Viral Marketing Methods and Applicationsv

Posted on January 14, 2023 by dayat

Viral … It sounds like … you want to avoid like the plague. But it’s really … you and your business need to catch now.If you’re not yet familiar with the term “viral …

Viral marketing. It sounds like something you want to avoid like the plague. But it’s really something you and your business need to catch now.

If you’re not yet familiar with the term “viral marketing” let me give you a basic definition. Viral marketing is simply a strategy that encourages individuals to “willingly” pass on a marketing message to others. It takes advantage of rapid multiplication to explode your marketing message to thousands or millions of people.

A viral marketing virus acts similar to a biological virus. But,Guest Posting the big difference between a viral marketing virus and a cold or flu virus is that people willingly pass the marketing message on. Not too many people really want to share their cold with others, but they’ll be more than happy to spread your “digital virus”. And when they spread it, they can spread it much farther than a biological virus. Your message can spread around the world in a matter of hours.

To summarize the benefits of viral marketing:

1. It’s cheap. You can create your own viral marketing message in the form of an e-book or video and then it costs you little or nothing to get the message out.

2. You can reach a huge audience. There is no other way your message can spread so quickly to a large audience for so little cost than with viral marketing. And the best part is that people are passing your message to their friends and associates so you get an implied endorsement from them.

3. You can build your reputation. If you create good, quality information that’s being passed around, you can quickly be recognized as a expert. And when you have the reputation as being an expert in your field, you sell more products. You “build your brand” faster with viral marketing.

4. You can combine it with other marketing methods. This is a method you absolutely should be using with your email marketing and affiliate programs. Email is still the most effective way of spreading your virus. You can also use it with off-line advertising such as direct mail, classified advertising, or display advertising to drive people online.

5. You can sell products other than your original target product. You may create a viral message to sell one product but find out that your potential customer is interested in another of your products instead.

6. Viral marketing tools are easy to develop. There are easy ways to create e-books even if can’t write (or think you can’t). There are also easy tools to create viral marketing videos. It doesn’t take a big budget or a lot of talent to create a viral marketing virus.

These are the major benefits of viral marketing. When you use it you may find others that are unique to your business.

The concept of viral marketing really isn’t new. Off the Internet it is essentially any form of “word-of-mouth” advertising. It also works similar to “network marketing.” However, just like all things Internet, it can’t have a normal name. Before the Internet who would have imagined naming a company something like Yahoo! or Google? Or how about using words like “spam” other than for an unidentifiable meat product. Regardless of how it sounds, the term viral marketing is the perfect descriptor of this Internet marketing method.

Just exactly how viral marketing on the Internet started could be somewhat of a debate. Where it became the most effective moneymaker is probably not so debatable.

Likely the first effective use of viral marketing was with the free e-mail service Hotmail, which is now owned by Microsoft. Hotmail was started by two guys named Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, who were upset that they couldn’t use their employer’s email system to send email to their friends.

After they started the e-mail service, word of the e-mail service spread like wildfire and they had over 22 million subscribers within 24 months. Microsoft later bought Hotmail for around $400 million dollars.

Why did the news of Hotmail spread so fast? Simply because they gave away free e-mail addresses and services and at the bottom of every email sent was a tag that said: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com”.

Everyone who opened an email saw it. And when they passed on the email to their friends or associates they saw it too. So a single email could multiply and spread just like a virus. It turned into a “Viral Marketing Pyramid.”

When your viral message gets passed to someone, they become a “Host” for your virus. Then they become a “sneezer.” When they “sneeze” (send out your message), they spread the virus. For viral marketing sneezing is a good thing. The more people you have spreading your virus the better.

Of course we can’t all hope for the same success as experienced by Hotmail. But you can still be wildly successful even if your marketing message spreads to only a tiny fraction of the number of people Hotmail’s did. To be successful, however, your viral marketing campaign should contain the following elements.

Elements of a Successful Viral Marketing Campaign

1. Offer something for free

Hotmail was such a huge success because it gave away something for free. No matter how much exposure people have to the word “free,” it still holds tremendous power. Although, you don’t have to use the word free in your campaign if it’s well implied.

Take for example a couple of videos that were done by a company called Jib Jab Media (www.jibjab.com). They created a video called “This Land” which was a satirical look into the 2004 presidential election race between President George Bush and Democratic presidential contender John Kerry. This video spread like wildfire across the Internet and created instant recognition for Jib Jab. It was so popular that Jay Leno of The Tonight Show commissioned Jib Jab to do a second one called “Good To Be In DC.”

