Campaigns and Examples of Viral Marketing Strategy Agencies
3 Steps to Find “Freebies” to Add to Your E-book
Those of us who regularly
shop on line are familiar with the array of free gifts, free bonuses and just
plain freebies that are offered to a visitor to a website to encourage them to
buy. How could you collect, select and offer free gifts, which will be valued
as much as the original merchandise that is being purchased, put these gifts
together and add them to your E-book? There are just three steps to do that
very thing. They are:
1.
Identify
your key words in each chapter of your E-book. Now, type those words
into your favorite search engine. You are looking for free E-books on the same
subject in more depth, by a greater expert than you are, or by someone who
gives a new and fresh angle to the topic. Add a link to the free E-book in each
chapter of your E-book.
2. Research the Internet for related free gifts. Now you are looking for things that you could give as free gifts in your E-book that will make it more appealing and give it more pass-along appeal to your readers. For example: If you are selling gardening supplies, find a planting guide on the web that can be downloaded and include that as a gift in your E-book.
3. Download the freebies. Visit the freebies pages on those web sites. Most sites have freebies and encourage you to distribute them.
Other key words I searched for are freebies, free E-books, and free reports and then gave the key word that I wanted the free stuff for. Like… “freebies for gardeners”.
Give your reader the vest that you can offer. Give them your book, additional reading material and free gifts to boot. Everybody loves a bargain!
6 Ideas for Viral Marketing
Here are six ideas to help
you start your viral marketing campaign:
- Purchase
the branding rights to a viral E-book. Allow people to give away your free
E-book to their visitors. Then, their visitors will also give it away. This
will just continue to spread your ad all over the Internet.
- If
you have the ability to set up a forum or other bulletin board, you really
have a great tool. Allow people to use your online discussion board for
their own website. Some people don't have one. Just include your banner ad
at the top of the board.
- Do
you have a knack for web design? Create some templates, graphics, etc. and
upload them to your site. Then, allow people to give away your free web
design graphics, fonts, templates, etc. Just include your ad on them or
require people to link directly to your web site. Make sure that you include
a link back to your site in the copyright notice and require them to keep
your copyright notice in tact.
- Write
an E-book. Allow people to place an advertisement in your free E-book if,
in exchange, they give away the E-book to their web visitors or E-zine
subscribers.
- Write
articles that pertain to your product or service. Allow people to reprint
your articles on their website, in their E-zine, newsletter, magazine or
E-books. Include your resource box and the option for article reprints at
the bottom of each article.
- You
can easily find products on the Internet that will sell you a license
allowing you to distribute the product free of charge to other people.
Look for those products that provide "branding rights". That is
where you can include your own name, website, and contact information.
B2B Marketers Do It, Too
They use
viral marketing by e-mail as a marketing tool... what did you think I meant?
Viral marketing can work well for B2B providers, as long as the following is
true:
1.
The product or service has to add
value for the sender, as well as, the receiver.
2.
The offer has to be deliverable.
You don’t want to offer a product that you can’t deliver if demand grows
rapidly.
3.
The offer has to be easily
transferable to others. E-mail and Web pages provide the best medium to
facilitate this.
4.
The vest viral marketing
campaigns use existing networks to move the message along.
The basis of viral
marketing has been around for a long time. The idea is that you incite your
customers or referral sources to pass on something about your business to their
network of colleagues and friends. Those that pass on your information get
something in return. The something might be a gift or service related to your
business.
Using e-mail makes it incredibly
easy to pass information on to a friend or colleague, especially if it involves
something fun or free. With millions using the Internet worldwide, the
potential for exponential growth is tremendous. The great things about viral
marketing are that it is free and works virtually by itself. Once you make an
offer and provide the facility for referrals, viral marketing spreads like…
well… a virus…but the good kind.
To implement viral
marketing at your business; first, start with your customer base. Incite
existing customers to refer new ones. Second, go to your referral sources.
Service providers, your outside network and colleagues can be encouraged to
provide referrals that lead to business.
If your customers are
stressed business owners, offer a reward that provides relaxation and
leisure... like a weekend away.
