What else are there that marketing providers are missing? “How much money we’ll allocate for mobile marketing this year?” you are asking yourself. Now don’t look at it as one more way to advertise your products or services. Don’t use it as an alternative to TV, Internet, radio, and outdoor advertising. Be broad-minded. Look at your whole marketing campaign and use mobile technologies to unite all parts of it.

If you don’t want to be an ugly Quasimodo look-alike for your customers read on. Eyeline Call2Service is a solution for mobile advertising that provides a low-pressure way of interacting with your customers via mobile phone as well as keeping them engaged. You make them an offer and now they decide whether they want it or not. They are now controlling the situation and they are doing it for free. But you are also controlling it better than ever. Let’s have a look at how it works.

Let’s say you sell cars. You have a TV and outdoor advertising campaign going on. You place a 5% discount offer and a service phone number under it on both TV commercials and outdoor stands. Your interested customers call your number (call is free of charge) which can be automatically saved in their phonebook and get an SMS message with 5% discount which they will show to you when they decide to buy a car. There is no voice communication. They just need to dial a phone number. Oh, there is also the address of your web site in that SMS they got. So now they can explore your product in details. By the way, you can place different phone numbers on TV, stands and radio ads and see where the most of your customers are coming from, thus eliminating unnecessary expenses.

Look further. You may set that the customers will get a USSD menu instead of just SMS. There they will have several options such as the above-mentioned 5% discount coupon and a possibility to subscribe for your news and offers. They will do it voluntarily if they want. And of course there is an unsubscribe function. Now they are feeling warm and fuzzy inside. There is no reason for you not to feel warmth spreading all over your office too. You now have phone numbers and loyalty of your customers. And all these are achieved in a very delicate manner.

Source: Nikita Tekutiev

Photo: mobile marketing watch

1.Ashton Kutcher

This Young man has really taken to social media and even has a number of personal projects he has invested in over the last couple of years and recently appeared on an episode of Diggnation so it is clear that he has been courting the tech savvy audience. Is at best a C list celebrity who has used Twitter effectively to further his career.

Verdict The Real Deal

2.Ellen Degeneres

This American talk show host got into tweeting recently enough but although has only sent out 400 messages has used her tweets wisely in giving out prizes, behind the scenes footage and general information about her show. Could do with a bit more interaction with her followers but going good for a newcomer.

Verdict Learning Fast

3.Britney Spears

Briteny is one of the most recognizable stars in the world so had no hassle picking up a load of followers and continues to do so on a regular basis. Has a number of people running the account but does have some giveaways for fans and recently used twitter to have a virtual treasure hunt where users could find her hidden somewhere in New York.

Verdict Smart marketers running the account

4.CNN Breaking News

This is the account that was in the battle with Kutcher to get to a million followers and it has continued to grow at a decent pace since. Much has to do with the CNN brand as the account actually only tweets about once a day with a news story and there are actually hundreds of far better “breaking news” twitter accounts.

Verdict Not the real deal

5.Twitter

Being Twitter’s own account was always going to mean that this was a popular account and they use it to update followers about what is happening, if there are any outages and other little bits of random information from the founders. Has so many followers as it is featured all over the place.

Verdict Twitter broadcasting their message

6.Oprah Winfrey (oprah)

Jumped on the whole Twitter bandwagon when the media hype was at its highest and very quickly gathered up a million followers. Invited Twitter founder’s on to her show and hyped it up to a whole new audience in middle America but has recently totally forgotten about using Twitter.

Verdict Too busy counting money elsewhere

7.Ryan Seacrest

This popular American presenter has the pull of American idol to get him followers as well as a couple of other TV and radio shows. The account is updated regularly and has some great behind the scenes info as well as some Hollywood gossip although it even says in the bio that some of the info comes from Ryan’s producers.

Verdict Through to the next round

8.Kim Kardashian

This America Porn/reality star has really taken to twitter and the fact that she clearly runs the account herself and interacts with people has clearly brought her in lots of followers. Her content may not be the most intellectually stimulating but it is the real deal.

