The term ‘viral marketing’ gets thrown around a lot but do people really know what it means. A lot of the most popular viral videos were unintentionally viral, so what do they have that my marketing campaign doesn’t.

Here’s my basic rubric for viral success:

• People enjoy quality original content (You have to stick out from the rest of the crowd so this is extremely important)
• Simplicity (Load times and ease of use weigh heavily on viral marketing campaigns)
• Scalability (Can your server handle the rush?)
• Viral enabling tools (We use a ‘refer a friend approach’ but you can use social media sharing buttons like ‘AddThis’ or ‘ShareThis’ that utilize social media to drive visits)

The most important component of any viral marketing campaign is again, the quality unique content. Magicomm uses rich interactive media in our websites to try and stick out, whether it be a variable video or some type of flash application. It’s becoming harder and harder to catch Internet users off guard because we’ve already seen a lot of it.

So remember the number 1 rule: Quality Original Content

Huge difference between “Target Market” and “Community”

The New England Printer & Publisher Magazine just published an article “The new marketing and sales business model” by John R. Graham, who is president of Graham Communications. This is one of the first articles that I have seen in a Print-focused magazine that discusses “social media marketing” and how it is impacting conventional marketing wisdom. It is important that printing companies that want to become “marketing solutions providers” pay attention to this trend. I think that he is DEAD ON in his assessment!

There’s an interesting dynamic going on now in the global marketplace. The individual is taking control of their communications (now being more appropriately called “conversations”) with corporations. Now, an individual that is not satisfied with a product or service can communicate that worldwide in nanoseconds through the power of the internet. The traditional editing process that publishers provided during the dissimilation of information has been reduced, if not completely removed in most instances. With YouTube, blogs, discussion groups, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc….The individual (or community would be a better description) has taken control of the message from the corporations. Corporations must “interact” with their customers if they expect to thrive in the future.

The concept of “Open” bi-directional communication between an individual and a corporation should be the rule, not the exception. By using this strategy, while engaging in a conversation, you will be surprised by the results. But putting this into place requires commitment of resources and time. You have to develop a culture that wants to share and be committed to create an “individual” conversation between your customer/market/prospect. Strategies will vary, but the end result will remain the same…Have conversation with individuals, Enhance relationship with market, Expand revenue opportunities. It’s as simple as that.

“See” Ya Later,
Rick Littrell
Magicomm, LLC

Moving from a “Push” model to more of a “Pull” model.

The New England Printer & Publisher Magazine just published an article “The new marketing and sales business model” by John R. Graham, who is president of Graham Communications. This is one of the first articles that I have seen in a Print-focused magazine which discusses the concept of “social media marketing” and how it is impacting conventional marketing wisdom. It is important that printing companies that want to become “marketing solutions providers” pay attention to this trend. I think that he is DEAD ON in his assessment!

There’s an interesting dynamic going on now in the global marketplace. The individual is taking control of their communications (now being more appropriately called “conversations”) with corporations. Now, an individual that is not satisfied with a product or service can communicate that worldwide in nanoseconds through the power of the internet. The traditional editing process that publishers provided during the dissimilation of information has been reduced, if not completely removed in most instances. With YouTube, blogs, discussion groups, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc….The individual (or community would be a better description) has taken control of the message from the corporations. Corporations must “interact” with their customers if they expect to thrive in the future.

The concept of “Open” bi-directional communication between an individual and a corporation should be the rule, not the exception. By using this strategy, while engaging in a conversation, you will reap surprised by the results. But putting this into place requires commitment of resources and time. You have to develop a culture that wants to share and be committed to create an “individual” conversation between your customer/market/prospect. Strategies will vary, but the result will remain the same…Have conversation with individuals, Enhance relationship with market, Expand revenue opportunities. It’s as simple as that.

“See” Ya Later,

Rick Littrell

Magicomm, LLC

If you think you own your brand then your are sadly mistaken. Companies have never owned their brand though they create it, market it and sell it.

Before the internet really took off, your brand existed through word of mouth and influence through traditional advertising mediums.

Now we are in an age where 1 person can reach millions with their brand experience and the bad news is there is nothing you can do to stop it. In a recent Twebinar someone through out a statistic that read something like; 80% of the population will research something on the internet before pursuing it. Now the question becomes, are you monitoring your brand?

The conversations are happening whether you like it or not. Some things you can do to take back your brand and contribute to its existence are:

• Monitor and understand your brand
• Recognize where the conversation is taking place/create the conversation
• Address any issues/complaints
• Reward and commend positive feedback

The internet and social media has changed the face of marketing. It hasn’t taken away control of your brand, because you never had control. It’s really only done two things:

• Gives a louder voice to the end user
• Gives companies the tools to communicate

What is your company doing to participate in it’s brands existence?

So it’s no news that a personalized landing page as a response portal to any kind of direct marketing campaign can increase response rates dramatically, but where’s the next step up?

Well it seems as if there are multiple cross-media technologies emerging from the web to help engage, interact and even entertain the user, therefore increasing conversions. We’ve seen how XMPie can personalize images with its powerful VDP engine, but what if the user could change their name at runtime? Furthermore, what if the users name wasn’t in an image, but in a short movie? This is the future of PURLs and will be a hit in the social media world.

I received a link through Twitter for a website about a TV Show on FX and I was amazed at what they had done. Here is the PURL someone made for me. This type of PURL has both a viral marketing factor to it and a huge fun component. Everyone wants to be the star of their own movie and show it off to all of their friends. Personalized video could very well be a key component in the future of PURLs as VDP in images becomes all too familiar.

Another key component will be the “on demand” factor. General URL’s are limited in how they perform once you leave the realm of your database. So how do you appeal to the masses with personalized landing pages? Well, why not have the website change at runtime. Here’s something my own company put together. Basically I wanted the user to be able to interact with the flash movie in real time from outside of the movie via the web-form. Using JavaScript, I was able to insert the users name into the newspaper at runtime and it’s had an amazing response. Using this method there are endless possibilities to creating unique personalized experiences where everyone has their own PURL.

People need a break from their everyday activities and these fun side trackers give them this opportunity and not only will these methods produce higher responses, but they’re great for PR. So the future is about Interactivity and Engagement, have fun!