E-books and Affiliate Programs
Some E-books combine very
well with an affiliate program. When the affiliate receives some extra benefit
from promoting the viral message, like being able to brand your E-book with his
affiliate links, the affiliate makes a sale when a reader buys through a
branded link. You benefit from increased traffic on your website because the
affiliate is willing to promote the E-books for you.
Be absolutely certain that
your message includes a clear call to action. There shouldn’t be any doubt
whatsoever about what you intend recipients to do. Make sure that the
instructions are perfectly clear so that recipients know HOW to act. The action
that you require should be simple and obvious as well. Don’t make things
complicated or it will confuse the reader, such as by adding numerous links.
Remember the K.I.S.S.
principle: Keep It Simple Stupid! The incentive should be clear to those you
want to take an action. Readers will look at your offering for about seven
seconds before they move on. If it takes longer than that for them to figure
out what it is you want them to do, they will move on. Don’t make your message
vague or difficult to comprehend. If you do, chances are you will lose them.
You must respect your readers enough to express your message clearly.
Once you are sure you have
an E-book that will be of value to an affiliate program, approach them with
your idea and be able to show that it will be mutually beneficial.
Viral Marketing using
E-books is one of many techniques that all together have a cumulative effect in
attracting customers and subscribers to your business and in attracting
targeted visitors to your website. You will very soon find out that this is an
excellent way of increasing sales, subscribers and referrals.
"Folksonomies" - a New Viral Marketing Tool
A new consumer phenomenon is called
"tagging" or "folksonomies" (short for folks and taxonomy).
Tagging is powerful because consumers are creating an organizational structure
for online content. Folksonomies not only enable people to file away content under
tags, but, even better, share it with others by filing it under a global
taxonomy that they created.
Here's how tagging works. Using sites such as
del.icio.us - a bookmark sharing site – and Flickr - a photo sharing site -
consumers are collaborating on categorizing online content under certain
keywords, or tags.
For instance, an individual can post photographs
of their iPod on Flickr and file it under the tag "iPod." These
images are now not only visible under the individual user's iPod tag but also
under the community iPod tag that displays all images consumers are generating
and filing under the keyword. Right now Flickr has more than 3,500 photos that
are labeled "iPod."
Tagging is catching on because it is a natural
complement to search. Type the word "blogs" into Google and it can't
tell if you are searching for information about how to launch a blog, how to
read blogs, or just what. Large and small sites alike are already getting on to
the folksonomy train. They are rolling out tag-like structures to help users
more easily locate content that's relevant to them.
Although tags are far from perfect, marketers should, nevertheless, be using them to keep a finger on the pulse of the American public. Start subscribing to RSS feeds to monitor how consumers are tagging information related to your product, service, company or space. These are living focus groups that are available for free, 24/7. Folksonomy sites can be also be carefully used to unleash viral marketing campaigns - with a caveat. Marketers should be transparent in who they are, why they are posting the link/photos and avoid spamming the services.
Four Good Reasons to Use Viral E-books
It is a
well known and widely accepted fact, that E-books….FREE E-books…are one of the
best weapons in a viral marketing campaign arsenal. Here are four good reasons why this is true
today and will continue to be true for the foreseeable future:
1.
E-books
are cheap to produce and don’t take long to set up.
If you have articles that you have already written about the subject you are
promoting, you can simply combine these articles into an E-book. If, on the other hand, writing isn’t your
forte, you can use rebrandable E-books that have been produced by others. Just use your favorite search engine and do a
web search for “rebrandable E-books”.
You will get a lot of hits and have many to choose from. One way to distribute these E-books to
visitors to your website is to give them as a free gift for subscribing to your
newsletter. If your E-book contains material that people will want to share
with their friends and family, they will pass it along to them… they will pass
it along to others…and you will make money.
2.
E-books
are capable of reaching a large audience. The only limiting factor is the enthusiasm or
the participants. Therefore, it is
absolutely vital that your E-book contain something that people will want to
share like timely information or humor.
Remember that people like to know something that the rest of the world
needs to know. They will pass along something that makes them look like they
are in-the-know.
3.
E-books
are a way to sell other products other than the one you originally targeted. For example; if you are selling garden
products, your customers could also be interesting in E-books about lawns,
trees landscaping, etc.
