Viral Marketing Goes Mobile
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.
The very idea of unwanted advertising streaming through our Blackberries is abhorrent. 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. Last year, 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. 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.
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.
Viral Marketing using Forums
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 if 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 and 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 roll 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, one can develop a reputation, 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.
A Treasury of Home Business Opportunities by Von Hoelscher, Russ. Revised Edi…
“Von Hoelscher, Russ: A Treasury of Home Business Opportunities. Revised Edition. Hardback. ISBN 0940398133. Profit Ideas Goessel, KS, USA 1985. 8vo - over 7¾”" - 9¾”" tall. 2nd printing, light edgewear, unmarked text, the clear Brodart covered dust …
It's the golf network - San Diego Union Tribune
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It’s the golf network
San Diego Union Tribune, United States - 5 hours ago The business opportunities, Ferrell said, are significant for his computer company. He said he earns about 10 percent of his work per year from those he … |
A Treasury of Home Business Opportunities
A Treasury of Home Business Opportunities
What an E-book Can Do for You
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.
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.
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.
A common approach is to use material that has Private Label Rights, including articles and reports that have been written specifically for that purpose, for that 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.
