Viral Advertising: Engage Your Consumers!

In today’s marketing world, consumer engagement and communication is critical.  Customers want tailored communication from companies, and if the message is strong enough, consumers will pass the message on to their friends, family and colleagues.  This transfer of messaging from one person to another can create potentially exponential growth in the message’s visibility and effect, making the message “viral.”  Compared to traditional marketing, viral marketing campaigns may only require initial costs and minimal maintenance fees after launch. They can be very cost effective for their reach.

There are many different marketing mediums that can be used to create and distribute a “viral” message, including blogs, email, audio messages, mobile messaging (text messages), online videos, podcasts, and online games, but it is the message itself, where the true value lies.  If the messaging is not compelling, than the campaign will not turn viral, and the message will not be relayed.  A 2007 survey by Deloitte & Touche found that 62 percent of consumers read consumer-written product reviews on the Internet.  Of that percentage, more than eight in 10 say their purchase decisions have been directly influenced by the reviews.  Seven out of 10 of the consumers who read reviews share them with friends, family or colleagues, thus amplifying their impact.

So how do you get your message to go viral?  There are three key components in a successful viral campaign:
1. Distribution: The size of your “patient zeros” – or your base participants.  You must have a target audience to communicate with.
2. Engagement: It is critical to understand what drives people to pass the message on.  Common drivers include humor, common interest, and value.
3. Relationship Building: You must be able to capture the audience’s attention immediately, and bring them back again and again.

As you begin to develop your campaign strategy, remember the following critical points:
Your main goal should be to engage and involve your consumer. Create a personalized experience that each consumer can “show off” to family and friends.
Leverage social media tools such as blogs and social networks to reach a large audience in a short amount of time.
Update the campaign frequently to encourage revisits and increase exposure.

Lastly, don’t expect your viral marketing campaign to pay off immediately. Like a real virus, viral marketing takes time for the campaign to develop and reach critical mass.

Social PPT: How to Create a Standout Social Media Presentation.

There are a wealth of social power point platforms available to users today, meaning that there is also a wealth of social media information and content out on the net just waiting to be read.  With all the “competition” out there, how do you make your presentation stand out from all the rest?  Here are some professional tricks of the trade to get you noticed.

1.) Become a thought leader.  Don’t simply create another presentation on “What is Social Media” or “how to Use Social Media,” because you will surely get lost in the shuffle.  Instead, focus on developing a niche in the market, and become a thought leader in that niche. Stand out from the crowd!

2.) Build a compelling presentation.  Remember, you are uploading this presentation to the web for others to find and read.  Your presentation must be edgy, and informative, in order to keep users engaged in your content.

3.) Use keywords, and tags, when you upload your powerpoint to the website, to maximize search-ability.

4.) Keep it visual.  Your viewers don’t want to be sitting around reading slide after slide for fifty-two slides.  Use graphics whenever possible to convey your message, and try to balance your writing with imagery.

Hopefully these tips will help you develop your own intellectual property for the web.  If you would like additional information on social media, check out our whitepaper on slideshare (one of my favorite social ppt sites.)

Online advertising directly impacts web design strategy.  Over the past decade, online advertising has made a large impact in the marketing space, and the way that companies represent themselves online.  In the past, online ads were viewed much like television commercials, unpopular amongst consumers, and marketing experts had not fully bought-in to their value.  Now, online visitors seem to expect to find ads on commercial sites, and advertisers, now understanding the real value of the advertisements, have even begun to develop new and innovative advertisement techniques.

One great example of this is an ad that Mac placed on the Wall Street Journal home page.

Mac broke the boundaries of traditional online advertising, and inadvertently, created a viral video campaign that flew with amazing success around the net.

The learning lesson here?  If you are going to advertise online, throw away traditional marketing boundaries, and think outside of the box…er…banner ad.  It is only through creativity that this industry will grow and prosper.

Web Site Marketing Strategy: Planning Your Web Campaign.  Your web site marketing campaign strategy should be a living breathing entity, one that needs to be taken care of daily, and fed properly to grow.  There are three critical steps to conducting a proper webs site campaign: Planning, Development, and Management.  In this post, I will be discussing the planning phase, be sure to check back in over the next few weeks for an update on campaign development and management.

Properly planning out your web site marketing strategy is critical to the success of the campaign.  Think about building a house.  You can’t simply dive in and begin construction,designing as you go, you need a well formulated, thought out construction plan/blueprint, to help guide you as you develop.  There are several important components that need to be taken into consideration while planning your strategy, including:

• Your Competitors - What are they doing in the online space?  What can you learn from them?
• Website Functionality – How do you want your web site to function? What types of technology do you want to implement?
• Website Design - What do you want your web site to look like?  Feel like to users?

Once you have these questions answered, you can begin developing your web site strategy, but remember it is much more difficult to make changes once the development has begun.  Proper planning can save you valuable time and money, and make the entire campaign run much more smoothly.