4.
E-books
are effective in building your reputation. It is an implied recommendation
if you give a quality E-book and users willing pass on to others.
Getting a “Buzz” On
Viral
marketing has matured a bit over the years. There seems to have been a shift to
the web not just being seen by agencies and brands as another tick box for any
ad campaign, which is significant enough, but now being the medium where a
campaign is launched to create a buzz before it hits TV and print. Even before
a movie is released which used to be seen as the pre-launch buzz-generation
activity. Big business “gets it”.
Buzz works!
It can work for small and start-up businesses, as well. The planning stage of a
viral campaign will set out objectives and develop the viral theme for a buzz.
There are three core components to any viral campaign and businesses of any
size can use them. They are:
1.
The creative material: the viral
agent that embodies the message you want to spread in a digital format (image,
video, text, etc). The trick is to put together material that people will be
eager to share with their family and friends and people are much more eager to
share “advertainment” and advertisement.
2.
Seeding: distributing and placing
the agent online in places that provide the greatest potential spread. Direct
viral material downloads or links on specialist viral third-party web sites in
order to create awareness and spread before users get to the campaign
destination site.
3.
Tracking: Measuring the spread of
the campaign to provide accountability and prove success. It is absolutely
vital that you know what is or is not working. The only way to get that
information is to track the results of your seeding.
Lessons have been learned,
trends have been developed and there is definitely some science involved in
creating a buzz successfully. The buzz technique is here to stay and, if used
strategically, it can make a difference to the success of your e-business.
Houston Museum of Natural Science Went Viral
The Houston Museum of
Natural Science (HMNS) was one chosen to showcase the world-famous Exhibition
for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. HMNS quickly realized that while the exhibit
was expected to generate a great deal of interest, it didn’t have a lot of
appeal for their core audience. The
success of the exhibition, therefore, would rest in how it was marketed.
The Houston Museum of
Natural Science quickly called in Spur Digital to help reach the targeted demographic
audience and generate interest in the Exhibit. HMNS was, also, hoping to
acquire new patrons and members to further their future revenue.
Spur digital worked with
HMNS to identify the target market for the campaign and developed an integrated
online media plan to reach those audiences. The campaign featured an online
contest that was marketed through targeted online media outlets including
relevant Web sites, Search Engines and third party E-mail lists. Viral
marketing was an important component of the campaign, so Spur developed an
innovative strategy to get people to refer their friends.
Spur identified the target
audience as males 18 to 34 years old who were fans of action and fantasy films,
frequent video game players and movie renters, tech-savvy who generally didn’t
hang out at museums. Based on this information, Spur chose search engine
advertisements that would accompany specific search words, dedicated e-mail
advertisements, sponsored e-mail advertisements, banner ads on web sites targeted
toward the desired audience, and e-mails to the HMNS list.
Did it work? You bet! The results were excellent. The impact of the viral marketing effort was astounding - over 23% of registrants came originated from the Tell-A-Friend feature. The direct marketing efforts yielded impressive results as well. In total, the 12 week, locally-targeted online campaign yielded more than 2 million targeted impressions, 40,000 unique visits, almost 12,000 and 6,000 invitations sent by friends at a cost per action of less than $3.00. These contributed to the record attendance of almost 100,000 over 3 months.
How to Get and Use E-Mail Addresses for Viral Advertising
Viral marketing has an array of possibilities and
ways to achieve your overall goals. However, just like everything else,
preplanning and the right setup to create success are the things you will need
to make it work for you and your e-business.
The first thing you want to be sure you don’t do is get over-zealous.
The one thing you need to avoid at all costs is spamming. Spamming is still
used widely, but with the government establishing more restrictions and fines
you don’t want this to be a problem for you. The professional image of your
site will also suffer if you send mail blatantly.
Spamming requires a database that contains a huge
list of e-mail addresses set up so that the message can be delivered with one
click. The problem with it (aside from the governmental restrictions and
associated fines) is that it irritates the recipients and kills the validity of
your campaign, which in turn kills the factors that would motivate someone to
refer your site.
You need to personalize by creating your website
with personal appeal. You must see to it that your website makes your customers
feel safe, secure and cared for. E-mail is important, because it is going to be
one of the most affordable ways to keep in touch with your customers.
