Viral Marketing is one of the most effective marketing tactics in the world today. The idea is that you create an idea that spreads through your market like a virus, getting people interested and prepared for the launch of your actual product. However, making a concept viral, especially on the internet, can be a challenge.
The tips to making your marketing campaign go viral are not hard concepts to grasp, but they can be difficult to act on. Knowing how to communicate persuasively and effectively is one important aspect of viral marketing. As well, you should have an attention-grabbing landing page setup to receive visitors. All of the pieces must be in place so that you can grab and convert visitors quickly and efficiently. That being said, here are some tips for creating viral marketing campaigns:
Only Give Away the Essential Idea
Let’s say that you have a cure for baldness that you want to sell online. When preparing your website, don’t tell people the method to curing their baldness. Instead, let everyone know that you have a cure, and that you’re going to sell it. Tell them that it will completely change their lives. Let them know the price of this miraculous discovery. Give your customers everything they need to be excited, without revealing how the product works.
Social Media is a Must
When you want an idea to go viral, you have to get it out there to the people. Twitter about your miraculous solution, and link to your landing page. Create alluring headlines such as “do you want to grow full, luscious hair?” and “the cure to baldness – found!” and “how to grow hair again,” and give a shortened url to your landing page. These headlines will draw people in, and by using a shortener, you can more easily determine the success of your campaigns.
Video Makes Everything Better
People love demonstrations and videos. Creating an interesting video related to your product, such as an infographic or a short documentary or demonstration of your product, will have people begging to buy from you. When creating a video, remember to be impressive, secretive, and keep your major point until the end. As well, you should strive to create a high quality video, as nobody likes to watch a grainy screen.
Target Keyword Phrases
When it comes to making a campaign viral, aim to target SEO phrases such as “how to cure baldness” or “how do I grow hair back?” instead of the generic “baldness” keyword. You want people to find your site at the top of a page when looking for solutions to a specific problem. The more phrases you can rank for, the more your website will spread.
Give Away Free Samples
Nothing goes more viral than a giveaway, so why not give away discounts, samples, trials, etc. for your product? Having people spread the word about trying out your website and finding it helpful will draw even more people in for a taste. Just make sure that your sample is enough to keep them wanting even more!
Get Some Friends Together and Spread the Word
When a gang marks their territory, they don’t do it by sending out one guy with a spray can. They send out five guys, to every corner of their space, and they mark everything. You want your idea to be spread to the four corners of your market, from the smallest buyer to the billionaire. Getting a promotional team together to come up with a recognizable “tag” and then running it to every site you can will spread your idea like wildfire.
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What are your ideas for making a campaign go viral? Do you think its possible to influence the direction of viral marketing on the internet? Have any of your ideas ever been viral? Share your thoughts and ideas on viral marketing!
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5 Marketing Lessons I Learned from Band
by Farrhad A on July 16, 2009
This is a guest post by Corey Freeman from Writer7- a new blog she started, that focuses on writing tips. If you wish to guest post just use the contact page.
For those of you that don’t know me, I am a trumpet player. Actually, I happen to be first chair, best at my school which has the best band program in the district. Pretty awesome, huh? However, I do more than just play groovy tunes – I also learn about marketing. I try to learn everything I can from personal experiences, and band has been a big one. Here are some marketing lessons that I’ve learned from my band program:
Get Involved or Nobody Will Notice You
There are some kids in band who will go in, play for four years, and graduate knowing they’ve done nothing to move up from the position they’re in, and that’s alright. However, I’m the kind of girl that wants first chair in all bands, an executive officer position, and the trust of the band director to get something done. And guess what position I’m in right now?
To get people to notice you, you have to be ambitious in your campaigns. Don’t simply go from blog to blog, commenting randomly. Become a top commentator, a member of the month, or a well-known digg + stumble user. Pick your poison and drink it all down – involvement leads to perks you can’t even imagine.
Know Your Resources
When planning fundraisers for band, we have to think about our target market. If we want a lot of volunteers for a big project, we go to the marching band for help. If we want to rep our band program and raise school spirit, we go to the jazz band or the drumline.
Knowing who to go to when you want something done is extremely important. The same goes for marketing. Who will you go to for an amazing sales page, or a one-in-a-million design? How will your personal branding and promotion affect your overall program?
Sell Something People Want
In the band program, we once sold “band boxers.” Even though 80% of our buyers were girls in the band, our schwag sold well. Why? Because we gave the people what they wanted, and they wanted band boxers.
When it comes down to marketing, you want to meet your customers’ wants and needs. What problems are they facing and how do you solve them? Marketing is all about getting the right product to the right person, be it medicine to the sick, or boxers with flutes on them to people who don’t have boxers with flutes on them.
Present Yourself Well – Focus on Personal Branding
In band, if someone insults you, you say “thank you, we work very hard.” If someone calls your mother a bleepin’ bleeping bleep, you say “thank you, we work very hard.” Imagine the kind of image that gains us, as opposed to the image we would have if we said, say, “fork you!”
Your personal brand is a huge part of marketing, because you want people to trust you. When you’re the marketer who handles himself professionally, gets things done, and doesn’t let bad days sway him, people will work with you, and your image will grow itself.
It’s Not About Beating the Competition
Even though we have the best band program in our district, a quick bus ride to Fort Mill is all it takes to put us in our place. Do we rock? Of course. Are we the best in the country? Heck no. As long as we grow every year, who cares?
If someone is better than you, there’s not much you can do about it. This was a guest post by Corey Freeman from Kiwidia. Corey manages blogs such as blogging bear – more than the bear minimum in blogging tips.
The only person you can truly beat out is yourself. Setting and breaking your own goals will take you to new heights. As long as your profits and customer base grows, who cares if Google is bigger than you?
It’s a great thing to learn skills from your life experiences. What marketing lessons have you learned from your life?
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