Instigate Viral Marketing

It is hard to beat the marketing power of thousands or even millions of people doing your marketing for you, but having a campaign go viral can be tough.

In order to go viral, something has to have mass appeal. This is why it can be very difficult to launch viral campaigns for niche subjects. When a niche is particularly small, there may not be enough volume to generate sufficient interest to spread far and wide.

Viral marketing is definitely better suited to larger niches, although it can be done in smaller niches with a little thought and creativity.

At this moment in time the primary means of getting something to go viral is video, but it certainly isn’t the only means. Other things include photos, eBooks, special reports, and software.

Whatever vehicle you choose you need to find people who will be willing to spread the word for you. These people love to tell other people about things. They love being the first person to spread something new, whether it’s a funny video, a great new piece of technology or some insightful information.

Seth Godin, an advocate of viral marketing, released a free ebook on the topic called "Unleashing the Idea Virus." He called these people "sneezers." Sneezers not only love to spread news, they have enough charisma to make people listen to them!

Finding these people can be tricky, but all it takes is a few, and word can spread like a wild fire in a forest of tinder-dry wood.

For example, if you are selling an Internet marketing product, you’ll want to get your viral marketing piece into the hands of some of the top Internet marketing gurus. If necessary you can offer them monetary compensation to help you spread the word, but ideally you want them spreading the word because it’s something worth spreading the word about.

If you have an affiliate program, you can offer potential ’sneezers’ their own copy of your viral media with their affiliate link embedded. If you already have a large list of your own, you could use that as leverage to get them to JV with you. If a few big names decide to do a join venture with you, your campaign has a much greater chance of going viral.

Once a few of the bigger names start talking about your campaign, it will trickle down. The mid-level people will start talking about it, and their followers will start talking about it. Pretty soon you have lots of people talking about it, and it’s everywhere. The virus has been unleashed, and it’s spreading like wildfire!

But remember, this viral marketing piece does need to have mass appeal. People aren’t going to spread the virus if it isn’t contagious. You need to make your viral marketing campaign very appealing. The best way to do this is by offering massive value for free. This is a technique that has been used very effectively by many leading Internet marketing experts over the last few years.

Of course, you can achieve viral marketing success and the fame that goes with it by performing some crazy stunt. In the early 1990s a UK band called KLF managed to make headline news throughout the world by burning a million pounds. Unless you have a spare million that you don’t mind setting fire to, this can be a very expensive route, but with some serious creative thinking you might be able to come up with something seriously newsworthy that will spread virally to your target market in record time without breaking the bank.

Paul Smithson is the creator of Intellimon and the driving force behind the best-selling XSitePro web site development tool (www.xsitepro.com). Paul has set up five multi-million dollar companies, one of which is now owned by the BBC. His areas of expertise include business strategy, e-commerce, on-line and off-line marketing, software development, and maximizing the potential of on-line businesses.

How To Create Newsletters That Build Massive Subscriber Lists

Building a list is relatively easy, but building a quality list that people will eagerly subscribe to, and stay subscribed to, is something different. In order to keep your subscribers, you need to develop a newsletter or mailing format that offers readers real content and real value.

If your newsletter is something people would pay to receive, then they’re sure to stick around for a while. They’ll also be much more receptive to buying anything you recommend, and they’ll even be willing to refer more subscribers to you.

It’s vital that you give your subscribers quality content. So many people just blast out ad after ad to their list, with absolutely no regard for what their readers want. They do not have their readers’ best interests at heart. This isn’t a wise path to tread as you will slowly kill your list both in terms of the number of subscribers and the overall responsiveness.

In order to make sure your newsletter is actually read, you need to provide quality content on a regular basis. This means sending out a newsletter fairly often - at least once a month.

The more often you provide great content, the more your name will stick in the minds of your readers. Once people realize the quality of the content you send, they’ll start opening your emails more often. Of course, if you send messages out too often, people will unsubscribe. It’s recommended that you not send out more than three to five messages per week, and that is an absolute maximum. Depending on the topic you are mailing about you could find that even three to five mailings a month is too much.

Of course, there are always exceptions. If you are offering a daily business newsletter then you would obviously have to mail daily, but anyone subscribing to a daily newsletter would expect to be receiving it each day and so wouldn’t be annoyed and such a regular mailing schedule.

So, once you’ve got people to join your list how do you keep them interested so that you maximize the chance of your mails being opened and read, whilst at the same time minimizing the number of people who unsubscribe?

There’s one technique that has been used incredibly effectively by many of the leading online marketers and that is …

Get personal!

Build rapport with your readers by providing them with personal information and anecdotes. The more your readers feel like they know you personally, the more they’ll trust your opinions, and the more likely they will be to respond to your offerings and recommendations.

But getting personal is much more than just telling them about what’s happening in your life - much, much more. Although adding a personal touch to your mailings is a generally good thing, the truth is that unless you’re a famous actor or rock star the probability is that your readers are much more interested in the meat of your newsletter. They might get a chuckle out of hearing about your latest funny encounter on the subway, but that isn’t really what they subscribed for. So, whenever you give them your own personal story, try tying it in with some related content.

Nearly all stories can be worded in such a way that it has a hook that relates to your subject in some respect. Get creative! By tying in personal anecdotes to your content, youq will build a base of readers that not only love the content you add, but really like you.

When you’re going to send an ad out to your list, you should consider offering some truly exceptional content that is related to the product. If you’re promoting a product about using AdWords, why not provide your readers will several of your top AdWords tips in the same email? It’s a case of give and take. If all you are doing is taking (i.e. expecting them to part with their hard earned money) then you need to be giving too. This can be in the form of great content or well researched recommendations. If you’re just recommending something so you can earn a quick buck, then think twice.

Getting personal is a two way street. It isn’t all about you telling them about your own life, it’s about you going out of your way to meet the needs of those readers, not just once, but time and time again. If you can do that you will have a list of subscribers who are likely to be with you for many years to come.

Paul Smithson is the founder of Intellimon and the driving force behind the best-selling XSitePro web site development tool. Since graduating in Business Strategy and Direct Marketing from two of Europe’s leading business schools, Paul has set up five multi-million dollar companies, one of which is now owned by the BBC. His areas of expertise include business strategy, e-commerce, on-line and off-line marketing, software development, and maximizing the potential of on-line businesses.