Mad 4 Blog

Your website may serve as a full-service e-commerce interface through which you sell products and services. Or it may simply be a place where people can learn more about your business. Either way, viral marketing can help you increase website traffic––and therefore brand awareness and sales––at a very low cost, with minimal effort.

What is Viral Marketing?
The phrase ‘viral marketing’ refers to almost any means of using word-of-mouth campaigning to pass along your message. Typically, marketers target individuals or groups who are likely to pass along or share a given campaign message. For example, a funny YouTube video is likely to be shared with friends and it is easily forwarded to colleagues; therefore, putting your business message in this format and getting it out to people who are likely to share it with others can create a big buzz for your brand with little effort. In many cases, key message sharers may even be given incentive for their efforts. Many contests which are hosted online offer extra entries or added prizes for fellow bloggers or website owners who use their own forum to promote the contest.

How Can Viral Marketing Promote My Website?
By making your website the centerpiece of your viral marketing campaign, all of your advertising efforts will have one single call to action: visit us online. Although it can be coupled with other media to really strengthen your campaign, online viral marketing is key for websites because viewers of your message will be able to click straight through to your web address once they’ve interacted with your ad. Once your audience is at your website, they can further engage with your brand or even complete transactions.

The best part is that even non-conversion visits can help you strengthen your website’s presence, because increased traffic to your page and more interaction with it will make it rank higher organically in a search engine, such as Google. When your rank rises, your website will be even easier to search and locate for people who are specifically interested in what you have to offer. This begins a cycle of increased traffic begetting increased traffic, which will ultimately impact your website’s success. Because such little cost is needed in the first place to initiate a viral marketing campaign (compared to other online marketing tactics such as a pay-per-click campaign) it’s easy to achieve high ROI.

What Comes Next?
Viral marketing campaigns may occur organically. Sometimes a website becomes an overnight sensation with very little work on the part of its owners. But that’s not something you can rely on when planning to put your business online. One of the best things about viral marketing is the fact that it’s completely accessible to everyone, and you don’t even need a ton of insider information to kick off your campaign. All you need to do is create an easy-to-use website, and then utilize social media tools that you probably already know, such as business-relevant discussion forums and Facebook.

However, to ensure that your efforts have a huge effect, you may want to consider a professional viral marketing team. These experts can help you come up with the unique creative needed for this kind of campaign to launch. Viral marketers are also familiar with a myriad of potential vantage points from which to target and approach your audience, to keep your message moving. This team of professionals can not only determine where your efforts will have the biggest impact, but they can also help you collect and analyze the results of your campaign. By tracking responsiveness and user data, you can sharpen and hone your viral marketing strategies. This will enable you to build even stronger platforms in the future.

Curious to learn more about viral marketing? Ask Mad 4 Marketing how we can help you create a buzz about your business without breaking the bank.

Want to keep your business relevant with modern marketing? You don’t have to be a super-savvy website guru to do it. But there is one trick you must master: Balance.
Balance is the key to building a strong, successful advertising campaign now and in the future—no matter how the face of media may change. While everyone else is scrambling to keep up with the latest trends, you can build a solid and multi-dimensional campaign that will withstand the latest fads. Here are 5 ways to stay current and stand out:

1) Balance targeted, consistent messaging with multiple approaches.
Hit the same audience over and over with the same message—but from different sources. It’s not enough to use online analytics to geo-target web users without matching that data with local print and/or broadcast ads. Surrounding your prospects on all sides not only enhances brand awareness, but creates an aura of accessibility. Point-blank exposure then graduates into familiarity, leaving room for relationship growth in the future.

2) Balance traditional and non-traditional media.
Break up a series of weekly magazine fliers with a guy in a gorilla suit outside your door. Attention-grabbing techniques create a buzz which can be followed up by more conventional means of communication. Or use out-of-home opportunities (such as a billboard or bus stop ad) to remind passersby of an ad seen earlier on TV. By employing both classic and alternative tactics, you can appeal to more markets. Going all one way or all the other may create an unbalanced tone for your brand—or worse, you may miss out on one audience entirely.

3) Balance analytics/research with creative (be smart but stand out).
Many companies rely on number-crunching and perfectly placed ads to carry their message into the right market. But all the visibility in the world won’t help if you don’t have the compelling concepts and engaging visuals to back up your brand and catch the eye of potential clients. In the increasingly competitive world of marketing, it’s more important than ever to complement strategy with creativity when building a successful campaign.

4) Balance customer retention with customer acquisition.
All of your amazing, cutting-edge advertising across varied media with perfect placement and alluring creative won’t help if your message is simply aimed at new clientele. It’s important that you reward prior and current business with gratuity and acknowledgement, and devote a large portion of your advertising budget to customer retention. It’s much harder to woo a client once they’ve moved on than it is to nurture an existing relationship. Remember: satisfied clients have friends–and so do dissatisfied clients.

5) Balance accessibility/transparency with alluring content that draws return.
Everyone knows how important it is to be straightforward in today’s market. Potential customers expect businesses to be highly visible and transparent about products, services and goals. This is especially true of social media, where accessibility is paramount. However, putting it all out there doesn’t mean that your business shouldn’t have a hint of mystery and allure. Teasers about future deals and further information are a classic that will remain consistent even in the advancing world of marketing.

