CAT | Viral Marketing
Psssst, looking for a guaranteed way to make money fast? Then you’re in the wrong place.
I don’t believe there is a guaranteed way to make money fast. Unless you have a full piggy bank and a hammer of course!
The Internet is awash with get-rich-quick schemes. Many will generate some degree of wealth for the creator. Almost all of them will fail to put money in your hands.
If you’re hell-bent on making a lot of money I suggest you study what actual confirmed rich people actually did, rather than allow yourself to be take in by schemes concocted by anaonymous scam artists.
There are plenty of books that describe how millionaires made their money. For example, The Millionaire Next Door provides enough detail to conclude that making money requires a lot more than joining some make-money-fast scheme.
I’ll go so far as to say any scheme that requires you to grow an extensive downline is a world away from the every-day tasks outlined in the The Millionaire Next Door. And odds are, you will not get rich by joining and/or otherwise participating in it. In fact, you are highly like to leave with less money than you started.
Everything we’ve learned about the universe over the last 200 years tells us there is no free lunch. A few people get lucky (e.g. lottery winners), but always at the expense of others (e.g. lottery losers). The overwhelming odds suggest that you and I will have to work for our money.
And frankly, I prefer it that way.
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I’m on Fire baby!
3 Comments | Posted by Wayne Davies in Online Sales, Viral Marketing, Web Marketing
Companies do the craziest things. Take Amazon for example. They have created an awesome new tablet, given it an uber-sexy name, priced it lower even than my wildest dreams, and then refused to sell it to me.
I’m not kidding. I tried to buy the damn thing and got fobbed off with some rubbish about living on the wrong side of the Atlantic.
Excuse me? This is me you’re talking to. ME! Have you checked my order history lately Amazon? I think it only fair that you make an exception in my case. Either that, or start selling the damn thing here in the UK.
Here’s why I want a Kindle Fire
It’s lighter and smaller than an iPad. The iPad is too big and clunky for the use I have in mind. I need something I can use comfortably while on the tube. I get a lot of use out of an iPhone App called QuickOffice Pro. It has the ability read, write and edit both Word and Excel documents. I use it to…
- Review notes on the tube while traveling to meetings
- Make notes when heading back from meetings
- Write Proposals when heading to and/or from meetings
- Create, edit and/or review financial projections
QuickOffice Pro syncs with Dropbox. This means my notes, proposal, and/or spreadsheet are on my laptop when I arrive at or get back from meetings. The work I’ve done while on the tube is ready and waiting.
In other words, QuickOffice Pro and an iPhone allow me to be productive while on the tube. This time is no longer lost. And it’s especially valuable if there are delays on the tube.
An iPhone does an adequate job but I’ve been looking for something bigger. I want more screen real-estate and a larger virtual keyboard. I’d use this device to run presentations too, and leave my laptop in the office.
I looked long and hard at the iPad, and almost pulled the trigger. In the end I decided it’s just too big and heavy. The Kindle Fire is a far better fit for me.
Other tablet makers offer a 7″ device, but none of them can replace Apple’s App and support infrastructure. Amazon can. And now they have (what looks like) the very product I’ve been looking for.
I have already tried to place an order through my Amazon US account. No such luck. They won’t ship it to my UK address. The question is, why won’t the buggers sell it to me?
Viral marketing is one of marketing’s hot topics, and everybody is excited about the possibilities if offers us. It’s not hard to see why when you consider the potential return on investment.
To qualify as true viral marketing a campaign needs all of the following…
- A mechanism for infecting others (e.g. a ‘mail this to your friends’ form)
- A motivating factor that has one person want to infect another (a marketing version of one’s own sex drive)
- A sales or marketing benefit for the promoter of the virus
A mechanism for infecting others
Technically, a built-in mechanism for infecting others isn’t required for a marketing campaign to go viral. If the viral campaign is good enough it will spread on its own (e.g. one person emails it to another).
My view is that leaving things to chance increases the odds that human inertia prevents a campaign from gaining enough traction to go viral. One way to improve the odds in your favour is to provide people with one or more ways to tell others about it.
You can see an excellent example in this fun quiz from online sex-toy retailer Electric LadyLounge. I suggest you click the link, visit the site, and take the quiz (2 minutes tops). On completing the quiz you’ll see a results page that tells you your score, rates your knowledge (a giggle) and gives details on how your friends have done.
It also offers several ways to spread the virus – including Facebook, Twitter and Email. This makes it incredibly easy for people to spread the virus.
A motivating factor
Giving people the means to spread your marketing campaign doesn’t mean it will happen. People also need a reason to do so. The aforementioned Electric LadyLounge has provided 3 motivations…
- It’s fun:
People are going to want to spread this, just to see how well their friends have done. - There’s an incentive:
Every time someone you refer takes the quiz you get an entry into their competition. The more people you tell, the more entries you get. - It’s about sex toys:
Let’s face it – we’re all interested in sex, and enjoy a good laugh. If one of your friends is told s/he is ‘a danger to self and others’, it’s good for a giggle.
Most of us aren’t going to be able to use sex to help our viral marketing, but we can make it fun. And we can introduce one or more incentives.
A sales or marketing benefit for the promoter
The benefit of the above viral to Electric LadyLounge is obvious. They get to…
- Have fun with potential future customers (as well as existing ones)
- Showcase some of their products (you’ll note they link to them)
- Strengthen their relationship with customers
- Bring more people to their website
This particular viral marketing application could continue to generate traffic (and sales) for years, yet the cost to deliver it is relatively low (and fixed). What’s not to love about that?