Verdict Keep up the good work Kim

9.THE_REAL_SHAQ

One of the first big stars on Twitter and a constant and prolific user of Twitter Shaq is the real deal be it meeting fans through the service, announcing his move to a new team or just giving fans a glimpse of his daily life. If you ever wanted to know what it is like to be one of the richest sports stars in the world then follow Shaq.

Verdict Slam Dunk

10.Barack Obama

Used his account very smartly during the election campaign and most people credit his use of social media as one of the key factors in his election to office. Has had to be more careful since election with using Twitter and abandoned it for many months before starting to use it more carefully and just sending out very risk free links recently.

Verdict Started well but slipped recently, room to improve

Source: Niall Harbison

I really love this viral marketing ad of Heineken. Check it out!

But how?

There are a lot of tricks to viral marketing. Here are 7 important ones:

1: Make people feel something

The most important trick of all is to create a very strong emotion. You need to have an opinion, to express an idea with commitment and dedication. You want people to:

• be filled with love or hate.
• be very happy or insanely angry
• be an idiot or a genius
• be deeply compassionate or an egoistic bitch

You want people’s blood to be pumping of excitement. Forget neutral, trying to please everyone, supporting several target groups or any of the many ways to be unbiased. Viral marketing is 100% about emotions.

2: Do something unexpected

This one explains itself. If you want people to notice you campaign, you have to do something different – something unexpected. Forget about trying to promote your products as just being great – everybody does that. Forget about trying to make it look cool – everyone else has “been there, done that”. Remember the bear being attacked by a man? That was unexpected – and it is one the most effective viral advertisements ever.

…and above all – never be a copycat.

3: Do not try to make advertisements (that sucks)

One of the biggest mistake companies make is when they think viral marketing is just advertisements that people share – it is not. Traditional marketing is about promoting your product, showing how good it is, giving it center stage – and generally being incredibly selfish (and possibly using supermodels or movie stars). But guess what, nobody cares about you! Viral marketing is all about a good story. When BMW put out BMW Films, the main ingredient was not the cars, but the story. Replace the car with another one, and it would still be great. When Sony made their Bravia TV ads, the product was not even seen – yet everyone remembers it.

Forget about you, your product or your company. Focus exclusively in creating a good and interesting story. Sure, you can add you product into the mix, but it must not be the most important thing.

4: Make sequels People have just seen your campaign.

They think it was interesting, unexpected and their emotions has reached a high level – you have their complete attention.

Now what do you do?

If you do like most companies you will simply do nothing… and that is a big mistake. When you got people’s attention you need to act, and one the best ways of doing that is to give them more – make sequels. This can be many things;

It can be extra movies similar in concept to the first one – like BMW Films and Nissan did.

• It can be a behind the scenes look
• Bloopers
• A blog about the process (like Nissan did)
• Extra material, goodies etc.
• …or all of the above

Never leave people standing with nothing.

BTW: Forget about countdown releases – i.e. releasing a new episode every 2 weeks. People’s attention span does not last that long. Give them everything now!

5: Allow Sharing, downloading and embedding´

Sharing is what viral marketing is all about. Everything you do to make that easier is going to improve your campaign. That means that you need allow people to:

• Download the content, in a usable format (videos in MPG, pictures in JPG etc.)
• Allowing them to easily embed the content on their own sites (Note: remember bandwidth issues)
• Sending it to friends, either using a link or by sending the content directly.
• Publishing it on varies social networks – Digg, YouTube etc.
• Allow people to add it the bookmarking sites
• Note: This also easily be overdone. You do not want to clutter up your page with a zillion “share me, dig this etc.” icons.

6: Connect with comments

Another important element is to connect with your audience. Remember you got their attention, they are excited and now they want talk. Comments is one of the most effective ways to do this. Keep in mind that the best viral marketing campaign is one that creates a strong emotion. This means some people will really like it – while others will get very angry. You have to accept both in your comments, and you have to welcome both opinions. But, at the same time you must prevent individuals to wage war against each other. It is not a sin to delete comments from people who attack another person, or if the comment is off-topic. But, it is a sin to delete comments from people who just have an negative opinion. And, most importantly. Connecting with people through comments means talking back. Do not add comments if you do not want to participate yourself.

