwarded email with a long chain of recipients with a funny video in it? I’m sure you get several a day. With online social networks it’s becoming easier for the newcomer, myspace.com, youtube.com are just a couple of networks that get millions of hits each day and there’s no shortage of users.
I recall a phone call I got a couple of months ago, it was coming from a friend, but when I picked up, it was a marketing message for a book, it was entertaining informed me of where to go online if I also (like my friend) wanted to surprise other friends with the same phone call. I of course wanted all my friends to hear it, so I’m sure word spread fast about the book that is now released.
One of the most interesting viral marketing campaigns was for a Portuguese Football club. While at their website a user was required to put provide their name and phone number, which then took you to a video of the coach in the locker room, he makes a call (to you) while on video and lets you know that they can’t start the season until you bought a season ticket. The synchronization of this campaign had roughly 200,000 phone calls going out in a 24 hour period.
Even in the age of the internet, people will always talk and tell others about something, so don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth advertising.
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