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Member You - Viral Marketing
In the first part of Business Plan Basics you’ve learned which are the public aspects of a business plan. Now it is time to study the “internal” aspects: those little secrets that drive a business to success.Industry Analysis:Every business operates within an industry. Identify where your company fits in and describe the market trends, explain the factors influencing growth and decline in this industry and spot the future expectations. Try to answer crucial questions such as: how many companies are expected to enter your industry in the near future and how is that to affect your business. Do not omit any significant statistics for your industry. Don’t lie to yourself!Target Market:In this section you identify your prospect clients – it is a useful step helping you to derive overall marketing and sa
These types of games or funny video clips tend to circulate through the Internet very quickly. If you do a search on Google, you can usually find a Flash designer who can produce something for you starting at a few hundred dollars.
Ingredients of a Successful Viral Marketing Strategy
- Offer an incentive
When online payment processor PayPal launched their service, they offered you a free $25 credit when you referred a friend to sign up. Offering an incentive answers that question we all have - 'what's in it for me?'.
- Make it funny, entertaining or controversial
If you want your message to reach as many people as possible, it has to be catchy in some way. It has to get attention, make people laugh or generate controversy.
Search engine Lycos publishes a list of entertaining email campaigns at: http://viral.lycos.co.uk/
- Encourage recipients to forward your message
Once you've done the hard yards of creating your viral marketing piece, you need to encourage users to forward it via email.
You need to include some form of c
The hard information's out. There's assets to be made on the internet. Well, legitimately, that's not imaginative to a lot of subjects; the statement's been out for some time. Despite that very truth, there are millions of the populace who've heard the news but haven't seen the hard cash. So, what's the secret? How do you really make fortune on the internet? The message's the same as it is in the bricks and mortar world - you have to know how to sell.The Internet hasn't changed the basic assertion of making funds, it's only added a untapped layer of opportunities. That's because, other than a minor wrong, the only way cash changes hands is if a willing buyer meets a willing merchant. And that will never change.So what's so awkward about making currency online? For one thing, it's too easy as pie to get started. Back
The reality couldn't be further from the truth. Viral Marketing simply refers to a marketing message that spreads quickly from one person to another.
Like the offline world, the idea is to get your message to reach as many people as possible. Viral Marketing adds fuel to the fire by exploiting the speed and reach of the Internet.
In the music world, an artist can go from being an unknown to having his or her song played on radio stations all around the world within a week.
A good viral marketing campaign works just as quickly. It can start with just one person and quickly spread to millions via email.
Example 1 www.hotmail.com
Started in 1996, Hotmail is considered the grandfather of viral marketing.
Although free web-mail is now commonplace, back in 1996 the idea of getting a free email account that could be accessed by anyone was a groundbreaking concept.
In its first 18 months of operation, Hotmail signed up over 12 million users giving it the fastest growing subscriber base in history.
The genius behind Hotmail was the viral marketing effect of the service.
When the two founders, Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia approached a venture capitalist firm to raise money, they also got some good advice.
The venture capitalists suggested attaching a small message at the bottom of every outgoing email to promote the service. And that's exactly what they did.
Attached to every outgoing email was a message that read:
'Get your own free Hotmail email address'
This meant that just by using the service, every new user was in effect endorsing and promoting Hotmail. Starting with a small amount of users, the ripple effect quickly grew Hotmail into the largest email provider in the world!
The effectiveness of this idea is highlighted by the fact that Hotmail spent less than $500,000 on marketing, while a competitor (Juno Online Services) spent over $20 million on traditional marketing to gain a fraction of the users.
Example 2 www.amazon.com
Amazon also implements viral marketing by encouraging their customers to send gifts to friends.
When the receiver gets the package, they also get a discount flyer promoting amazon.com and encouraging them to visit the website.
Example 3 www.citroen.com
French car maker Citroen recently released a viral marketing campaign with a video that features one of their cars transforming into a dancing robot.
The video clip is very entertaining and has spread throughout the world via email.
You can view the video clip here: http://uk.download.yahoo.com/ne/fu/oa/eurcncs185030.mpg
Citroen Media Release http://www.citroen.com.au/cms/default.asp?action=article&ID=8031
Viral Marketing Techniques
Obviously not all of us have access to the funds required to hire a professional animation studio to build a dancing robot.
The good news is that there are many cost effective ways to take advantage of viral marketing.
1. Start a 'Tell-a-Friend' Program
One simple way to encourage viral marketing is to add a 'tell-a-friend' link on your website.