The proper way to handle email permission is to
first let your customer know that you will not transmit their e-mail addresses
to third party companies. The next thing to do is to attach the need for their
e-mail addresses to benefits they can receive.
For example: Coupons or discounts that are only
available to members who receive e-mail notifications. With each e-mail you
send the viral marketing effect takes place.
Humor Turns E-Mail Viral
A study by Sharpe
Partners, an interactive marketing agency, revealed that 89% of adult Internet
users in America share content with others via e-mail. This is excellent news
for those companies who use self-propelling word-of-mouse” e-mail techniques to
sell their products.
The study generated some
interesting results regarding the type of content that is most often forwarded,
as well. The most popular content is
humorous material.
The second most popular
category is news, followed by healthcare and medical information, religious and
spiritual material, games, business and personal finance information and
sports/hobbies… in that order. So it is easy to see that humor is the best
content for your viral e-mail campaign.
Cartoons, jokes and funny
video clips are among the things that can be added to an e-mail to insure that
it will go viral. People will want to pass along something that makes them
laugh.
They are a lot more likely
to hit the forward button and send your email to their friends and relatives if
it is an “advertainment” rather than an advertisement.
Not along ago, about 35
million people got an e-mail containing a picture taken in Disneyland. It took
a minute to see it but there was Donald Duck lying prone in front of the famous
Cinderella Castle. The title of the
picture was “Bird Flu has hit Disneyland”. It was a viral e-mail advertising
Disneyland and used the edgy strategy of making light of what’s serious… and it
works.
I’d guess that most people
who own a computer have seen that picture… and thus the advertisement for
Disneyland. The bird flu epidemic is
newsworthy and has the potential to attract an enormous amount of attention to
any brand that might, for whatever reason, associate itself with it.
Remember that people are
much more likely to share a joke or a funny picture than anything else so you
would be well advised to include humor in your e-mail campaign.
Start Viral Marketing Campaigns Using E-books
Viral Marketing sounds
like something bad but it is actually something very good. It is, also, a
powerful way to generate traffic to your website.
Think about how a virus
spreads from on person to another. One person gets sick and just by sneezing
they can give the virus to many more people… those people get sick and share
their germs with everyone they know and the next thing anybody knows is that
there is an epidemic. That is the very concept of viral marketing. The idea is
to get everyone to spread your marketing message around because they want to.
Now let’s look at using an
E-book to start your viral marketing campaign. First you create an E-book… a
really good one that has links to your website, to your sales page and
affiliate links to products and services that you recommend… and you give it to
three people. In the book you encourage those three people to give it to their
friends and family.
Before you know it the
E-book is spreading across the Internet like wild fire. Digital information
duplicates easily and quickly so before you know it, thousands of people could
be reading your free E-book.
Make certain that you let
people know that they have permission to forward the E-book around the
Internet. When you create the E-book, you have the right to give people certain
rights. One of those rights could be that you allow them to give the book to
other people. Make it clear that this book is free to give away.
You can write the E-book
yourself, use private label content or you can hire a ghostwriter to prepare
the content. There are a lot of ways to create an E-book. Once you have your
E-book written, use software to create your E-book.
Successful Forum Viral Marketing
In order to be successful
using forums to do viral marketing there are some things that are
required.
Do Your Homework: Prior to joining any
forum, you must do some research.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
The Many Facets of Viral Marketing
In the beginning, e-mail
was the one way that viral marketing was started. Since that long ago day,
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 of service out there
and being talked about. Bloggers have their ears to the ground for new
products and services.
- 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.
- 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.
- Video Clips: Including cool
video clips on your website will keep the interest up and increase
traffic.
- 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.
The
Subservient Chicken
Created for Miami Advertising Agency Crispin
Porter and Bogusky by The Barbarian Group, the Subservient Chicken is a viral
marketing promotion of Burger King’s line of chicken sandwiches.
The campaign is based on a web site that features
a person in a chicken costume. The actor performs a wide range of actions based
on a user’s input, showing pre-recorded footage and appearing like an
interactive webcam. The takes literally the advertising slogan “Get chicken
just the way you like it”.
