The GREATER Advantage, INC.
market-driven high performance coaching for business and life
viralmarketing
by Sheri R. Collins As the emails grow in your inbox, you wake up and discover the world is conducting business via email in ever increasing and more precise marketing campaigns. Viral marketing is one of the hottest, most effective, and coincidentally, one of the cheapest ways to promote your business. Marketingterms.com defines viral marketing as a phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message over the Internet. Viral marketing works because a forwarded email conveys an implied endorsement from the friend or colleague who forwarded it. While viral marketing can indeed be a powerful tool. Simply bombarding inboxes with emails full of information may not be enough. Taking the time to develop a creative marketing communications strategy will make your campaign more effective. Email is simply the tool. Marketing is the creative process of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service. An effective marketing strategy can improve the quality of your customer communications and interactions, thereby building relationships and loyalty.
seven strategies to an effective viral marketing campaign
According to DFJ Venture Capital firm who coined the phrase in their newsletter back in 1997, “An effective viral marketing campaign will be used to communicate with many people, will convert a high percentage of them to new users, will retain a high percentage of them, and will also be used quite frequently.” 1. Start the virus. This viral spread can begin easily with an email list of your friends and family. In effect, your message spreads from person to person, like a virus. Every person you send your email to becomes an involuntary salesperson simply by forwarding it. A forwarded email conveys an implied endorsement from a friend, which increases the likelihood that your email will be opened and read. Make a personal phone call to people you receive emails from regularly. These people often maintain distribution lists of sometimes hundreds of email addresses. Enlist their help to get your message out. With one click these people can increase the number of potential customers your email reaches, exponentially. Often they are looking for emails with compelling or unique content to share with their friends. 2. Make your email compelling enough to peak their interests. Viral marketing can take the form of an online newsletter, announcement, or even a funny video. There are companies online that offer email design tools that help you create a professional looking email campaign. Constant Contact® is one such company, providing all the tools you need to design and build your own email marketing campaign for a nominal monthly fee. The company offers easy to use templates for newsletters, invitations, and other promotions. telephone 248-761-9715 fax 248-809-9201 greateradvantage.com
3. Make your marketing message engaging enough to influence or induce the reader to participate. Viral means the email contains something that causes it to become infectious and spread to others. Tailoring your message based on individual preferences can help a great deal. Spend some time thinking strategically. Often carefully designed free offers, discounts, or contests can entice contacts to open, read, and forward your email along. 4. Discover your niche in the marketplace. I believe every business is idiosyncratic, having an individualizing characteristic or quality, a niche. It reflects the personality of its owner and the influences of the context in which it operates. This passion and uniqueness should be consistently conveyed in its marketing and at every interaction with its customers. There are several strategic planning tools that can help you discover your niche. You can begin by examining your SWOT. That is, analyzing your businesses strengths and weaknesses, as well as, its opportunities and threats in the marketplace. 5. Drive traffic to your website where the reader can learn more about your business and its products. Viral marketing success is measured in click-throughs, which is the number of readers who clicked on the link in your email and went to your website. So add the bells and whistles to your email, like hyperlinks to specific pages of your website that support your marketing message. 6. Make a plan to launch your email campaign. Prepare a simple calendar outlining the marketing messages over a period of weeks or months. This method will allow you to gradually build a relationship with your customers. Each email provides customers with new information and new opportunities to market your business. 7. Design a coordinated viral marketing campaign. The marketing cycle occurs before the sales cycle begins. Today’s customers expect to be able to learn about your business before even speaking with you. So give them the information they need. Plan your messages to guide the customer through the sales process: first, seek to educate them about your product and gradually build them up to engagement with a specific call to action. Running a viral marketing campaign can be a convenient and cost effective way to grow your business. From the comfort of your own PC you can reach thousands of customers and their friends. The potential is amazing and so is the risk of offending customers by filling up their inboxes. An effective marketing communications strategy can help you provide the right information, at the right time, to the right person. Search for how your product or service can deliver more value to your customers. Plan messages that meet unmet customer needs; provide relevant information; or differentiate your product or service from the competition. Be strategic!
Sheri Collins is the Editor in Chief and Creative Director of Living faith-focused e-Magazine. Ms. Collins is a partner in The Greater Advantage, Inc, a market driven high performance strategic coaching firm.
telephone 248-761-9715
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