7: Never restrict access!

Viral marketing is also about your campaign getting a life on its own – spreading like virus. In order to do that, in order to become “viral”, it needs to be free. Never add restrictions to the mix.

• Do not require people to register
• to become members
• to download special software
• to enter “unlock” codes
• …or to do something in order to get the right link.

Viral marketing is never about exclusivity. It is about getting it out there for everyone to see. ——————————————————————————–

There is a common message in all of these tricks. It is that you need to make it right – or not do it at all. Only the best viral marketing campaigns make it – the rest literally sucks. If you have any tips of your own, I sure would like to know about them! Also, If would very like to see any cool viral advertisement that you might know.

Other cool “virals”

The Smirnoff viral One of the first really successful viral campaigns in the “YouTube age”

Dove Evolution A true viral campaign, showing artificial beauty – and it worked!

Source: Thomas Baekdal

Whether you just created your first blog, or you are considered one of the top bloggers in the world like Darren Rowse, Chris Brogan, or Tim Ferriss, you are always looking for ways to generate more traffic to your site.  Even more so, you are looking for qualified traffic to your site, (i.e people who are interested in the content you produce).

LinkedIn is a great way to generate free, organic, traffic to your blog.

“But Lewis, isn’t LinkedIn just a site to post my resume when I am looking for a job?”

No, wake up people!  Although LinkedIn has been great for job seekers during the most recent economic cycle, it is much much more than that.  Individuals and companies are achieving more professional goals than imaginable on LinkedIn.  For example, LinkedIn can help you:

• Sell products
• Find new clients or employees
• Generate leads
• Receive funding for your company
• Obtain sponsorships
• Sell hundreds of tickets to your professional event
• Get national and local press coverage
• And last but not least, drive massive traffic to your blog

Achieving these goals on LinkedIn don’t come naturally.  You’ve gotta work the system on LinkedIn and experiment with different methods.  I’ve come up with the best ways to achieve those goals.  Here are my top 10 ways to drive traffic to your blog using LinkedIn:

1.  Complete Your Profile:

Numerous individuals have told me LinkedIn doesn’t work for them. I always ask them how much time they have put into using LinkedIn, their response – very little.  If your profile is weak people will lose interest quickly and may never click on your website links.

If you want people to read your profile and click on your websites then make your profile concise, compelling and value driven throughout.  Complete your profile 100%, add a great picture of yourself, and take the entire process very seriously.  The more complete and compelling your profile is, the more people will read and visit links you have posted.

This advice goes beyond driving traffic to your blog.  If someone were to Google your name (which most people do when they are researching you) your LinkedIn profile is one of the first things that pop up.  Personally, my LinkedIn profile is the third result, and for Darren Rowse it comes up seventh (before Facebook or Twitter).  Google your own name and check out what position your LinkedIn profile shows up.  You must make your profile compelling.

2.  Increase Your Connections:

The more connections you have, the more people will have access to your profile.  Every time you take an action on LinkedIn (i.e. update your profile, join a group, recommend someone, RSVP to an event, etc… this shows up on the home page of your 1st degree connections).  If you only have 100 connections, this limits the amount of potential clicks on your profile and website links per day. Constantly be updating and adding new connections.

3.  Customize Your Website Links:

When you first create your profile your website links will look like this:

However this is not a “call to action” and you are missing potential traffic because of it.  No one actually cares what your blog is unless it is relevant to them or solves a problem.  Instead, customize your website links to attract more clicks and drive more traffic to your blog.  If I were Darren, I would insert this:

The second image is more compelling and explains exactly what the viewer will see on the next page when they click on each link.  In order to change your websites with a custom headline, click on the “edit” button next to one of the websites. View the image below for further details:

4.  Answer Questions:

This is a great way to drive traffic to your blog.  The more questions you answer, the better the chances are of that person asking the question to click on your blog to learn more about you. Not only will that one person be more interested in learning more about you, but also others answering that question.  Additionally, when someone rates your answer as “The Best” of the mix, it will improve your thought  leadership status. It moves you up the rankings as a “featured expert” in the category you answered in.  When you are a featured expert people become more aware of your profile, and the chance they will click on your link to learn more about what you have to offer improves.

