Your Viral Salesman: E-books!

     E-books are the future and the future is now. Well, at least that’s my opinion.  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.  It will always be to your advantage to use the most up-to-date means to marketing your business opportunities.

     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. And who would know the best way to promote your business story than YOU?

     First, your E-book needs to be interesting and informative. It always has links back to your web site and to your sales page.  You should NEVER miss an opportunity to promote your products or services!

     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?  You will gain tremendous advantages by allowing others to “distribute” your marketing message by means of your E-book.  And this is ZERO expense for you to promote your business to all of their contacts.

     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. Once an individual becomes frustrated by your non-functioning E-book links they will simply delete your marketing message from their computer.  There will be NO continuation of your viral efforts.

     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.  Remember you have to get the “ball rolling”.  This means YOU have to start the process of getting your viral marketing message out into the world.  Then you will be surprised at how quickly it can “snowball” into a super marketing success.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"We don't truly know the power of words,

until we open our mouths and let them spill out."

E-mail Viral Marketing WORKS!

    You NEVER want to be sick!  But it just may be a good thing for your marketing campaign to get a virus!  What does a virus have to do with marketing you may ask? 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 during the 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 makes copying simple. From a marketing standpoint, you must simplify your marketing message so it can be transmitted easily and without degradation. Shorter is better. Remember the K.I.S.S. standard….Keep it Simple Stupid.  The shorter and easier to remember your marketing message 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.  Take advantage of what is only human nature to begin with.

     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.  And when you have a winner it’s only a winner for your business.  It’s easy:  Play on the greed to succeed! 

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"If something is worth saying,

it's worth EVERYONE saying it!"

Viral Marketing: What Works and What Doesn't

     Do you like receiving unwanted e-mails?  E-mails that jam your inbox until you can no longer receive any legitimate correspondence that you are waiting to get?  Then DON’T do it to others! Stop with the enforced e-mail forwards already! Trying to force or bribe people to forward your info to a friend or family member in order to be rewarded just doesn’t work 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. They have found something that they REALLY enjoyed themselves and are thereby compelled to allow their friends and family members to have the same enjoyment.

     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. And you don’t want to sound like you are wanting them to donate to some charity case: YOU!

     What absolutely will work?   Offering something worthy of sharing like a valuable discount, vital information, or offering an incentive for sharing additional entries into a sweepstakes or an added discount or premium service will work. Even using a great SHORT video may be just the thing that works for them.

     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.  So work on your ability to tell a good joke!  “Have you heard the one about ---?”

     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.  You know those videos about the silly things that cats and dogs do are irresistible.

     Oops!  I 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 than 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.  Promise your visitor a great experience and then OVER deliver!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"That which is valuable is worthy of keeping,

but everyone will want to share it with others!"

Have You Tried E-books?

    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.  Those enjoying your E-book will not only visit your site, but will also recommend it to others for their enjoyment.  Thereby inducing them to also visit your site.

     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.  And the rest is history, as they say.

     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.  If you have some really good and unique ideas on subjects within your niche you may find that combining them into an interesting E-books is a simple task.  It probably won’t take as long as you might think!

     However, another common approach is to use material that has Private Label Rights, including articles and reports that have been written specifically for that purpose, for your 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.

     However you choose to use your E-book you will find that there are many benefits that you will receive.  So when should you get started using this incredible method to advance your viral marketing promotions? --- NOW!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Share your soul by putting your

passions on paper by means of writing!"

Using Forums for your Viral Marketing

    A forum is a place, meeting, or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged.  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 of 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 with the other members of the forum and with the moderator and then 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 role 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, you can develop a reputation (a GOOD one), 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.

     It’s not difficult to locate a forum that may be of interest to you.  Just Google “marketing forums” if that is what you are looking for.  Then you can search through your results.  Just make sure you are willing to invest the time and efforts that will be required from you.  With regards to your reputation on ANY forum: “If you build it, they will come!”

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Sometimes it's necessary to 'flaunt your wears'

and other times it is not.

The wisdom of a good marketing plan 

is to know which time it is now!"

Get Your Viral Marketing Mobile

    Where will you be going today?  You’ll always find yourself out and about for one reason or another.  How did we ever get things done when we had to “stay by the phone” because of that terrible CORD?  Everything today is “on the go.”  We are no longer a society that stays located in permanent locations while performing our daily tasks.  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, blocking, or just ignoring things that seem to upset us.  Regardless we find ourselves always wanting to be "connected", just in case something develops that we do not want to miss.

     However, the very idea of unwanted advertising streaming through our cell phones is abhorrent to some people. 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:

1.         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.

2.         Make it useful and timely. Think about what would be handy and helpful to have on a mobile device. What do you think would be helpful to you?  In the past, 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.

3.         Clearly define objectives. Usually, one of two business objectives drives successful mobile experiences: incremental revenue of brand intimacy for example. 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 or to perhaps even begin to “block” certain numbers on our phones.

     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.  If you haven’t begun to use this marketing media it may be one you want to look in to.  You may be surprised at the success of your efforts!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"If you truly want to 'get away from it all',

you can't take your phone with you!"

Using Video in Your Marketing

    We have become a society where it is easier to WATCH something instead of reading about it.  I recall growing up and hearing (and on occasions saying):  “I don’t have time to read the book.  I’ll wait for the movie.”  More and more advertisers are adopting video as broadband continues to rise and ad-serving technologies become more sophisticated.  Your marketing campaigns can go viral like WILD FIRES!

     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.

    We’re strange creatures.  Our attention span is truly limited today.  Make sure your video is short and to the point.  Lengthier videos can be used on other occasions however your initial contact will produce greater impact if it is brief.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"To enjoy videos you only have to watch one picture

at a time REALLY FAST!"

Viral Marketing with Forums

    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 cause 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 all the 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. You MUST focus on the forum topic and create yourself as a professional in that subject.

     Everyone knows you want to sell your services and/or products, but using a forum platform you must first follow the rules and establish yourself as the “go to” person within that field.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"To develop trust takes time 

and it may take more time than we thought."