If you wouldn't mind indulging me a moment, I'd like you to think about a virus. What does a virus have to do with anything of interest to you? Well, a virus is something that enters the body as a microscopic germ and spreads until it virtually takes things over. Doesn't that sound like the perfect internet marketing campaign? How would an internet germ get through? You can start a viral marketing germ with a free tool, service, template or report, and if conditions are correct it can spread like wildfire. This article will share a few ideas about how offering a free product can perform wonders for your online business.
It is a well known fact that everyone loves free stuff. If the free stuff is something useful like a tool, template, service or valuable information, then so much the better. But many of us have a large section of our hard drives full of things we've downloaded for free and will never use. The original idea seemed good and we probably exchanged our email addresses for these bits of hard drive clutter, but something about them just didn't pan out. Maybe they weren't what we expected.
So if you're going to give away something free, and your motive is for it to create a viral marketing effect and be passed around the internet, you're more likely to be successful if you give away something that's really useful. What can people within your market really use? If your free giveaway is just some gimmick or even worse just an attempt to sell another product, it isn't going to get passed around.
But even if you do offer a true quality giveaway, what will make it go viral? You could have the greatest free tool which anyone can use, but what is going to make anyone take the time to pass it on to a friend? Can you simply ask them to? Maybe, but what if you gave a real reason to pass it?
Are there any affiliate links in the product? It may seem like this only applies to an ebook or report, but sometimes a tool will have a link to the author's web site. A free template will usually have a link somewhere around the copyright notice. What if these links were to an affiliate program, and what if the person who passed your free offer on could replace the link with their own affiliate link? Wouldn't it motivate someone to pass on a nice tool or template if they thought they might make a little money from it?
If you want someone to perform an action for you, you've got to show that person what is in it for him/her.
Dr. Michael F. Wilson, an internet marketing consultant and who has written a handful of useful resources on search engine optimization, has come up with six categories of internet marketing strategies. The first is search engine optimization, and the means to achieve this strategy are numerous. Launching contests is one, and it ranks up there with careful selection of keywords, quality content (not those you can get for free) and how to use meta tags, headers, links and directories efficiently.
Starting good SEO practices early in web design demonstrates heightened sensitivity to the developed intelligence of the major search engines like yahoo, Google and msn. To market your product or service successfully, you need the search engines to be your best friend. But you have to play by the rules.
For example, Google has devised a way to gauge link popularity. This measures how much quality and quantity links provide incoming traffic to your site. It ties in with their mechanism called PageRank. Your web site will fetch a good rank score based on the number of visitors to your web site - quality visitors that translate into points of sale.
How contests contribute to SEO ? if you're selling a product or service, you will want to target your niche audience. By launching a contest, you derive valuable demographic characteristics of this niche audience. You tweak your web site in accordance with consumer profiles. Contests also provide product and brand awareness and help develop consumer loyalty. They improve online dialogue long after the contest has ended. As we all know, word of mouth can be a powerful tool.
Contests will also enable you to track participation in terms of sellers and territories. Needless to say, if the contest turns out to be a mutually satisfying interaction between the contest sponsor and the participant, just think how many repeat visits that would bring to your web site.
So get ready for the spiders and robots that the search engines send out regularly to prowl the Net. Give vent to your creativity and start a contest!
Both Steve Renner & Amit Bhawani are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.