There are more than a hundred commands the chicken will respond to, including:
·
Michael Jackson dance moves such as moonwalk
·
River dance
·
The elephant
·
Lay an egg
·
Walk like an Egyptian
·
Yoga
·
Rage
·
Spank
·
Taco Bell
·
Fight
When told to do anything the Subservient Chicken
thinks is offensive, like perform sex acts or take off his mask, the chicken
walks up to the camera and shakes a scolding chicken finger in disappointment.
If he is told to east food from rival fast food places like McDonald’s he
approaches the camera and places his finger down his throat but when told to
eat Burger King he has a more positive response. The chicken responds to the
command “smoke crack” by smoking but when told to “smoke a bong” he waggles his
finger scoldingly.
Burger King’s Chicken Fights campaign was recently
introduced. The two cockfighting chicken characters are modeled off this
chicken.
There seems to be no end to the variations on the
theme from Burger King. There has also been a lot of criticism leveled at the
chain about the Subservient Chicken but for now it looks like Burger Kind is
crying all the way to the bank.
A successful viral campaign isn’t always in good
taste… maybe that’s what makes them so tasty.
Using
Chat Rooms in Viral Marketing
Spamming
chat rooms or instant messaging systems with undifferentiated marketing
messages is certainly not a very good idea. But if they are used the right way,
these channels can be great to communicate with the market - especially to
establish a dialogue with customers.
Have you ever
been to a chat room and posted a message. If you have then you may learn some
free web-advertising secrets on how to market your products and service in chat
rooms. Chat rooms are usually broken into categories. You will need to find the
right chat room where your targeted audience would gather. If there isn’t one,
them you may need to create one.
It will be of no
use to create one that is obviously for the sole purpose of selling your product
or service. Rather, it needs to attract people who would be interested in your
product or service. For example: If you sell garden products, your chat room
should be on the subject of gardening and not the brand name of the products
you sell.
Another way
to use a chat room to promote your business is to include a chat room on your
web site. Host a free online seminar in your own chat room about a subject of
your expertise. Use your chat room to meet with your current customers and
answer any questions or address and problems they may have. Regularly schedule
free events in your chat room and be certain that your customers are made aware
of when they will occur.
For example,
you might have an expert in the field available to answer questions on a certain
day and between certain hours. You might, also, host other people’s chat rooms
as an expert yourself. You, of course, could charge for this but it might be
wise to do it free to gain publicity.
Using E-Mail to Achieve Objectives
Viral marketing is an
integral part of a campaign strategy that is used to achieve objectives. It is
not the objective itself. If the main objective of an e-mail campaign is
branding, in order to achieve greater branding success exposure you craft your
message or offer in a way that it encourages pass-along.
Producing a message with a
quality offer or an incentive for pass-along is what viral marketing is all
about.
Just suggesting that
e-mail recipients forward your message to their friends and relatives is not
viral marketing. A message at the bottom of your e-mail that reads “Feel free
to forward this message to a friend” is nowhere close to viral marketing at its
best.
On the other hand, if
something worthy of sharing, such as a valuable discount, vital information,
additional entries into a sweepstakes, an added discount or premium service, a
joke/cartoon, or a hilarious video, is included in the e-mail, viral marketing
happens naturally and quite successfully.
The bottom line is that
your message must be perceived as having value. Relevant or timely information,
research, or studies are all good examples of content that might be viewed as
potential pass-along material. Interactive content like a quiz or text can
inspire forwarding, especially if it is fun. Personality tests, fitness
quizzes, or compatibility questionnaires are all things that have been passed
on by many people many times. Why? Because they are entertaining and
entertainment has value.
A multimedia experience is
always going to achieve some pass-along. Someone is always touting the
benefits. It is a bit more of a time and money investment but the messages have
a great appeal and rich media has the advantage of being new. The tech factor
alone is often enough for the message to be perceived as valuable.
Using File Sharing in Viral Marketing
There are probably ten
million people online, looking for downloads at any given time. Of course, a
lot of them could be looking for pornography or free software but still,
reaching a minimum on a million people on any given day does offer some rather
intriguing possibilities.