5.  Update Status:

For you Twitter lovers out there, this should be an easy step to take.  LinkedIn also has a status update feature that is a lot like Twitter, only it gives you 148 characters to work with instead of 140. Why is it so important to constantly update your status?  Because it is the first thing that pops up the home profile for all of your connections.  Check out your home page on LinkedIn and you will see a few status updates of those your are connected to.  If they are smart, they will include some compelling copy with a call to action and a link back to their blog (something I do that drives traffic to mine).

6.  Join Niche Groups:

Whatever your blog is about, there is an audience of people on LinkedIn that share interest with.  To make it easy to find these people click on the “Group Search” tab and type in some key words that relate to your blog.  I have a sports industry blog that focuses mostly on social media with an audience of professionals who work in the sports.  I joined all of the professional sports groups I could find:

Some of these niche groups have thousands of members who are actively involved in connect with other members.  If you are not in the groups where your audience for your blog is hanging out, then you are missing out on the opportunity for new readers, and organic traffic to your site.  Join as many groups as you can after doing a key word search that relates to your blog.

For starters – check out the Professional Bloggers Group.

7.  Post Comments In Groups:

Some larger groups are receiving hundreds of new discussion topics every few days (think of it as a forum).  People are sharing points of discussion, commenting and giving further feedback and suggestions on those comments.  Every time someone creates a new discussion topic, it shows up on the home profile of everyone in that group.  If there are 100,000 people in the group, then you are potentially getting the attention of 100,000 other individuals for your comment.

8.  Add RSS Feed to Groups:

Each group has a section that allows you to add a link to a website with the latest news you think is relevant to that group.  It also allows you to add your own RSS feed or website link so it will automatically update the group every time you post a new article on your blog.  This creates an automated flow of organic traffic that will show up on the home profile of everyone connected in the group.  Again, this gives you more opportunities for people to view your blog.

9.  Create a Group:

This may be one of the most powerful things you can do on LinkedIn.  I won’t go into all of the amazing details on how this has helped me, but I will tell you that owning a group drives a lot of traffic to your site. I own several niche related groups on LinkedIn.  For example, I created the Sports Industry Network group on LinkedIn and there are currently over 19,500 members.  When a new person joins the group, they see a brief description of the group, my name as the owner of the group, plus my website url www.sportsnetworker.com.  Since my group gets over 100 new members each week, that’s additional traffic from new members alone. That’s not even including the close to 20,000 members who are actively engaging in the group, and clicking on my blog links.

10.  Add the Blog Application to Your Profile:

This might be the most obvious suggestion, but I still see some of the top pro bloggers leaving this feature out.  This application posts the title and first paragraph for your most recent articles you have published on your LinkedIn profile.  It is a way to give viewers of your profile a sneak peak of what they will read on your blog.

Go to “applications” and download either the WordPress or Blog Link application and add your URL for your blog.

LinkedIn continues to be one of the top sites that drives traffic to my blog, thanks to these 10 examples, but the power of LinkedIn doesn’t stop here. What other tips have you found through using LinkedIn to increase traffic to your blog?

Source: Darren Rowse

Graphs: Darren Rowse

Unfortunately, as Brian wonders, there are no standard pricing structures across the Internet. You will need to take a look around, do some research, and experiment on your own site to find the rates that will maximize your revenues.

That being said, that are some methods that you can use to draw an initial price tag, and some specific places where you can look to cross check the numbers. Below we will cover them.

Defining the metrics: The CPM

Notice that talking about advertising prices in absolute values is useless.

Suppose there are two blogs. One charges $500 monthly for a 125×125 banner spot above the fold, while the other charges $1,000 for a similar spot. Could we say that the first blog offers a much better deal for advertisers?

Obviously not, because the value that the advertiser will get for its money depends on a myriad of factors, above all the traffic that each of the two blogs receives monthly.

