Spread The Word: B2B Marketers Do Viral Marketing
Does marketing your start-up company petrify your checkbook?
Advertising does wonders for corporate brand building but it’s not the only way to spread the good word.
With the non-conventional promotion, you avoid costly expenses and create an almost demonic cult-following for your new product or service.
All you need is a bit of unconventional thinking.
Business isn’t always about making money.
It’s about nurturing relationships and building social networks. Once word of your superb business practices spread, revenue will follow.
The basis of viral marketing has been around for a long time.
The idea is that you invite your customers or referral sources to pass on something about your business to their network of colleagues and friends.
Those that pass on your information get something in return. Something might be a gift or service related to your business.
The viral marketing system depends very much on careful targeting of the client group and distribution of the right viral message or media.
For example, there is no purpose in distributing a viral promoting women’s beauty products that would not appeal to women.
One particularly successful viral was a campaign for Dove Soap which was promoted by the use of videos showing how cosmetics can completely change the look of a woman making her a false vision and illustrating how important the simple natural beauty of a woman can be.
This campaign aimed at illustrating the importance of the real woman inside was highly successful and has been viewed many times improving Dove Soap’s image with women as being on their side and celebrating natural beauty.
To implement viral marketing at your business; first, start with your customer base. Invite existing customers to refer new ones. Second, go to your referral sources.
Service providers, your outside network, and colleagues can be encouraged to provide referrals that lead to business.
If your customers are stressed business owners, offer a reward that provides relaxation and leisure… like a weekend away.
The great things about viral marketing are that it is free and works virtually by itself.
Once you make an offer and provide the facility for referrals, viral marketing spreads like… well… a virus…but the good kind.
As marketers, we can use viral marketing by e-mail as a marketing tool… what did you think I meant?
Viral marketing can work well for B2B or B2C providers, as long as the following is true:
1. The product or service has to add value for the sender, as well as, the receiver.
2. The offer has to be deliverable. You don’t want to offer a product that you can’t deliver if demand grows rapidly.
3. The offer has to be easily transferable to others. E-mail and Web pages provide the best medium to facilitate this.
4. The best viral marketing campaigns use existing networks to move the message along.
Empower your clients with CHOICE. Don’t worry about lost sales; customers will naturally appreciate your impartiality and quickly realize that you’re after their welfare.
There are 5 step-by-step tactics to use to skyrocket your desire to create a viral marketing effect for your business, products, or service. They are:
- ESTABLISH A PRODUCT-CENTRIC ONLINE COMMUNITY. Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups allow the establishment of virtual families where people of like minds converge. With just a group of twenty active participants, you create a massive product buzz that eventually snowballs into unstoppable viral marketing.
2. GIVE THEM FREE LUNCHES. Everybody loves a freebie; Free eBooks, articles, and mp3 recordings are hot downloads on the web.
3. GIVE LIFETIME MONEY BACK GUARANTEES. Let your confidence in your product show by backing it up with unconditional guarantees.
4. TREAT CUSTOMERS LIKE FAMILY. Avoid canned responses. Reply immediately. Offer solutions, not qualified excuses. Throw in value-adding surprises such as unannounced freebies and 24/7 tech support.
Friendly gestures might cost a bit of money, but it goes a long way in building warm customer relationships. You want to create friends out of your clients.
5. PRAISE THE COMPETITION. You may be the best at what you do, but if you bad mouth the competition, you cast a pall upon your reputation. Share the glory with others by giving praise and credit where they’re due.
