Online Marketing Glossary: Viral Marketing
Viral Marketing:
- The rapid adoption of a product or passing on of an offer to friends and family through word-of-mouth (or word-of-email) networks. Any advertising that propagates itself the way viruses do.
Viral is growing, no pun intended. Traditionally this has been referred to as word-of-mouth, however with the advent of our dear interwebs here, viral can mean the spread through video, email, social networks, blogs, etc.
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Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
Where Online Meets Offline
I should talk about this topic more, but online is just SO fascinating and I’ve been immersed in off line for the last 4 years so it’s routine to me. Since we discontinued our old poorly performing affiliate program at the beginning of February, I’ve been focused on growing our new Reseller Program and much more improved Affiliate Program. We decided, as I’m sure we’re legally bound, to pay out all pending commissions, regardless of whether or not they met our minimum threshold. This meant 400+ checks being processed by accounting, then printed, then signed, then put into envelopes, then posted, then actually put into the mail. This took about a month to get through the internal systems and the checks were sent out a couple weeks ago.
Since many of our affiliates in the old program had long abandoned the program, a lot of checks are coming back unable to be delivered. I’ve been contacting people and resending the checks as I get new addresses, and with every check I’m re-sending I’ve been throwing in one of my business cards. I realize today that this is the epitome of online marketing (affiliate payments) meets off line marketing (business cards).
It just goes to show that you can’t keep exclusively to one medium or another. There’s such a vast audience out there for your product or service – and they’re not all going to be able to be found in one place. It’s important – maybe now more than ever – to integrate your direct mail marketing with landing page testing. Put your produced commercials for television onto the web and get a piece of the viral marketing cookie. Remember the old adage “don’t put all your eggs in once basket” and don’t put all your money into PPC or direct mailing.
Diversify your marketing efforts and remember that just because you’re an internet geek, not all your customers are.
Read MoreViral Marketing at it’s Finest
ALL FREAKIN’ DAY I’ve seen the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk, Ze Frank, and others go back and forth on Twitter about joining the Very Green Team and wondered if they’d lost their natural minds. It looks like there’s a color war going on… just something to pass the time. Gary explains why he’s so passionate about the color green on his website. This is a great example at viral marketing at it’s finest. Sam Harrelson also posted about the phenomenon at CostPerNews. So take a page from the Garyvee book and do something viral!
EDIT: OK, Ze was kind enough to explain what the heck is going on with these color wars in his blog.
Read MoreAnalytics Glossary: Latency
Latency:
- The average number of days between visits for a given visitor during a reporting period. For example, those who visit on average of every seven days.
You must make sure when analyzing the performance of specific marketing campaigns or sales to take the latency factor into account. Just because your campaign did poorly on sales at first does not mean that people won’t necessarily come back a few days later to check out what you’re advertising or make a purchase.
Remember that viral marketing inherently has a latency period for the message to spread.
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Glossary Definition From Website Magazine, February 2008.
In Mail We Trust
There’s an interesting little blurb in the November/December issue of Revenue Magazine on page 18. In part it says:
The study said that newspaper ads were the most trustworthy, with 63% of media consumers saying they trust the ads there. Search ads were the highest-scoring online format, with 34% saying they trusted them. Banner ads were trusted by just 26% of respondents and mobile advertising had 18% of the public trust.
Basically what this says to me is that, even in an era of internet marketing, viral marketing, and SEO/SEM… brick and mortar printing is still the most trusted form of advertisement.
One of the best ways to get the word out in a trusted way is direct mail. Direct mail allows you to catch your customers when they’re more alert and looking for information within their mail delivery. Consider this: when you get home from work at the end of the day and check your mailbox, you’re momentarily more alert while trying to decipher what are bills that need immediate attention, letters from friends or family, and what is advertisements. But even though you’re not looking for the ads, they can still seep into your consciousness during those moments.
Direct mail is inexpensive and can be completed by a number of different resources (other than your kids bribed with a pizza and armed with some stamps on a Saturday afternoon). Reputable printing and mailing companies like PsPrint take all the hassle out of a direct mail piece. Mailing lists are affordable as well, so there’s no hassle in supplementing any customer list you already have with more potential leads.
Make sure to keep these tips in mind when planning our your direct mail campaign:
- Make it Relevant. Target your list in a way that the consumers receiving your mail piece actually have interest in what you’re selling or promoting. Use demographic parameters in renting your mailing list to narrow down who you’re paying to send a piece to.
- Make it Pop. Designs should be eye catching when looking through the usual boring pile of mail. Use vivid colors to make your piece stand out amid the white and manila envelopes.
- Make it Clear. Don’t clutter your piece with information in the attempt to let the consumer know everything about your company. Focus on a single call to action (e.g. coming into the store for more details or visiting the website for more information). Use the mail piece to say the most important thing you want the consumer to know and direct them to the most important action they should take.
Now get out there and get your mail on!
Professional Mailing Services at PsPrint
Higher Commissions? Yes Please…
About a month I go, I briefly mentioned that we’ve started a new affiliate program on Commission Junction. Didn’t bring a whole lot of fanfare to the party since we hadn’t officially made the announcement to our customers and current members at that time. I gave up my position as the manager of PsPrint’s Direct Mail Services to focus more time and attention on this little bugger.
Well, let’s get this party started? 8%? Weak sauce of the past. We’re serving up 15% commissions now, baby!
That’s right, we’ve dropped our measly 8% commissions and boosted to 15%. Partnering with Commission Junction has made the program so much better: a better interface, more reliable tracking, the support of a big affiliate network, you name it. It’s all simpler than ever for our affiliates AND us!
I’m really excited about the transition as it gives us a chance to start over and scrap the old program soon. It’s hard to improve on something that’s inherently flawed like our old program.
We’ve made sure to get the word out on this just in time for Affiliate Summit 2008 West. The Summit will be held at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino February 24th through 26th. PsPrint will of course have a booth and I will be there, so if you happen to be a reader of this blog stop by and say hi to me for a special treat :).
Really, I swear!
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