People like using file
services to download music for two simple reasons, they’re free, and there is
an incredible selection. The fact is Pandora’s Box has been opened. In
Napster’s wake, other quasi-legal services quickly emerged… a lot of them. Even
if they are closed, others will succeed them.
Major record companies
would like to thing otherwise but they are never going to stop file sharing.
Net users are file sharers…plain and simple. Long before the Internet came into
being, people made cassette tapes of their favorite music for their friends…cd
burners are so much easier and faster.
So how can you use this to
help your viral marketing campaign along? Think about this. Once someone downloads
your MP3 files and those files are available on that listener’s hard drive,
viral marketing begins. After two users start sharing your files, suddenly,
your music is on the hard drive of a second computer…then a third… and on and
on. When users are searching and they find your music on a lot of different
computers, they are more likely to download the files. It’s just a matter of
time before you’ll find your files showing up in more and more places.
No matter what genre music you play…Rock and
Roll, Country, Tejano, Mozart sonatas, Heavy Metal, of Brazilian Jazz, there is
an audience for it somewhere.
In this new paradigm, you
aren’t hawking a product, you are offering free music via a medium that lets
you be directly connected with your audience.
Using Forums in Viral Marketing
Recently, forum marketing
has been touted as a kind of free, organic, viral marketing. But because so
many marketers go into forums purely with the intention of marketing products
or services, their actions and attitude unwittingly causes the exact opposite
of the desired effect.
Forums aren’t marketplaces
but when used as such, the marketers’ actions become offensive and will only
inspire the wrath of fellow members and marketers, not to mention moderators
who can ban them from the site with the click of their mouse.
In order to be effective,
this kind of marketing carries a certain degree of commitment, responsibility
and respect. The first requirement is to take a personal interest in the main
topic of the forum. Not only does that mean visiting it regularly, but it also
means developing a good relationship with both other members and the
moderators, as well as taking an active interest in helping others. Of course,
it also means abiding by and all rules that exist. By doing this, one can
develop a reputation and, since it is human nature to work with a trusted
colleague, business will naturally develop from this.
This type of marketing has
already suffered some abuse and because of this, many forums have recently
developed stringent rules designed to protect their members from abusive or
overly-aggressive marketing tactics. One forum grants .sig files only after a
member has created one hundred valid posts and another has disallowed ads in
sig files altogether.
Marketers must respect that the purpose of a forum is to be a platform to exchange ideas on a given topic. It is not there to advertise products and services. By focusing on the topic and posting questions and answers, a marketer’s reputation will grow and this creates the potential for sales naturally.
Using Videos in Viral Marketing
More and more advertisers
are adopting video as broadband continues to rise and ad-serving technologies
become more sophisticated. Online video
advertising is really taking off. Users’ attention can be captured and ads stand
out from the crowd in an increasingly ad-cluttered online environment. It is
true that video formats cost five to ten times more to serve than standard
banners and they involve a lot more production and implementation work but they
may well be worth all of that if they achieve greater response rates.
Where to use online video
if wishing to maximize its effect, is what advertisers must carefully consider.
Video to be used on the Internet should be information and communication
focused while video to be used on television should be focused on
entertainment.
Like everything else,
there are good ways and bad ways to use video advertising. Right now most
marketers are incorporating their audio-visual content into existing embedded
ad formats like banners or over-content formats like pop-ups. Though this could
reach a potentially large audience, viewers are likely to be less captivated
and more annoyed by these disruptive and distracting placements.
Cached or streaming video
on a specific destination site offers the best chance of interesting consumers
in brand messages, but it is not likely to reach a large audience unless it
generates a viral outcome.
Whatever you
come up with, don't forget to make it easy to open and distribute. File size is
important, as is the media format. If your viral video has been created for a
particular type of software that not many people use, how will you get people
to spread it like wildfire?
Also, if
you've made a video the impact will be better if you send the clip as an
attachment rather than stream it. It's cheaper and, if you're not hosting it,
it's more viral, too.
Viral
Marketing Goes Mobile
Mobile devices, mobile
phones and PDA’s are one of the last great frontiers of viral advertisement
opportunities. However, we have become experts at filtering everything, our air
and water, our e-mail and pop-ups, and our mobile devices as well. We are good
at filtering.