In a lot of cases, viral marketing is all about delayed gratification. A successful campaign may not bring you immediate profit, but it sets the stage for future profits either through email addresses collected, advertising revenues, or sales of other products.

2. Make it easy for people to spread your message

Do you remember a time when you had a cold or flu and one of your family members caught it? You didn’t have to work too hard to give it to them did you?

It shouldn’t be much harder for people to spread your viral marketing message either. Viral marketing only works if passing along the virus is near effortless. In the case of Hotmail it was the short and concise message at the bottom of an email that said, “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com”. People didn’t have to do anything they weren’t already going to do to spread this message. For Jib Jab, people just had to send a website address…a little more effort required, but nothing too strenuous.

You can do simple things like add a “Tell-A-Friend” button on your web site, including a catchy display ad graphic at the bottom of an email, starting an affiliate program to have other people sell your products, or do what Hotmail did with the simple message. The benefit of pointing people to a web site address is that you get more traffic to your web site, which has a very positive impact on search engine performance. With all the traffic you get to your website you get increased link popularity so your web site is more likely to rank higher in the free search engine searches.

To spread your message faster and farther in the easiest way possible, viral marketing combines extremely effectively with affiliate marketing. In case you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing, it’s simply a way to get other people to sell your product and you just give them a cut of the sale. You just provide your viral marketing tools to your affiliates and let them spread the message from their web sites. The easier you make it for your affiliates, the faster and farther your message will spread.

3. Make sure your servers can handle a “viral overload”

Just in case your viral message is extremely successful, you want to make sure your Internet hosting service can handle the load. Jib Jab received over 10 million hits in one month, which brought their hosting service to its knees. You don’t want your virus to spread so fast that it kills the host.

You also need to check on whether or not there would be any charge for a sudden increase in traffic to your web site. If your hosting service is going to send you a big bill, you need to consider that in the costs of your campaign.

Getting Your Sales Message to the Target Audience

One downside of viral marketing is that while you can drive a lot of people to see your message, not everyone is going to be interested in what you’re selling. This is why you need to tailor your message specifically to your target market. You really don’t want to drive a bunch of extra traffic to on your servers if it isn’t going to do any good (see number three above about viral overload).

Your viral marketing message should be carefully crafted from your main sales message.
The same people who would take an interest in your viral marketing message should also be interested in your sales message.

Be sure the transition from your viral marketing message to your sales message on your web site is a smooth one. You need to make sure that once a potential customer gets to your sales message that it does its job. Does your sales message convey the core benefits of your product? Is your message substantial enough to have an impact on the reader/listener/viewer?

If your potential customer doesn’t get excited about your product, then your viral message may have been wasted. Unless, perhaps, you have another product they do get excited about. If the customer does get excited about your product but your ordering system doesn’t work, you’ve also wasted your effort. This is why you want to make sure your product, sales message, and web site (including ordering systems) are working and effective before you start your viral marketing campaign.

Only when all pieces of your overall product, marketing, sales, and support systems are working well can your viral marketing campaign be a success. If all of these are working in harmony, then your bank account will also be happy.

Track The Results of Your Campaign

Just like with any other marketing campaign, you want to know how well your viral marketing is working. You can take steps to isolate your viral marketing campaign respondents from others. One way to do this would be to set up a different landing page (entry page into your site) for your viral marketing respondents and then use software tools to measure how many people are coming in to that page. You could even set up a completely different web site. You’ll also need a different order page so you can track your conversion rate (how many people who come to your landing page actually buy). Then you can compare your original customer orders with your viral marketing orders to see which ones are better performers.

Do it Over and Over

From now on, you should have an element of viral marketing in every email you sent out. Every one of your web sites should have a Tell-A-Friend script. You should continually create free e-books, articles, and reports that you allow people to pass around.

Make all your marketing campaigns viral in some aspect. Check out the example below of a way you can quickly and easily create viral marketing videos.

Viral Marketing Example

Let’s look at an example of how you can put viral marketing into practice. Say you have a sales letter-type web site that is selling a single product (sales letter web sites are the best way to sell a single product).

The web site at www.viral-video.com is a perfect example of using this technique.

1. First you bring targeted traffic to your new web site through pay-per-clicks or other search engine techniques. Or you can send an email to your distribution list if you have one. You can either advertise your site directly in your email or use a graphic display ad at the end of the email similar to the way Yahoo! does it with their free email.