If a reader finds something interesting - they simply click on the link and enter their friend's email address to forward them the web page link.
2. Encourage readers to forward your Newsletter
If you publish an email newsletter, the best way to build up your database is to encourage existing subscribers to forward your newsletter to friends, family and colleagues.
You can add something like this to the bottom of your newsletter:
'Help your friends out!
Forward them this newsletter so they can stay up to date on the latest developments on Widget manufacturing'.
3. Offer a Free Service on Your Website
Offering a useful service for free on your website is a great way to generate repeat visitors to your site.
For example, if you run a website on overseas shipping, offer your customers a free currency conversion tool from www.xe.com.
If you're a business consultant, you can offer a free downloadable business plan and so on.
4. Create an Entertaining Game or Video
This option takes a little more work, but when implemented correctly, it can generate a ton of traffic to your website.
Insurance giant Zurich recently created a little Flash game called 'Parking: Battle of the Sexes'. The aim of the game is to answer the age old question 'who's better at parking, men or women'.
Players have to use their keyboard arrows to successfully manoeuvre their vehicle into the parking spot without hitting the other cars.
These types of games or funny video clips tend to circulate through the Internet very quickly. If you do a search on Google, you can usually find a Flash designer who can produce something for you starting at a few hundred dollars.
Ingredients of a Successful Viral Marketing Strategy
- Offer an incentive
When online payment processor PayPal launched their service, they offered you a free $25 credit when you referred a friend to sign up. Offering an incentive answers that question we all have - 'what's in it for me?'.
- Make it funny, entertaining or controversial
If you want your message to reach as many people as possible, it has to be catchy in some way. It has to get attention, make people laugh or generate controversy.
Search engine Lycos publishes a list of entertaining email campaigns at: http://viral.lycos.co.uk/
- Encourage recipients to forward your message
Once you've done the hard yards of creating your viral marketing piece, you need to encourage users to forward it via email.
You need to include some form of ca
It might have been your best friend, your partner, your boss, your brother or even your lover. It burns deep inside. You can’t sleep for the anger, the shock and dismay. You may find yourself still not believing it’s happened to you. But it has!When those we have entrusted with our money, our plans, our strategies, our loyalty or even our love betray us, we feel violated deep inside. We feel crushed. We wonder if we can ever recover from this.It is at this moment of realization that you will make some of the most important decisions of your entire life. The three most critical choices you will make – whether you realize it or not are: (1) what to focus on; (2) what to believe; and (3) what to expect from this point forward. These three choices will determine the final impact this betrayal has on your life.ind Hotmail was the viral marketing effect of the service.
When the two founders, Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia approached a venture capitalist firm to raise money, they also got some good advice.
The venture capitalists suggested attaching a small message at the bottom of every outgoing email to promote the service. And that's exactly what they did.
Attached to every outgoing email was a message that read:
'Get your own free Hotmail email address'
This meant that just by using the service, every new user was in effect endorsing and promoting Hotmail. Starting with a small amount of users, the ripple effect quickly grew Hotmail into the largest email provider in the world!
The effectiveness of this idea is highlighted by the fact that Hotmail spent less than $500,000 on marketing, while a competitor (Juno Online Services) spent over $20 million on traditional marketing to gain a fraction of the users.
Example 2 www.amazon.com
Amazon also implements viral marketing by encouraging their customers to send gifts to friends.
When the receiver gets the package, they also get a discount flyer promoting amazon.com and encouraging them to visit the website.
Example 3 www.citroen.com
French car maker Citroen recently released a viral marketing campaign with a video that features one of their cars transforming into a dancing robot.
The video clip is very entertaining and has spread throughout the world via email.
You can view the video clip here: http://uk.download.yahoo.com/ne/fu/oa/eurcncs185030.mpg
Citroen Media Release http://www.citroen.com.au/cms/default.asp?action=article&ID=8031
Viral Marketing Techniques
Obviously not all of us have access to the funds required to hire a professional animation studio to build a dancing robot.
The good news is that there are many cost effective ways to take advantage of viral marketing.
1. Start a 'Tell-a-Friend' Program
One simple way to encourage viral marketing is to add a 'tell-a-friend' link on your website.
If a reader finds something interesting - they simply click on the link and enter their friend's email address to forward them the web page link.
2. Encourage readers to forward your Newsletter
If you publish an email newsletter, the best way to build up your database is to encourage existing subscribers to forward your newsletter to friends, family and colleagues.
You can add something like this to the bottom of your newsletter:
'Help your friends out!
