Setting up your income streams can
be a simple task, but often this is
not the case. Sometimes we get an idea,
but when we begin to develop our creation
we become overwhelmed with the efforts
that we are going to have to supply.
Other times, the product’s outline
alone can be extremely tedious. It’s
also ordinary to get so caught up in
development that we get sidetracked
into other ideas. Planning carefully
is the best way to handle troubles like
these.
When you plan your product or service,
don’t just make an outline; instead,
make an outline with many sub-outlines.
This way, throughout product development
you won’t have questions about
what to do next. You also get a chance
to document those ‘sidetracked’
ideas; keep you ideas. You’ll
need them later.
Having a well thought out plan will
keep you on the right path; you will
be able to use your time with powerful
efficiency. This is ideal, right?
ABOVE AND BEYOND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
This writing isn’t exactly a
product development piece, but you are
going to want keep these ideas in mind
as you develop future products. The
information I’m about to give
you is something that you will be able
to incorporate to your planning.
So… read on… we’re
going to shift directions a bit…
Aside from product development obstacles,
you could possibly run into ‘road
blocks’ after you’re ready
to market.
When the product is complete and it’s
time to show it to potential customers,
the realization of advertising expenses
might kick in for some, or perhaps our
competition is tougher than we had realized.
Regardless, this is definitely the time
during which we recognize that our marketing
strategy is just as important as the
product it’s self.
What if we could ‘build in’
promotional tools with our product?
“How fascinating will it be if
our product can do much of the needed
promotion automatically?”
That brings me to ‘viral marketing’…
VIRAL MARKETING
One fascinating strategy is to use
marketing that will ‘freely’
spread it’s self. This has popularly
become known as viral marketing and
can be quite an unstoppable technique.
An easy example of viral marketing
is free eBooks that teach the reader
while selling them on a product. With
this example, the eBook gives away valuable
information while including your ‘order
link’ or requesting that the reader
take a ‘desired action’.
Another great illustration of viral
marketing is what Hotmail did. I know
you’ve received mail from a hotmail
user before; do you remember the little
sentence at the bottom? It went something
like “get your free mail account
at hotmail” and you probably noticed
the link back to the hotmail site.
What hotmail did is very fascinating;
they gave out free email accounts with
built in marketing. Every time someone
sent an email via hotmail, they were
in turn advertising hotmail. That’s
brilliant.
Some other common examples of ‘viral
marketing’ are contests and games
that spread by word of mouth, free software
that promotes a product or site, and
even websites that provide online tools
for people to come back over and over
and use (or send others to use).
We should just say this: Anything that
will be ‘passed around’,
recommended or given away by the users
(or readers) that enjoy it can be considered
‘viral’.
I could go on to tell you that affiliate
programs, forwarded emails and shareware
are ‘viral’ but that could
take all night…
Instead, let’s talk about how
you will benefit from this powerful
marketing strategy…
ELICITING A DESIRED ACTION
Our ‘viral’ product doesn’t
bring customers unless we have built
in a way to generate traffic or sales,
so let’s talk about this for a
moment.
It’s all about what you include
to promote your product and where you
send the people that enjoyed your ‘viral’
product.
Ideally, anything that you give away
(or sell) with the purpose of spreading
like a virus should ultimately get the
reader, user or customer to take a desired
action.
You might simply want to get people
to visit your site or perhaps you want
them to follow a link to your order
page and immediately purchase your product
or service. The key here is that your
viral marketing tool must show the users
why they should take your desired action.
If you sell vitamins and you give away
a report about the benefits of vitamins
then your report is going to have to
show the readers why they need to buy
your vitamins and it’s going to
need to send them out to buy your vitamins.
In other words, once you’ve shown
your patrons why they need to take this
desired action then you’ve got
to ask to them act.
INCORPORATING THE INFECTION
Another point I would like to bring
up is this; your viral product can be
your ‘main’ product as well.
Don’t limit viral marketing to
just ‘add-ons’ that market
your main product. You can build these
ideas right in to your next product
by adding features that will make customers
(want to) recommend it to others.
Remember this, Hotmail didn’t
make the users ‘want to’
recommend Hotmail, instead, Hotmail
gave users no choice. Currently, I believe
that you can probably upgrade and remove
those messages (if they even still have
the tiny add at the bottom), but for
years Hotmail had enjoyed ‘free
advertising’.
STEP BY STEP
Before I leave you thinking about these
ideas, let me throw out a ‘step
by step’ plan. This is by no means
the best or only way; this is only a
starting point.
1. Create a ‘viral’ product
by providing information (or entertainment)
while bringing interest to your ‘main’
product.
Keep in mind, this can’t be ‘just
an advertisement’; your viral
product has got to be useful for the
users. If people don’t need it,
they aren’t going to pass it on
to others.
2. Include information that pulls the
user toward taking your desired action
(such as following an order link). Once
again, be sure that this does not come
in the form of advertisement; this has
got to be subtle.
3. Show the user how to give away the
‘viral’ product, show them
how they can benefit from giving away
your ‘viral’ product and
ask them to give it away.
Many ‘viral’ products are
brandable; this means that a user can
change out some links or add their link
to a specific area of the product. Letting
people customize your product will make
them want to give it away.
The preceding steps will serve as a
guideline to creating a viral marketing
tool; they are the basic ‘must
know’ steps to virally promoting
your product.
CONCLUSION
With so many ‘marketing tactics’
available to us, it can be hard to pick
or choose a good one. Don’t get
overwhelmed, get educated. With a little
bit of research and a clear idea of
which promotions will work for you,
you will be building a successful business
that will push you towards and even
beyond success.
Viral promotion is a powerful way to
drive targeted customers to your product
or to your web site. If you haven’t
already tried it then I urge you to
explore the advantages of this explosive
marketing strategy.
As you rummage through the myriad ways
to market your product, service or your
self, always keep in mind that if your
marketing is contagious, it will spread
it’s self for free.
Stay positive and enjoy your
success!
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Chris Brown runs SuperiorIncome.com, an
informative site,
dedicated to those of us who work from
home or really want to
make money. If you are interested in *top
quality* home business
opportunities, tips about making money
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