Mad 4 Blog

You may be surprised to hear the above statement, especially coming from us, but it is the simple truth. In good times and bad times, a large percentage of the marketing efforts you put out into the world won’t be as effective as you had planned. What makes marketing successful is the strength of your brand and the emotional connection of your unique message.

An important thing to keep in mind is that failure should not be seen as terminal. In the world of marketing, we tend to look at failures as part of a greater growth process. It’s important to understand what aspects of your marketing endeavors failed or succeeded and then analyze your results to discover why. Many marketing efforts are actually staggered, so that continual analysis/improvement is built directly into the process. Being able to adapt as you go is always a bonus, which is why we never recommend blowing your annual budget on any one tactic. Rather, you should seek cost-effective and well-rounded strategies that will allow you to explore multiple angles and make the greatest possible impact on your determined audience.

Good marketers know that success or failure can be measured in many different ways. For example, even if your conversions aren’t hitting the marks that you expected when you began your marketing campaign doesn’t mean that you haven’t connected with your audience. Every time you engage with prospective clients, you’re building up a bigger presence and allowing them to familiarize with your business and services. Naturally, we always want these impressions to convert to sales. However, the ultimate success of some marketing techniques may not be measurable in nickels and dimes; but by introducing your brand and opening a line of communication, you’re still accomplishing invaluable marketing connections.

As always, consistent and comprehensive marketing campaigns that approach niche audiences from multiple angles over time are the most surefire way to guarantee marketing results. At Mad 4 Marketing, we offer strategic insight that will allow you to enhance brand awareness and connect deeply with your audience through targeted messaging. To address every agenda–from rebranding your company to engaging in social media or even building a complete 360° campaign–we’ve got the talent and experience to help you achieve impactful, successful marketing.

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.

Did you meet all of your marketing goals in 2009? Or were there areas where you saw room for improvement? Now is the time to analyze previous successes—and failures—to determine new marketing strategies for 2010.

The past year has been a rocky time for businesses across the board. And in times of economic uncertainty, it’s not uncommon for companies to branch out and explore new strategies to market their products and services. Whether a limited budget meant that your company tried alternative marketing for the first time, or a changing consumer climate introduced you to new audiences, last year was a time for trial and error when it came to advertising and brand promotion.

Whether you ultimately flourished or floundered, there are lessons to be learned from each step you took. In the new year, these lessons can be used to set you up for even greater marketing success in 2010. Here are some tips to help you devise your marketing goals for the year ahead:

Create a vision for the full year.
Looking at your budget for the upcoming year, you may be tempted to plan a gung-ho advertising campaign to get the ball rolling. While making a big impact at the start of the year is one way to go, another advisable technique is to plan a staggered process that creates a lasting, solid impression of your business brand throughout the year. You’ll want to incorporate options from across the spectrum, from print ads to social marketing to interactive website strategies. Plan your pricing and agenda so that all messaging ties together and builds throughout the months. That way, you’ll have the strong, comprehensive results you desire when it comes to January 2011.

Don’t be afraid of change.
Taking new strides can be scary. In fact, you may have already shaken things up last year, and it didn’t quite pan out. This may make you think twice about pushing forward and exploring even more new routes—but then again, what can you gain by doing the same thing you’ve already done? If you devote the time to analyzing previous marketing plans, you can target areas that need improvement to predict results and reduce—or eliminate—your risk. Smart, evidence-based changes will give you an advantage this year.

Learn from past mistakes.
The first step is admitting that it’s okay to make mistakes. In fact, mistakes can be useful. Although it may seem tempting to forget previous endeavors that didn’t quite match expectations, it’s time to haul out old plans and notes to analyze exactly what went wrong and where there was room for improvement. Maybe all you needed was a more accurate sales projection. Maybe all you needed was a different marketing agency. Whatever needs amending must be determined so it can be fixed, preparing you for new successes in 2010.