Thanks for asking!
What exact methodologies, or specific tactics,should we do that will
virally spread this promotion to dramatically expand our
downloads/installs? This will include specific web sites, email
tactics, locations where we can post this for free, live events,
search engine methods, etc to leverage the power of viral marketing.
Of course, I can't guarantee these recommendations will produce a
dramatic upswing in your downloads and installs, but I can present
methods which have been shown to be effective for other companies
marketing to the Enterprise IT sector. I've divided this presentation
into two sections: Marketing the Product and Marketing the Promotion.
In order for the promotional campaign to be most effective, several
viral marketing techniques should also be applied to the product
itself.
Viral marketing, in a nutshell, is simply word of mouth on steroids,
to quote Marketing professional Jim Sterns. Although I'm sure you are
familiar with a number of viral marketing techniques, I'm going to
invite you to skim through just a couple of sources that I've used as
my own guidelines in developing these marketing recommendations.
Hopefully, that will provide a better understanding of the reasons
I've selected specific methods, and stayed away from others.
"Dr. Ralph Wilson, a well-known and respected e-commerce consultant,
has identified six major elements to most successful viral marketing
campaigns. Most programs:
PROVIDE AN INCENTIVE TO THE CUSTOMER TO PASS THE MESSAGE ALONG. If
there is a defined reward for sending the message to a certain number
of other people, be it a coupon, a free software tool, or what have
you, users will pass it along to everyone in their e-mail address
book.
FACILITATE THE COMMUNICATIONS PROCESS BETWEEN THE CUSTOMER AN THEIR
PERSONAL HUMAN NETWORKS. The easier it is to send the message to
others, the more likely the consumer will be to take some of their
valuable time to spread your offer. Commonly, this is accomplished
through “refer-a-friend” and “pass along” functions that encourage and
centralize the process.
CAN BE SCALED TO FIT ANY VOLUME OF RESPONSE. The program must be
prepared to face whatever the response may be, whether three or three
million people participate. Due to the very nature of a viral program
it is impossible to predict how many will respond and what the rate of
response will be.
PLAY UPON COMMON HUMAN MOTIVATIONS. People are predictable. There are
certain things that elicit action from nearly everyone. Things such as
avarice, social acceptance, and humor can provide the general impetus
to get the ball rolling in a viral campaign.
SPREAD VIA EXISTING COMMUNICATIONS NETWORDS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE
PROGRAM. The strength of viral marketing is that it utilizes other
people's communications pathways to carry your message. By using
personal human networks as a marketing vehicle, the potential reach of
a viral campaign is almost limitless.
CAPITALIZE ON THE RESOURCES OF OTHER ENTITIES. A side benefit of a
viral initiative is that it uses other people’s tangible and
intangible resources, including their contacts, e-mail accounts, and
bandwidth."
Internet.com - Clickz Today
How to Catch on to Viral Marketing, by Stephen Diorio
http://www.clickz.com/mkt/onl_mkt_strat/article.php/837321
C. Whan Park, professor of Marketing at University of Southern
California further defines this marketing concept: "Despite its simple
elegance, viral marketing is not easy. Good viral marketers understand
three basic things: First, they know how to inspire customers to
praise them. Second, they understand how to find the champions of the
company. Third, they know how to work with them effectively. We will
cover each of these components in kind."
Park identifies three types of customers: "A viral marketing campaign
is nothing unless there is something for customers to talk about. In
this article, we consider three types of customers: external customers
(those who buy your product), dissatisfied customers (those who suffer
at bad experience with your product), and internal customers (your
employees, board members, and other stakeholders). For each we look at
ways to inspire them to spread the word."
Park concludes with the advice: "Don't blow it with advertising.
That's right. Viral marketing works mostly because people have
something interesting and perceived unique to spread around. If you
start to advertise too early, you can kill the incentive of champions
to pass along a great message. After all, one of the benefits of being
a product champion is that you and your message are unique. Take that
away and viral messengers have less incentive to pass the word along."