If the first blog generates 100,000 monthly page views while the second generates 500,000 monthly page views, an advertiser would be better off by purchasing the advertising space of the second blog for $1,000.

As you can see, the answer to our question comes from a very simple ratio: cost of the advertising space divided by the traffic that the ad will receive.

Several metrics could be used to define traffic, from unique visitors to visits and page views. Most publishers tend to use page views though. Moreover, it is a common practice to measure page views by the thousands, so one should talk about cost per 1,000 page views or impressions. CPM is the term for that, and it stands for Cost Per Mille (Mille being the Latin word for 1,000).

Just to conclude our example, if you do a small calculation you can see that the first blog has a $5 CPM while the second one has a $2 CPM.

Now, we are not suggesting that you should tie your ad rates to the number of monthly impressions of your blog. Offering a flat monthly rate to advertisers is usually the best (and simpler) way to go. Just keep the CPM numbers in mind because they will enable you to compare your prices with those of other bloggers.

What do other bloggers charge?

Like it or not, the Internet behaves like a giant market place, and all websites are subject to the laws of supply and demand. In other words, if you set a price that is significantly higher than the one used by other blogs on your niche, the advertisers will go somewhere else.

The first thing you should do, therefore, is to take a look on blogs that sell advertising space to evaluate what rates they are asking.

The format of the ad (e.g., 468×60, 120×600, 125×125) and the position (e.g., header, sidebar, footer, blended with content) are factors that will directly influence the final price, so in order to be consistent through out your research you should pick a format and position that is popular.

Among blogs selling direct advertising space the 125×125 button ad on top of the sidebar is arguably the most used format, and it should fit our research purpose.

Let’s see what popular blogs on the online marketing sphere are charging, for instance. If you visit the Advertising page of Copyblogger, you will find that the blog generates over 1,000,000 monthly page views, and a 125×125 spot on the sidebar costs $1,500. Divide $1,500 by 1,000 (remember that 1,000,000 is equal to 1,000 times 1,000 page views) and you get a CPM of $1,5.

Similarly, if you visit JohnChow you will find that the 125×125 button add costs $500 monthly, and the blog generates 300,000 page views. Again just do $500 divided by 300 and you get a CPM of $1,66.

As you can see a CPM of $1,5 for the 125×125 buttons is a good average. Even TechCrunch charges a similar rate ($10,000 for 6,5 million page views monthly, converting to a CPM of $1,53), so let’s keep that number as a starting point.

Adapting to your own situation

All the blogs mentioned are viewed as authorities on their niche, which affects how much advertisers are willing to pay to get exposed to their audiences. If your blog is new or if you are just beginning to experiment with direct advertising, therefore, you probably should start with a lower CPM.

Start asking a $0,5 CPM, for example, and as your blog grows and more advertisers come along you can gradually raise it. If you have a blog generating 100,000 monthly page views this would translate into $50 monthly for each 125×125 button placed on your sidebar.

If you are going to use other ad formats or position the ads on other locations of your website just estimate how these factors will affect the traffic that an advertiser will end up getting. Placing a 300×250 banner on the sidebar, for instance, is similar to having 4 125×125 ads, so you could charge 4 times the price of the 125×125 ad ($200 monthly if your blog generates 100,000 impressions, converting to a $2 CPM).

Similarly, increase the CPM if the ad is on the header or blended with the content, and decrease it if the ad will be displayed below the fold or on the footer.

Keep in mind that you should consider real page views for these evaluations. Most web stats programs and software tend to over estimate the traffic on your site. Google Analytics is usually the most reliable one.

Cross checking the numbers and experimenting

In order to cross check the numbers with an external source you could join an advertising network (either CPC based like Google Adsense or CPM based) and use it on the spots where you plan to sell direct advertising.

If you are planning to sell a 300×250 banner spot below your posts, for instance, you could firstly put a Google AdSense unit there and measure the CPM that it will give. Most direct advertising deals should bring you more money that what advertising networks do, mainly because you are cutting out the commissions and negotiating directly with the advertisers.

