October 14th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Are you one of those millions out there hooked on the viral video craze? This article describes the opportunities that viral videos offer to internet marketers.
It’s actually just like a disease. It’s already more of an epidemic rapidly spreading over the cyberspace. Despite the many worries of this world, people just can’t seem to stay away from video clips of people doing typically nonsensical things. People can’t seem to keep their fascinated eyes off the wildest and oddest videos available. People certainly can’t resist passing on these ‘nonsensical’ videos to other people by posting these videos in their personal homepages, other websites and emailing them to their friends.
You may have noticed, even night shows and morning news shows feature some of these viral videos. Usually they put on air the most watched viral video online, particularly videos that were most rated and viewed at YouTube. These videos’ main value comes from being truly odd and wild that people just can’t help but laugh when they see them. Some people just get carried away by the hype and even if they didn’t think the video was as funny as some people think they are, they keep their opinions to themselves, laugh with the rest and pass on the video to others.
Viral videos are truly catching, and internet marketers have definitely seen the potential of these viral videos in spreading their marketing message around. It so happens that web sites hosting these viral videos have grown much in popularity. Thus, internet marketers are now using videos extensively in their marketing strategies. You, too, can take advantage of the viral video craze. Just follow these simple steps.
— Using Viral Videos in Internet Marketing
1. Make Your Own Viral Video
You have to make your own video to post at YouTube, at your website, at your online blog, and anywhere else in the internet. However, you must remember that viral videos have certain factor that makes them irresistible. This is what you should keep in mind when you make your viral video.
For instance, you can make a commercial concerning your product. The video clip must be short so that they’re easy to download and view. However, the commercial has to be distinctly funny and unique so it can go the rounds of effective viral videos. Just look around at YouTube and find the most-viewed clips there. Those are the types of videos that make the viral rounds. You must therefore pattern your video clip after these videos.
Do not post a perfectly normal video commercial online if you wish these videos to have some viral effect. Do not wax lyrical about your product in your video. In other words, don’t make it look like a perfectly typical infomercial. Perfectly normal video clips just don’t spread and they’re not going to be effective in marketing your products or increasing traffic to your site.
2. Become a member of video blogging networks
Uppermost in your list of sites to join is, of course, YouTube. However, there are other video blogging sites in the internet. Look around. You must also make it a point to post some of these videos in your site and blogs.
3. Post your viral video and make some more
After you have posted your initial viral video and people seem to have picked it up, then you should immediately follow up with more such videos. Do not let your followers’ attention wane from you, keep them entertained and keep them supplied with more viral videos. This way, you are going to have a loyal following of persons who will eagerly wait for your videos.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
Viral marketing used to rely heavily on email but it has grown substantially in recent years to take in many other forms and strategies. A successful viral marketing campaign can be created in many different ways including:
Email
The most traditional and simple method of viral marketing was email and it is still a
viable method today. There can be restrictions on email and spam filters can sometimes get the better of you, but the results can still be outstanding often resulting in viral emails being sent all over the world with little being done by you.
Newsletters
Newsletters build upon email viral marketing but they allow you to provide even more information to prospective customers. Newsletter are generally sent to an audience interested in a particular topic, the information you send will be based on that topic therefore capturing their attention A fantastic newsletter can also assist with website traffic.
Blogging
Possibly the most powerful of all methods in recent years, blogging allows website visitors to interact with your site and you can also interact with other bloggers so cross promoting is easy and effective. Blogging also allows easy customer feedback through comments, leading to increased word of mouth sales.
Chat Rooms
Having a chat room on your site means customers can chat to each other and hopefully recommend your products. You can also conduct tele-seminars which can attract prospective buyers. Cat rooms are a great way to build up a relationship with our customers and something they can tell their friends about and spred the word about your site.
Tell-a-friend Scripts
As long as you include a privacy policy, tell-a-friend scripts are a powerful way for people to quickly and easily pass on information to their friends as a recommendation for your products or services.
Video clips
Posting videos on sites like YouTube or even on your own site can get the viral machine pumping. People love video as they can digest information easier. If you create a good video, it is likely that people will pass this on to others interested in the same topic.
Flash games
Flash games get passed around through email and if you can include a small unobtrusive message in the game about your site, you can literally get thousands of visitors. You can also submit flash games to big game sites or social sites like Facebook where they can be accessed by millions of people.
Viral marketing has so many possible methods and implementations that it is impossible to ever run out of ideas. By combining several methods together, your word of mouth marketing campaign is sure to bring results.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
Online video marketing and promotion is positively one of the most effective routes independent publishers can take up nowadays if they want to significantly increase their Web traffic, visibility and exposure. But what are the key ingredients to make video marketing effective?
