|
Online marketing presents you with an opportunity to get
more bang for your buck compared
to traditional marketing.
This is particularly true
for word of mouth marketing.
Word of Mouth Marketing on
The Web Word of mouth marketing
refers to a type of marketing
that promotes something by
enticing independent parties
to promote the service, idea
or product to friends. The
idea is to create a buzz for
the subject matter. In creating
the buzz, the goal is to create
enough word of mouth momentum
to get the idea to spread
quickly. People are the sole
conduit for the momentum.
If you get it right, an entire
product can become an established
success with little or no
paid marketing. A classic
example of word of mouth marketing,
often called viral, is the
situation involving Red Bull.
Red Bull is an energy drink.
When it was first introduced
in Europe, rumors spread that
the drink was an aphrodisiac.
Nobody knows who started the
rumors, but Red Bull became
very popular. It then evolved
into a mixer for alcoholic
drinks in nightclubs and the
rest is history. It is a hugely
popular product and much of
the popularity arose through
this word of mouth process.
Word of mouth marketing online
works in much the same way.
The primary difference is
it tends to happen much quicker
than in the real word. The
Internet is full of forums
where like minded people congregate.
A new, cool product, idea
or service can blow up a site
over night. If you don’t believe
me, consider the wild success
of the My Space platform,
Napster, EBay and so on. Most
of these sites grew into behemoths
because of word of mouth endorsements,
not paid advertising. Obviously,
this type of marketing can
lead to tremendous riches.
Unfortunately, it isn’t particularly
easy to accomplish. Everyone
is trying to do it, so you
really need to be pushing
something unique. If you can
come up with something, it
is time to hit forums and
other sites to create a buzz.
A traditional way to pursue
viral marketing online is
to offer a free e-book. The
book will detail your thoughts
on some subject matter, such
as marketing. One makes the
book available for downloading
and also allows people to
send it to others. If you
are offering something of
quality, the book should spread
quickly to thousands and thousands
of people. The ultimate goal
is to promote it over and
over until hundreds of thousands
of people have read it. At
that point, you write another
e-book which you sell for
$3 to $5. If people liked
the first book, they will
buy the second. If 100,000
read the first one and only
10 percent buy the second,
you will have 10,000 sales.
This strategy has been pursued
over and over by many authors.
The word of mouth approach
is definitely a hit and miss
strategy. The large online
communities make it a viable
strategy, but there are a
lot of people trying to do
it. If you fail 50 times,
but succeed once, life will
be very good. Halstatt Pires
is with MarketingTitan.com
- providing internet marketing
services. |