The full article, with additional, specific how-to advice, is
available at:
CRMguru.com
I Heard It Through the Grapevine:
How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing, by C.W. Park
http://www.crmguru.com/features/2002a/0321cp.html
VIRAL MARKETING TECHNIQUES FOR eSAFE
**********************************************************************
Advertising Within the Product
I receive mail from every week from IT professionals in companies
shown in your company's customer list. I've not yet seen a small
blurb, with clickable link, at the end of any such e-mail such as:
This document guaranteed Virus Free by eSafe. This small viral
marketing tactic was used by Hotmail to obtain over 12 million
individual users within one year. As and IT professional myself, I
take note of such "guarantees" at the bottom of mails I receive, and
often investigate. What IT professional, other than those already
using such heuristic anti-virus protection -isn't- interested in
improving the security of their e-mail and servers?
Besides stressing the built-in benefit of giving your customers an
added tool to provide peace of mind to their organizations e-mail
recipients, you might consider giving an add-on product or additional
features to customers who use this built-in marketing tool for you,
providing incentive for them to send your message into their own peer
contact networks.
White Papers
************
When I'm looking for product information about a class of software, I
often add the search terms "white paper" to my search string. White
papers can be a powerful viral marketing tool for your products, and
best of all, many of the very best tech sites actively solicit these
reports as content. The more white papers you have available, the more
likely you are to be found. Any information about each of your
products, or commentary on the technology in general is welcomed.
Third-party websites will often provide storage and bandwidth.
Win/win. Always include your own website link in each white paper.
Offer a free additional white paper as a bonus for registration that
includes referral of a friend or IT colleague.
Bitpipe's Executive survey confirms the efficacy of this advertising
method.
Executive Survey of IT Professionals
http://www.evaluatorgroup.com/English/Collaterals/Miscellaneous/BitPipe_Survey_200209.pdf
Distribution of IT white papers can be accomplished individually to
specific websites (listed below), or through distribution networks
like Charlwood eMarketing
Charlwood eMarketing
http://www.charlwood.com/white_paper.htm
or through syndicators such as Bitpipe
Bitpipe.com - Reach IT Buyers
http://www.bitpipe.com/data/web/bp/vendors/vendors.jsp
White Paper Writers
*******************
Hoffman Marketing Communications
http://www.hoffmanmarcom.com/sample_deliverables.html?referrer=googlea
White Paper Company
http://www.whitepapercompany.com
IT White Paper Websites
***********************
C|NET ITPapers.com
http://www.itpapers.com/resources/submit.html
ZDNet White Papers
http://itpapers.zdnet.com/whitepapers/submitpaper.asp
ITworld.com (requires registration)
http://zeus.itworld.com:9000/WhitePapers/
Computerworld
http://itreports.computerworld.com/data/web/cw/cw_submitdata.jsp
TechRepublic (requires membership)
http://www.techrepublic.com/index.jhtml
Comdex
http://comdex.bitpipe.com/data/web/cmx/cmx_submitdata.jsp
Yahoo! IT MarketPlace
http://yahoo.bitpipe.com/data/web/yah/yah_submitdata.jsp
Webcasts and Online Seminars
****************************
Providing free webcasts and/or online seminars about the
implementation of superior anti-virus protection is another way to
attract targeted customers. Again, Bitpipe's statistics demonstrate
that these products are an excellent platform for viral marketing,
with nearly half of "attendees" contacting the vender directly, and
two-thirds passing information along to their bosses.
Bitpipe Webcast Survey
PDF format, requires Acrobat Reader plus Registration to view
http://wp.bitpipe.com/resource/org_973204426_74/Webcasts_bpxstream.pdf
Online Scan
***********
Many of your competitors have used an Online Scan as a promotional
tool for varying lengths of time. Though these services have now
generally become fee-based, this has been a useful way of building a
user base and product word of mouth.
VIRAL MARKETING TECHNIQUES FOR THE TRY IT, WIN IT! PROMOTION
**********************************************************************
E-mail Marketing
****************
Start with your own e-mail lists, especially your Channel, Solution
and Software Commerce Partners. This is an opportunity to ask them to
"Refer a Favored Supplier/Customer" to try eSafe, and of course, offer
an entry in the Try It promotion. Some sort of incentive might be
offered to entice referrals.