Forward them this newsletter so they can stay up to date on the latest developments on Widget manufacturing'.
3. Offer a Free Service on Your Website
Offering a useful service for free on your website is a great way to generate repeat visitors to your site.
For example, if you run a website on overseas shipping, offer your customers a free currency conversion tool from www.xe.com.
If you're a business consultant, you can offer a free downloadable business plan and so on.
4. Create an Entertaining Game or Video
This option takes a little more work, but when implemented correctly, it can generate a ton of traffic to your website.
Insurance giant Zurich recently created a little Flash game called 'Parking: Battle of the Sexes'. The aim of the game is to answer the age old question 'who's better at parking, men or women'.
Players have to use their keyboard arrows to successfully manoeuvre their vehicle into the parking spot without hitting the other cars.
These types of games or funny video clips tend to circulate through the Internet very quickly. If you do a search on Google, you can usually find a Flash designer who can produce something for you starting at a few hundred dollars.
Ingredients of a Successful Viral Marketing Strategy
- Offer an incentive
When online payment processor PayPal launched their service, they offered you a free $25 credit when you referred a friend to sign up. Offering an incentive answers that question we all have - 'what's in it for me?'.
- Make it funny, entertaining or controversial
If you want your message to reach as many people as possible, it has to be catchy in some way. It has to get attention, make people laugh or generate controversy.
Search engine Lycos publishes a list of entertaining email campaigns at: http://viral.lycos.co.uk/
- Encourage recipients to forward your message
Once you've done the hard yards of creating your viral marketing piece, you need to encourage users to forward it via email.
You need to include some form of c
When you boil it down, selling is about transferring the passion you have for your product or service into the heart of a prospective customer. If you are not succeeding in sales, look at your passion. Passion produces followers. Are people following your advice? If not, you may be lacking passion. Find the true purpose of what you do and what you personally bring to the table.Transferring passion is similar to a bonfire transferring heat. It`s a natural process and draws people to its warmth. Have you lost the passion you once had? When the church at Ephesus had lost their passion, Jesus said, "Repent and do the first works." If you have lost your original passion perhaps it`s time to rediscover what the original motivating factors were and rekindle the fire. When you have passion, you will speak with conviction, ac
Example 3 www.citroen.com
French car maker Citroen recently released a viral marketing campaign with a video that features one of their cars transforming into a dancing robot.
The video clip is very entertaining and has spread throughout the world via email.
You can view the video clip here: http://uk.download.yahoo.com/ne/fu/oa/eurcncs185030.mpg
Citroen Media Release http://www.citroen.com.au/cms/default.asp?action=article&ID=8031
Viral Marketing Techniques
Obviously not all of us have access to the funds required to hire a professional animation studio to build a dancing robot.
The good news is that there are many cost effective ways to take advantage of viral marketing.
1. Start a 'Tell-a-Friend' Program
One simple way to encourage viral marketing is to add a 'tell-a-friend' link on your website.
If a reader finds something interesting - they simply click on the link and enter their friend's email address to forward them the web page link.
2. Encourage readers to forward your Newsletter
If you publish an email newsletter, the best way to build up your database is to encourage existing subscribers to forward your newsletter to friends, family and colleagues.
You can add something like this to the bottom of your newsletter:
'Help your friends out!
Forward them this newsletter so they can stay up to date on the latest developments on Widget manufacturing'.
3. Offer a Free Service on Your Website
Offering a useful service for free on your website is a great way to generate repeat visitors to your site.
For example, if you run a website on overseas shipping, offer your customers a free currency conversion tool from www.xe.com.
If you're a business consultant, you can offer a free downloadable business plan and so on.
4. Create an Entertaining Game or Video
This option takes a little more work, but when implemented correctly, it can generate a ton of traffic to your website.
Insurance giant Zurich recently created a little Flash game called 'Parking: Battle of the Sexes'. The aim of the game is to answer the age old question 'who's better at parking, men or women'.
Players have to use their keyboard arrows to successfully manoeuvre their vehicle into the parking spot without hitting the other cars.
These types of games or funny video clips tend to circulate through the Internet very quickly. If you do a search on Google, you can usually find a Flash designer who can produce something for you starting at a few hundred dollars.
Ingredients of a Successful Viral Marketing Strategy
- Offer an incentive
When online payment processor PayPal launched their service, they offered you a free $25 credit when you referred a friend to sign up. Offering an incentive answers that question we all have - 'what's in it for me?'.
- Make it funny, entertaining or controversial
If you want your message to reach as many people as possible, it has to be catchy in some way. It has to get attention, make people laugh or generate controversy.