2. Place a link to a webpage on your site that has a video people can view. The video needs to be something related to your product. Perhaps it’s a demo or just something really entertaining that relates to your product.

3. You’ll place a link at the end of the video pointing to a Tell-A-Friend page on your web site. You’ll create the video so at the end of the video a webpage with a Tell-A-Friend script pops up that easily enables people to send the link to the video they just watched to five or more of their friends. After they send the email to their friends then you’ll have the Tell-A-Friend script pop up your home page again.

4. Now when the friends get the email they are taken directly to your video (not your home page). Once they watch the video they can send the web address of the video to their friends. Of course the Tell-A-Friend script sends them to your home page.

5. In case someone doesn’t want to send an email to their friends, you’ll place a button on your Tell-A-Friend script that says “Click to Close This Page.” This button takes them directly to your web site. You could also create a pop-up on exit page that takes them to your web site if they don’t click the “Click to Close This Page” button or send an email to a friend. So regardless they would be taken to your home page.

6. You’ll also set up an affiliate program so others can sell your product for you. You need to set up an affiliate web page that lets your affiliates download your video to place on their web sites. Of course, at the end of the video it redirects the viewer to your web site. You’ll need a way that your affiliate can change the “redirect” web address in the video so it contains their affiliate identification number. Then when the video sends traffic to your home page they get credit for any sales that result. You’ll want to make sure they can’t change the entire address since you want the traffic sent to your site. A product like ViralVideo at www.viral-video.com will enable you to set this up.

Once you implement viral marketing in your business, you’ll wonder how you got along without it. It’s a marketing method that most marketers really don’t understand or use very well yet. You now have a better understanding than most of your competition so you have an edge. With that edge you can propel your business to greater heights than you ever imagined possible.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off

Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing – The Difference You Should Know

Posted on January 14, 2023 by dayat

Digital marketing vs Traditional marketing: Read out the Difference. Know the Pros & Cons & also learn which one should be the best choice for your brand.

Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing – How can you differentiate between the two? Which is a better way to drive optimum outcomes? These are the timeless questions in every marketer’s mind. But the perfect partner for the best digital marketing services in India can help the most in resolving these queries in your mind. So presenting here a contrast between the two modes of marketing – online and traditional.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing or online marketing refers to the use of the internet and digital media for leading marketing efforts. It is the way of using online channels like social media and websites as mediums for communication with the target audience. Any business can utilize internet marketing to reach out to their prospective customers. The reason why digital marketing is most useful for businesses these days is the extensive use of the internet among people. More and more people are using the internet every day which means a lot of purchases of goods and services are happening online. Services like search engine optimization,Guest Posting social media marketing, etc come under web marketing.

Pros and Cons of Digital Marketing

Per second there are over 79,000 searches on Google (source: MediaValet)! See the buzz! Naturally, there’s a huge possibility of doing successful marketing on the internet. Online marketing channels include the following:

Website
Social Media like Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Search Engine Marketing
Content Marketing
Affiliate Marketing
Pay Per Click Marketing
Inbound Marketing
Email Marketing etc.
Pros:

The Advantages of Web Marketing are:

Easy to Measure: It’s obvious that when you invest money in marketing campaigns, you would want to measure the outcomes. Digital marketing lets you do so effortlessly. With this, you can track the impressions, clicks, shares, likes, comments, conversions, and many more. You can easily know how your campaigns are performing. And based on that result you can make the necessary changes to the campaign to get the maximum possible results. Also to know the outcomes of your SEO efforts Google Analytics will help you.
Easy to Target: To get the optimal results out of your online campaigns, you must reach out to the specific target audience. And online marketing gives you the privilege to exactly reach the people who want to hear from you and buy your products and services. Be it a Social Media ad or Search Engine ad, you can easily target people by their age, gender, location, hobbies, occupation, interests, etc. Limiting your focus helps you to reach people more curious to get your services. Also, you can spend your budget more effectively and get better outcomes for your brand.
More Engagement Options: Using Facebook or other social media campaigns you can literally know what your target audience thinks of your marketing efforts or your brand. If your message has been shared, liked, and received positive comments. You know you are doing well. Partner with the best SEO company in India to get the maximum possible outcomes of web marketing.
Cost-effective: The biggest advantage of web marketing is that it’s cost-effective and affordable for any scale of business. It helps to save more money and get more leads with the right efforts. With PPC campaigns, you can choose your budget and run ads accordingly. However organic strategies can take time to show the effectiveness of the campaigns but the results are worth the investments.
Cons:

However, like all other things in the world, web marketing, too, has some disadvantages. And these are:

Change is the only constant: Each online marketing channel requires different experts. Right from social media to search engine marketing, each of these channels demands a pro to manage the campaigns and get the best results. Also, online trends are constantly changing. So the professional needs to be aware of that and execute his plans accordingly.
High Competition: It’s obvious that on the internet competition to grab the target eyeballs will be higher. Because people get a bunch of options at their fingertips. So to convert a lead to a successful buyer, the marketer must strategize his plans wisely.
What is Traditional Marketing?