Ask, and provide incentive, for your Partners to include mention of
the promotion in their own advertising or e-mail campaigns.
Permission Marketing - Opt-in Lists/Newsletters of IT Professionals
YesMail
http://www.yesmail.com/solutions/default.asp
http://www.yesmail.com/images/pdf/datacard/B2B_ITProfessionals.pdf
Opt-Influence.com 11M+ Subscribers
http://opt-influence.com/advertisers/categories/
Topica Advertising
http://www.topica.com/advertise/
More Opt-In Email Opportunities from the Google Directory
http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Marketing_and_Advertising/Internet_Marketing/Marketing_Services/Opt-In_Email/
White Paper Advertising
***********************
In any white papers published, include a referral link to a "generic"
promotion page, containing information which expands the detail of the
white paper. Place an Entry Form and Download link, as well as a
Friend or Colleague Referral link. At the moment, this used for the
Try It/Win It page, but the permanency of this type of linkage would
be recyclable for future promotions as well.
Search Engines and Directories
******************************
The days of search engine doorway pages are nearly over. This method
of using the search engines for advertising has become a quick way of
getting your site banned from a number of the engines. However, it's
not against the "rules" to place links to your promotion on many of
your site pages, and mention the promotion in your keywords or
description, or menus. Placing links in standard menus can be an
effective method of getting information across in search results.
Search engine advertising is not as cooperative as you'd probably
prefer in terms of timing. You have little control of the exact
schedule that your site is crawled, and how long pages persist in the
search engine results.
Live Events
***********
Your Events page shows your company scheduled for the major events of
the next few months. How about giving away a CD with some sort of
eSafe based Quick Scan? The CD wouldn't need to be installable, but
could be used either from the CD drive, or copied and run from a
directory, and would have to be initiated manually. In other words, a
somewhat disabled version of the software as a trial. Place a "Pass
Along" message on the CD lable. Include a link to the Promotion Entry,
and a method for users to request a CD for a friend or colleague.
A popular event attraction is the eCard. Offer visitors to your booth
the opportunity to send location related eCards, each with a blurb:
Virus Protected by eSafe, again, linked to the Try It promotion page,
sending your marketing message out to many new contact networks.
Posting for Free
****************
There are numerous classified websites out there, but I seriously
doubt that IT professionals would use these outlets as a basis for
purchasing decisions. Listserv and Discussion lists are another
possibility, however, most lists and groups have rules about the sort
of advertising allowed. This is where the concept of product champions
is best utilized. By advertising in Enterprise IT publications,
building a list of promotion entrants, then developing a user survey
which asks about internet behaviors, you can identify eFluentials and
product champions. By offering this class of user special incentives
to try your product, you'll gain a distinct advantage of advocacy,
viral marketing, in discussion lists, forums, and newsgroups. Learn
more about this special class of Internet users at:
eFluentials.com
http://www.efluentials.com/
Many eFlentials Blog. After you've identified your product advocate
profile, search for Blogs to sponsor. Blog sponsorship is one of the
newest viral marketing trends. Weblogs Compendium provides a fairly
comprehensive directory of blog hosts:
Northern Lights Internet Solutions - Weblogs Compendium
http://www.lights.com/weblogs/hosting.html
EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL VIRAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
**********************************************************************
In my travels this evening, I've run across a few descriptions of
specific viral marketing campaigns. Though none duplicate your own,
perhaps you might gain additional ideas from the examples of other
companies utilizing this advertising method.
The Best Online Advertising Method - Word of Mouth
http://www.iboost.com/promote/marketing/viral_marketing/20021.htm
Wall Street Journal Online - eCommerce Report
http://www.domainmart.com/news/WSJ_ecommerce-marketing2.htm
Viral Marketing - The New Word of Mouth
http://www.bivingsreport.com/search_view_full_article.php?article_id=82
**********************************************************************
Google Search Terms
enterprise "viral marketing"
"information technology" "viral marketing"
"opt-in email" OR "permission marketing"
"anti-virus" advertising campaigns
marketing white papers "anti-virus" software
"technology blogs"
I hope these ideas and resources match your expectations. Should you
have any questions about the information or links provided, please,
feel free to ask.
--larre |
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