Search engine Lycos publishes a list of entertaining email campaigns at: http://viral.lycos.co.uk/
- Encourage recipients to forward your message
Once you've done the hard yards of creating your viral marketing piece, you need to encourage users to forward it via email.
You need to include some form of c
One is a very tiny number. However, it can have a tremendous impact on your revenues. Here are some ideas to consider: Make one more cold call every day. One extra call a day equals 260 calls in a year. How many meetings could you set up with this number of calls and how many of those meetings could you turn into sales? Consider your current conversion ratio and think of the impact on your business. Suggest one additional item to every customer. This is particularly important if you sell lower priced items or work in a retail environment. Too many sales people are focused only on getting the initial sale. However, almost everyone has additional items, products, or services that could beneficial to their customers. Invest one day per month developing your skills. Many of the most success
You can add something like this to the bottom of your newsletter:
'Help your friends out!
Forward them this newsletter so they can stay up to date on the latest developments on Widget manufacturing'.
3. Offer a Free Service on Your Website
Offering a useful service for free on your website is a great way to generate repeat visitors to your site.
For example, if you run a website on overseas shipping, offer your customers a free currency conversion tool from www.xe.com.
If you're a business consultant, you can offer a free downloadable business plan and so on.
4. Create an Entertaining Game or Video
This option takes a little more work, but when implemented correctly, it can generate a ton of traffic to your website.
Insurance giant Zurich recently created a little Flash game called 'Parking: Battle of the Sexes'. The aim of the game is to answer the age old question 'who's better at parking, men or women'.
Players have to use their keyboard arrows to successfully manoeuvre their vehicle into the parking spot without hitting the other cars.
These types of games or funny video clips tend to circulate through the Internet very quickly. If you do a search on Google, you can usually find a Flash designer who can produce something for you starting at a few hundred dollars.
Ingredients of a Successful Viral Marketing Strategy
- Offer an incentive
When online payment processor PayPal launched their service, they offered you a free $25 credit when you referred a friend to sign up. Offering an incentive answers that question we all have - 'what's in it for me?'.
- Make it funny, entertaining or controversial
If you want your message to reach as many people as possible, it has to be catchy in some way. It has to get attention, make people laugh or generate controversy.
Search engine Lycos publishes a list of entertaining email campaigns at: http://viral.lycos.co.uk/
- Encourage recipients to forward your message
Once you've done the hard yards of creating your viral marketing piece, you need to encourage users to forward it via email.
You need to include some form of c
Although you will find plenty of emphasis on the way a company markets itself and its’ services, very little attention is usually given to individuals and how best they can market themselves. The reality on the ground is that good personal marketing has become critical in an increasingly competitive and shrinking jobs market.Today, any professional man or woman who does not carefully market themselves and their skills to prospective employers, and on a regular basis, is asking for trouble. It does not matter how good they may be at what they do. Sooner or later layoffs and downsizing or some other evil will catch up with them and they will find themselves out in the cold and without a job.One of the most valuable tools that any individual can use to market themselves and their skills and experience is of course the W
These types of games or funny video clips tend to circulate through the Internet very quickly. If you do a search on Google, you can usually find a Flash designer who can produce something for you starting at a few hundred dollars.
Ingredients of a Successful Viral Marketing Strategy
- Offer an incentive
When online payment processor PayPal launched their service, they offered you a free $25 credit when you referred a friend to sign up. Offering an incentive answers that question we all have - 'what's in it for me?'.
- Make it funny, entertaining or controversial
If you want your message to reach as many people as possible, it has to be catchy in some way. It has to get attention, make people laugh or generate controversy.
Search engine Lycos publishes a list of entertaining email campaigns at: http://viral.lycos.co.uk/
- Encourage recipients to forward your message
Once you've done the hard yards of creating your viral marketing piece, you need to encourage users to forward it via email.
You need to include some form of call-to-action like 'click here to email this to your friends'. Don't rely on your users to do it of their own accord - most people respond better when they are prompted to do something.
Final Thoughts on Viral Marketing
All marketing mediums have one thing in common - they're all competing for our limited attention.
Because consumers are now being bombarded with hundreds of advertising messages a day, we simply filter out a lot of conventional advertising.
Viral marketing works because it relies on a relationship between two people. When you receive a message from a friend, you're much more likely to give it attention then an unsolicited promotion (i.e. spam).
Another bonus is that compared to traditional advertising, the costs of implementing a viral marketing campaign are very little and the snowball effect can be huge.
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