The very idea of unwanted
advertising streaming through our Blackberries is abhorrent. Mobile devices are
the ultimate opt-in medium and, therefore, a great way for marketers to connect
with users…if that’s what the users want. “WANT” is the key word here. How
should marketers approach the medium?
There are three main ways
to achieve this. They are:
- Offer exclusive content.
Anyone can offer ring tones. It’s the unique content, such as exclusive
mobile images of new brand concepts, that drives interest and calls them
out in other media like e-mail campaigns, newsletters, websites, etc. So a
wireless campaign is most effective when it offers exclusive content for
wireless devices.
- Make it useful and timely.
Think about what would be handy and helpful to have on a mobile device.
Last year, for example, Food Network enabled Sprint customers to download
shopping lists for their Thanksgiving dinners. There was a lot of
“Sprint-envy” going around among non-sprint customers.
- Clearly define objectives.
Usually, one of two business objectives drives successful mobile
experiences: incremental revenue of brand intimacy. On the intimacy
factor, a text message usually takes priority over almost any other form
of communication. Why? Because we haven’t yet been saturated with mobile
spam, and this is what causes us to prioritize wireless messaging over
voice.
Mobile marketing has been out there for a while but we marketers have new territory to explore. Video offers fantastic opportunities for engagement. Consumers already bypass their filters for highly useful or entertaining content and will do so for rich exclusive, compelling content.
Viral Marketing using Forums
There are different types
of forums, beyond the obvious topical types, of “marketing” or “special
interest”, etc. “Marketing” and “special interest” are two types of what are
commonly referred to as “open forums”.
There are, however,
business and professional forums, which do not operate under the same rules
and, more often than not, disallow any and all types of advertising or
self-promotion. Forums that have been created to support the membership of a
particular program are especially adamant on this topic and often demand that
all members refrain from all types if advertising on their sites.
Still, even with all these
hurdles, it is possible to successfully advertise in forums. In all cases a
pre-requisite for success is developing a good reputation and a good
relationship and maintaining both. So, while it is true that this a form of
free advertising, it does require a certain amount of investment as far as time
and energy are concerned, not to mention subtly and finesse.
To successfully market on
any forum, the first requirement is to take a personal interest in the main
topic of the forum. That means visiting it on a regular basis and developing a
good relationship with the members and the moderators. It, also, means taking
an active roll in the conversations and being willing to help others. Of
course, it goes without saying that it means abiding by any and all rules that
exist. In this way, one can develop a reputation, and business will just
naturally develop because humans tend to work with people they trust.
Since the main purpose of
a forum is the exchange of information and/or ideas, marketers must respect
that objective and abide by it. Marketing forums, where everyone there has
something to advertise and sell, usually have even more stringent rules.
What an E-book Can Do for You
An E-book that includes
your marketing message and a link to your website is a proven technique in
viral marketing. This method uses the multiplication effect to “explode” the
distribution of your message by willing participants.
This is the basic
principle that was used by Hotmail to get established. When the two founders
set up their free email system, all the messages that were sent by subscribers
had a text message at the bottom which identified Hotmail as the origin. People
who sent emails to their friends advertised the free email site.
Using viral E-books as a
marketing method is cheap. It doesn’t take long to set up and it’s even quicker
if you use rebrandable E-books that have been written by others. Just use your favorite
search engine and do a web search. You will find many rebrandable E-books that
are available on whatever subject you are interested in and that apply to your
e-business. One method of distributing the E-book is to offer it to visitors in
exchange for subscribing to your newsletter. If they pass it on to their
friends and family it will promote your business for you.
E-books are capable of
reaching a large audience and are limited only by the enthusiasm of the
participants.
E-books are fairly easy to
create. It’s possible to produce your own E-books by combining articles that
you have written or have gotten from public domain sources, such as
directories.
A common approach is to
use material that has Private Label Rights, including articles and reports that
have been written specifically for that purpose, for that niche. Using a
portion of a larger work that you have prepared such as the first three
chapters of a large E-book could also be used as a viral E-book.