On the flip side, traditional marketing is a conventional mode of marketing that uses various offline ways for advertising and promotional methods to reach out to the target market. It’s hard to ignore the traditional ads that we encounter every day. The most common tools for traditional marketing are print media like magazines, newspapers, etc., broadcast like TV, radio, etc., telephonic like telemarketing, SMS marketing, outdoor advertising like billboards, flyers, etc. Until the emergence of the internet in the 1990s, traditional marketing was the only type of marketing in the market.

Pros and Cons of Traditional Marketing

With the emergence of social media and other internet marketing tools, traditional marketing has been undervalued by marketers. But before that traditional marketing was the only way of marketing. The channels it uses are:

Outdoor tools like Bus/Taxi wraps, Posters, Billboards
Print media like Newspapers, Magazines
Broadcast media like TV, Radio
Telemarketing using Telephone Calls, Text Messages
Direct Mails like Catalogues
Window Display and Signs etc.
Pros:

However, there are some advantages of offline marketing, and these are:

Permanent: Printed marketing materials are easy to preserve until the paper or magazine is recycled.
More Memorable: Seeing something in the real world and feeling them in your hands makes it easier to remember for the audience. A beautiful and impressive poster or window display is more likely to attract you and stay in your mind, unlike the social media ads that you scrolled past a few mins ago.
Impressive and Easy to Grab: A visually stunning TV commercial ad or newspaper ad is a part of your daily life. So these are more entertaining and easy to consume and digest for the audience.
We know you can’t entirely leave offline marketing efforts. But why waste your time and money on traditional marketing when you can get better results with online marketing, that too at minimal cost and time? For any of your internet marketing needs, talk to the top digital marketing company in India.

Cons:

The disadvantages of the classical model of marketing are:

No Direct Relation with the Customer: Offline marketing efforts leave you in dark about the reaction of your customers. There’s no way to directly interact with the target audience.
Difficult to Measure Campaigns: Offline campaigns are very difficult to measure. Although there are a few ways to get insights, in-depth analysis is not possible.
Costly in Terms of Man and Money: Traditional marketing is really expensive. Brands require to pay huge amounts of money for advertising in newspapers or TV commercials. Also, manpower is also a huge expense for brands opting for traditional marketing methods.
Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing – Where’s the Difference?

There’s a lot that can be said about digital marketing vs traditional marketing. But the primary difference is the medium that both of them use for communicating with the audience. While online marketing uses electronic media like websites, social media, PPC, SEO, etc. for promoting different services and products, traditional marketing uses offline media like newspapers, magazines, hoardings, leaflets, flyers, telephone, door to door, etc to do the same. As we all know, if everything is done manually, it raises the cost of marketing. This makes the digital mode of marketing cost-effective, unlike traditional marketing.

Also, with internet marketing, measurement of the efforts and outcomes are easily done using various online resources. Social media also allows measuring the efforts and results of the campaigns. But the same with traditional marketing is nearly impossible. For brand building, unlike traditional marketing, internet marketing is efficient and fast.

As people spend more time on the internet, buying products and services through online media has gained more momentum than the traditional setup of the businesses. And the best part is that they can get whatever they want at their fingertips. Online purchase lets people get their required services delivered to their home. But if they have to purchase from a physical shop, they have to visit there in person. Naturally, people lean more towards e-commerce shops, and hence the growth of internet marketing is reaching new limits every day.

Find What Suits Best For You

So ultimately, both types of marketing have their pros and cons. But what you have to do here is to understand your key requirements, consider your target customers and budget and leverage your suitable marketing method accordingly. For brands with a huge offline customer base, ignoring traditional marketing would not be effective. Then again, with more and more people turning to the internet each and every day, ignoring online marketing completely would not be a wise step.

Both digital and traditional marketing can perform for you. So what you have to do is define your exact target market, budget, and requirements and plan your marketing strategies accordingly. For more insights, Get in Touch with us.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off