Embarking on a new relationship with customers isn’t all that different from starting a courtship with a new girlfriend or boyfriend. You begin by trying to catch their attention, and then slowly build upon mutual interest with the hope of turning it into a long-term engagement. There’s a lot of give and take. Communication is optimal. And of course, both parties have to be honest and uphold their end to make things work. This Valentine’s Day, think of the ways you can romance your customers to achieve a lasting relationship.

First Impression
A first encounter is your chance to make one amazing impression with the person you’re hoping to woo. In marketing, this refers to the initial point of contact between your business and your prospective customer. Before you can ask this person out to dinner—or even ask for a phone number—you need to be sure that you’re ready to put your best foot forward. Your first point of contact should be an accurate reflection of who you are and what you can provide, so that they can make up their mind if they want to learn more. Bold, memorable creative is also a key aspect (it always helps to look your best). Your call to action should also be a highlight of your first impression. If you want to make future contact and set up that pivotal first date—if you want to get your foot in the door—then you’ve got to get your customers invested and curious to learn more.

Dating
Once you’ve started going out on dates with your object of affection—or in this case, once you’ve gotten past the first point of contact and initiated a relationship with your customer—the next step is to begin to get to know them, and let them get to know you better as well. It’s not enough to achieve one transaction one time from an interested party. You want to take the successful sale and turn it into a deeper familiarity with your brand, and a deeper investment in your company. Throughout point-of-sale interactions and beyond, you must continue to show your customer that you are committed for the long-haul. That you appreciate their former business with you, and welcome its return. Reminders of prior interactions while keeping your line of communication open are vital at this stage. And to be perfectly honest, it wouldn’t hurt to send flowers. Small tokens of continued interest and gratitude go a long way in nurturing a growing relationship.

Engagement
Okay, so you’ve made it through the trial-and-error period (perhaps provided some products and services to your target audience) and now it’s time to get serious. You want to exclusively supply your products or services to them from now on. This might entail developing incentives for customer loyalty, such as additional discounts or benefits for long-term users. It may also mean that your customer has been invited to register for further information and involvement, such as through a newsletter or subscription. Either the promise of future business or a well-established opportunity to embark on future relations is the equivalent of engagement between you and your customer.

Marriage
Between businesses and their target markets, a marriage is achieved when your customer decides that your brand is the best choice for their continued patronage. They are very familiar with everything you can and will do for them, and they are no longer shopping around. This marriage may come in the form of a contract, or it may be a far less tangible connection. Whatever the terms and conditions may be, this promise of fidelity is never simply cemented with an ‘I do.’ It takes ongoing effort and continued work to ensure that your business stays top-of-mind and best-suited for your betrothed. As you both grow over time, communication and flexibility may be necessary so that the relationship remains mutually beneficial.

If you’re thinking that a baby in a carriage is what comes next, you’re absolutely right. The offspring of your business/customer relationship are the referrals and reputation that you earn through your ongoing trustworthy performance. The longer you maintain satisfying and strong relationships with choice consumers, the stronger your brand will grow and the more rewarding contacts you will gain throughout the life of your business.

By now we’re all aware of the incredible impact that social media can make in terms of brand awareness, promotions, sales and networking. However, social media is a dual-edged blade. With ongoing open access across the globe, the same lines of communication that you’ve opened to strengthen your business may become potential avenues for brand denigration. Although you can’t micromanage your company’s image online, you are in a position to help shape and monitor conversations about your company in public forums. Especially those initiated by your own employees.

The news is littered with stories about employees who use Facebook, Twitter and other online forums to represent their place of business in a negative way. Inflammatory items may include job-bashing, coworker gossip, office confidentialities, inappropriate pictures or simply making a not-so-funny work-related joke. Examples range in scale from enacting personal behaviors which are counterintuitive to company policy to posting controversial remarks about clients. Though these may not be malicious in intent, once a person is publicly associated with your business, you want them to consistently uphold its reputation in all respects, no matter how small.

The foremost thing you can do to protect your business is create a social media policy. Typically, this legal contract is enacted between the company and its employees through your human resources department. Social media policies delineate what online behavior and language is acceptable from employees and reminds them that they represent your company by affiliation at all times, whether or not they’re on the clock. But it isn’t always easy to formalize lines between a person’s professional obligations and private life. Policies should cover:

•    What constitutes social media and the public sphere
•    What type of language and behaviors are approved
•    What company data or materials are considered confidential
•    What repercussions will occur when policy protocols are breached

Most social media policies explicate that it is up to each employee to take personal responsibility for their public representation by using good sense and keeping the company’s best interests in mind. Accountability makes up 90% of social media policies.

Naturally, it’s impossible to govern every message board, every posting and every photo of each of your employees. Businesses can start by monitoring their employee’s computer use while at work, and then follow up by making sure that social media outlets directly affiliated with your brand (such as your Facebook fan page) are free from harmful remarks. Further efforts vary according to budget and business size; however, one simple way to check up on your online representation is to regularly browse for the company name and key words through a standard search engine. This action takes just a few moments of time, but the results can be a very useful for determining how your company is being showcased online and by whom.

With a social media policy in place, when/if employees come into breach of protocol, your business will be in a position legally and ethically to respond with adequate remonstration. Think about it this way: you put so much time, energy and money into building and advertising your brand—so isn’t it worth protecting? One sheet of paper with a few guidelines and room for two signatures at the bottom may be all that stands between your business’s success or failure at the mercy of social media.