What Works & What Doesn't in Viral Marketing
Stop with the enforced
e-mail forwards already! Trying to force or bribe people to forward your info
to a friends or family in order to be rewarded or win looks skanky in today's
ultra-permission-based world. Especially when you tell visitors nothing about
their friend's or family’s privacy in the space directly next to the e-mail
form.
A true viral campaign gets
forwarded because consumers are compelled to do so by the glory of the content,
not because you bribed them with points or something else.
What absolutely will not work:
Suggesting that e-mail
recipients forward your message to their friends and family will not work.
Adding a line at the bottom of your e-mail that reads “Please feel free to
forward this message to a friend” is more likely to get it deleted than
forwarded.
What absolutely will work:
Offering something worthy
of sharing like a valuable discount, vital information or offering an incentive
for sharing like additional entries into a sweepstakes or an added discount or
premium service will work.
Relevant or timely
information, research, or studies that are included in your e-mail might
encourage the recipients to share with their family and friends. Interactive
content like a quiz or test, especially if it’s fun, will inspire forwarding.
Jokes and cartoons are
almost always forwarded to everybody the recipient knows. Why?
Because they are entertaining and entertainment is meant to be shared.
A really cool multimedia
experience is always going to achieve a lot of pass-along. Rich media is new
and the novelty and tech factors alone are often enough to make the e-mail
recipient eager to share it.
Oops! Almost forgot one really important thing….You
can craft a brilliant e-mail following all the rules, but if a consumer visits your
site and has an experience less that what was promised, you are going to
achieve viral marketing, alright…the bad kind.
So be certain that your product or service is ready and is as
advertised.
Why and How E-mail Viral Marketing Works
What does a virus have to
do with marketing? Viral marketing
describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing
message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's
exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of
rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands and then to millions.
Public health nurses offer
sage advice at flu season: stay away from people who cough, wash your hands
often, and don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. Viruses only spread when
they're easy to transmit. Viral e-mail marketing works great on the Internet
because instant communication has become so easy and inexpensive. Digital
format make copying simple. From a marketing standpoint, you must simplify your
marketing message so it can be transmitted easily and without degradation.
Short is better. Remember the K.I.S.S.
standard….Keep it Simple Stupid. The
shorter and easier to remember is always better than long and complicated.
Clever viral marketing
plans take advantage of common human motivations. The desire to be cool and
greed drives people. So does the hunger to be popular, loved, and understood.
The resulting urge to communicate produces millions of websites and billions of
e-mail messages.
Most people are social.
Nerdy, basement-dwelling computer science grad students are the exception.
Social scientists tell us that each person has a network of 8 to 12 people in
their close network of friends, family, and associates. People on the Internet
develop networks of relationships, too. They collect e-mail addresses and
favorite website URLs. Affiliate programs exploit such networks, as do
permission e-mail lists. Learn to place your message into existing
communications between people, and you rapidly multiply its dispersion.
If you can design a
marketing strategy that builds on common motivations and behaviors for its
transmission, you have a winner.
Your E-book is your Viral Salesman
E-books are the future and
the future is now. The printed word on paper and bound into books used to be
the only way information was given and received. They were great, you could
take them with you and put them on shelves and they do still exist and will
continue to for the foreseeable future but the time of the E-book has arrived.
The marketing E-book is a
slightly different animal from just an E-book. Marketing E-books contain text,
images, links to web pages and navigation controls. The marketing E-book has
become a very important part of marketing on the Internet.
With a marketing E-book
you can present your story in an effective way and include links to your web
sales pages. Your E-book can become your best salesman.
First, your E-book needs
to be interesting and informative. It always has links back to your web site
and to your sales page.
Next, be sure that you
have a prominent section telling readers that they are free to give your E-book
away. Let them know that they can post it on their site as a free download,
that they can use it as a bonus, and that they can bundle it with other
products. This is the way to create viral marketing for your products or
services. Remember those links back to your site contained in the E-book?
Last but certainly not
least before you send your E-book out to the world, double check spelling and
grammar and be sure that you have tested every link to verify that it goes
where it is supposed to go. Obvious errors will reflect badly on you and will
not be of much value to you, it could even by damaging.
Post your E-book to some of the E-book directories. Many let you post it for free, or will let you post a link on their site to your E-book.
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