According to a BurstMedia survey, 7 out of 10 adult internet users viewed online video content and more than half of respondent’s age 65 and older are watching online video clips. Marketing managers should embrace online video now or get left behind for good.
Who do you think would know best this stuff outside of those who actually posted some of those popular clips? Well, whoever has tabs and precise data on the whole video publishing situation, can tell a lot more than anyone single user, as looking at the forest rather than that at the individual trees can make a huge difference in building an effective video marketing strategy.
The truth is, the use of video for marketing till now, has been amateurish and many are downright boring. Marketers who can learn how to use videos the right way will have a great advantage over their competitors.
You already know that successfully marketed website videos will increase your sales and build your business up faster than any other marketing method.
Like the small report, try to keep your video brief and to the point. While people would rather watch than read, you still don’t want to overload them. The point of a using a viral video (like reports) for your business is to give visitors useful information but just enough.
As an example let’s say you join Technorati. You then make a video, tag it with the keyword phrase “funny online video” and upload it to your account. Now all individuals within the Technorati community will be able to access your video when they type in that particular keyword. This is very powerful. Tag viral and bookmarking social can put you in front of a large audience immediately.
Online video is one of the best venues to engage an audience – don’t even think about excluding it! This new medium allows the video creator to communicate a message on multiple levels – via visual imagery, the spoken word, music and visual text. It may sound like a commercial for a Montessori school – but this is the way people learn, and consequently, the way legendary brands are created. As a case in point, think of traditional internet marketing; when was the last time that a paid search listing or banner ad raised your blood pressure or induced you to forward something to a friend?
The internet has in many ways leveled the playing field. Just stay alert to any new innovations and be ready to incorporate them into your internet web site marketing strategy. A smart viral marketing campaign can make any small business successful.
Video Marketing Success is to-the-point and easy to understand. There’s no extraneous or irrelevant information. Only what you need to know to be successful as fast as possible.
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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April 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
In the beginning, e-mail was the one and only way to carry out a viral marketing campaign. Since that day long ago, viral marketing has gone from a marketing strategy to an art form and there are many ways to accomplish the objective of creating a successful viral marketing campaign. Seven of those ways are:
1. E-mail: It was first but it is still around and still used. It is, however, getting a little harder to use as more and more government restrictions are placed on it. Still … it does work.
2. Newsletters: This is an extension of e-mail but it a very effective tool. If you include enough timely and valuable information, a good newsletter can drive up the number of visits to your website.
3. Blogging: Providing the tools on your website to enable bloggers to interact with one another is a terrific way to get the message about your product or service out there and being talked about. Bloggers always have their ears to the ground for new products and services.
4. Chat Rooms: A chat room on your website can, and does, encourage interaction among your customers and that can’t be a bad thing. Also, you can use the chat room to schedule special events like having an expert available to answer questions on a given day at a given time.
5. Tell-a-friend Script: If you add this with a statement saying that e-mail addresses supplied will never be shared with third parties, you can increase your potential customer list greatly.
6. Video Clips: Including cool video clips on your website will keep the interest up and increase traffic.
7. Flash Games: Although they are a little costly to start, they are an extremely effective tool to get your viral marketing campaign going. Once they are launched, they require nothing more from you.
Visit our web sites for more in-depth information on the tools to make these, and other, viral marketing techniques a reality.
And here’s a BONUS – compound your success by using forums to do viral marketing. Here are some things that are required.
Do Your Homework: Prior to joining any forum, you must do some research.
1. Join relevant forums that are in some way related to the promotion’s primary sales market. For example, someone involved with a health related product, many types of forums could apply … everything from holistic medicine to stay-at-home moms.
2. Choose popular forums. There is no point in wasting your time and energy on forums that few members and few posts. Page raking and the amount of active members are two good ways to check for this.
3. Choose forums that allow sig tags. If it’s possible read the rules before joining and pay attention to them. Your time is important, too. It is better to find out that a forum doesn’t allow posts with sig tags before you go to the time and trouble of joining.
After You Have Joined: OK … you have chosen two or three forums that meet your requirements … now what?
1. Keep your sig tag short and update it regularly. The ideal thing is to limit yourself to one link, preferably to your main website.
2. Never create posts that are nothing more than an advertisement. This all but a universal rule and only displays the marketers lack of experience if he does so. At best this kind of post will be deleted by the monitors … at worst, it is grounds for being banned.
3. Work the room. Be an active member on the forum. Plan to spend at least an hour each day there and take the time to get to know the users. Take the time to introduce yourself with intelligent questions depending upon the forum’s topic.
As a marketer becomes a regular member, they will hopefully develop a good reputation and without saying a word about their promotion, those who are interested in their product will approach them.