Finally, remember to experiment endlessly and draw your own conclusions. What works for one blog may not work for another, and vice-versa.

Source:  Problogger, but was originally written by Daniel Scocco on Daily Blog Tips.

At a recent book reading at SXSW I spoke briefly about a new chapter in the new ProBlogger book (due out next month) that is a case study of my main blog (4-5 bigger than ProBlogger) – Digital Photography School.

dPS is now just a few days away from being 4 years old and so with the new edition of the book Chris and I thought it might be a good idea to include a new chapter that examined how I’ve developed the blog so far.

The case study looks at 4 main aspects:

1. how I launched the blog – the four foundations that I build in years 1-2
2. how I built upon the foundations – what I focused upon in years 3-4
3. how I monetize the blog
4. the way I use email to drive traffic to and monetize the blog

In this post I want to talk briefly about the four foundations that I focused upon in years 1-2 of building my photography site.

I won’t go into great detail about each one here (if you want more the book is your best bet) but as my reading was interrupted by a fire alarm at SXSW I wanted to cover some of it here for those who missed the 2nd half.

Foundation 1 – Content

• My #1 task in years 1-2 of dPS was building content.
• The focus was content for beginners (this was expanded later).
• My aim was for every post to solve a problem that a new camera owner had.
• The content was all ‘how to’ related – practical stuff that helped readers do or achieve something
• Quality of content was paramount – but so too was the idea of increasing the ‘quantity’ of content – I started with 3-4 posts a week but aimed to get it daily after 1 year.

Foundation 2 – Promotion

• ‘Build it and they Will Come’ is an idea with some truth to it – but in the early days of your blog you also need to actively promote your blog – readers won’t just find it.
• Define your potential reader – who are they? What are their needs?
• Identify where that type of reader is already gathering online (and offline).
• Participate in those sites where your potential reader is gathering – guest posts, building a forum presence, leaving useful comments, networking etc.

Foundation 3 – Community

• People don’t just come online for information – they increasingly are coming online to find ‘belonging’
• Readers want to participate, interact, join and relate – give them opportunity to do so
• On dPS starting a forum was one way I did this however community was something I went out of my way to build on the blog itself.
• Use polls, start discussions, run debates, ask questions, highlight readers work, invite people to promote themselves on your blog, link to your readers
• When you build community you build an army of evangelists for your blog, create social proof and open many doors for growth and strengthening of your site

Foundation 4 – Capture Contacts

• Most people who visit your site will never return naturally – even if they like your site
• On dPS I prominently invite people to subscribe in numerous places
• RSS is not always King – on dPS email subscription makes up over 75% of all subscribers
• Email newsletters drive as much traffic as Google does on dPS
• Email newsletters drive significant earnings (advertising, affiliate promotions and product sales)
• Email newsletters build community and make the site more sticky and personal

NOTE: Monetization was not one of the Main Tasks/Foundations in Years 1-2

I did monetize the site from day 1 and dPS was profitable from the first month or two – but it was not my main focus. Rather I focused upon the above 4 foundations and let the monetization grow naturally as traffic and reader engagement grew.

In years 1-2 monetization was largely through 2 ad networks – AdSense and Chitika (aff). I did some low level affiliate marketing (Amazon mainly) but over 90% of the income in years 1-2 was from ad networks. Years 3-4 were when I increased my focus upon monetization.

Source: problogger

Photo: hayscisd

Making Viral Marketing Work

Viral marketing depends on a high level of person-to-person information exchange. If this form of information distribution expands i.e. a large volume of recipients forward your message to a large number of friends, it will affect a tremendous overall growth very quickly. On the other hand, if the numbers passing the message on dwindles, the overall growth will slow dramatically.

At the peak of business to Customer (B2C) it looked as if every startup company had a viral component to its strategy, or at least claimed to have one. However,few marketing viruses enjoyed the same level of success as Hotmail, widely known as the first example of viral marketing.

The Power of Viral Marketing

A report published by the ORCI (Opinion Research Corporation International) shows that users tell an average of 12 other people about an online shopping experience. On the same token if that person has a bad experience 12 others will get to know about that as well. This is the engine that powers viral marketing.

Viral marketing has become the blueprint for Internet marketers looking to copy the success of Hotmail or ICQ. Almost everybody wants to take his or her product and “make it viral.” It’s important though that you give some thought in to what underlies viral marketing.

When talking about viral marketing, people may not realize that they’re really talking about not one but of several variations of viral marketing. Different variations of viral marketing operate for different reasons, following different mechanisms and produce different effects. However, it seems that most have the same core mechanism being that they provide the user with quality products or experiences.

Types of Viral Marketing

Value Viral

What: Information exchange about quality experiences amongst friends

How: Bill had a great experience-using product X and recommend Charlie should try it too.

Guile Viral

What: Guile Viral is people trying to forward viral marketing mails in exchange for incentives.

How: Bill tries convincing Charlie to try product X simply because Bill will get rewarded if he is successful with Charlie.

Vital Viral

What: People want to share experiences with others, which requires the use of certain other products.

How: Bill wants to share the experience he had with product X, but Charlie needs to have Product Y to do so.

Spiral Viral

What: People needing to share funny, dirty or interesting experiences with others.

How: Bill wants to share the same experiences he had as above with Charlie because he assumes Charlie might like it too.

Vile Viral

What: People warning others of the negative experiences they had.

How: Bill has a nasty experience with product X and tells Charlie not to buy it.

Advice on Viral Marketing for Marketers

Viral marketing, or “refer-a-friend,” email campaigns have attracted a lot of attention from the media recently. These campaigns persuade recipients of promotional emails to forward the messages to their friends. This type of marketing has attracted both positive and negative reviews from consumers, privacy advocates, and industry pundits

At the core of the issue are concerns over sending unsolicited email. The tactful use of viral marketing can help marketers avoid negative reactions, and gain an increased reach for a targeted marketing message beyond its original audience.

Five Ways to Execute A Viral Marketing Campaign Most Effectively

1) Offer an incentive

Viral marketing will yield its best results if a valuable and tangible incentive is offered that will entice individuals to forward an email message to their friends. However, marketers should limit the incentive to a specific quantity to avoid spam-like distribution of the message. For example, giving a 20 percent discount to any person on his or her next purchase if the message is forwarded to five friends. On the other hand an open-ended incentive, offering a $5 credit for every five friends referred, can lead to causing a marketer Customer service, financial, and privacy-related problems.

2) Don’t consider the referral as already in

When a Customer refers a friend, the referral should not be considered an opt-in. A name and email address provided by a person’s friend does not automatically make the referral a Customer. That individual should be asked if he or she is willing to receive any future viral marketing mailings. Only after winning the consent of the relevant individual can they be counted as an opt-in.

3) Personalize Your Viral Marketing Email

Response rates increase considerably when users can see that a message is coming from a friend, therefore it is best to tone your viral marketing email message to show that it’s coming from a familiar source. The subject line is the main component in a viral marketing email, because this is what helps identify the email as friendly. A good subject line may read: “ADV: Hi John, thought You’d Like 20% Off at ABC.com,” thereby identifying it as a message sent by a friend about a special offer in an advertisement.

4) Track and Analyze the Results

As with any marketing campaign, tracking the results and constant performance improvements over time are an absolute necessity in viral marketing. Viral marketers now have access to insightful and helpful data that can be used to evaluate performance. Important figures to keep track of are pass-along, click-through, and conversion rates. Marketers should split the click-through and conversion rates of original Customers from referrals and evaluate their performances individually. These figures will alert a marketer to which offers and Customers drive the highest ROI.

5) Continuous Promotion of Friendly Referrals

Viral Marketers who need frequent forwarding of their message should place an enticing offer in every relevant outgoing email message. Viral marketing, though ideal as a one-off campaign, can also be effectively used to continuously expand the reach of your marketing message over time.

Though there is no sure-fire way to halt negative Customer reactions, the following five concepts will help marketers make their viral marketing campaigns highly effective.

Source: Netstarter

Photo: Digitallabz