With a majority of attention focused on search engine optimization and banner advertisements, it is easy for companies to invest solely in these ventures, ignoring other possibilities for online strategy. While both search engine optimization and banner advertisements are integral and successful in enhancing visibility, there are alternative approaches to online marketing that should be explored.
A few of the prominent other’ online marketing tactics are viral marketing, opt-in emails, promotions & offers, online public relations, online street teams, newsletters and partnerships. These strategies focus on reaching a smaller more targeted audience as opposed to the larger and unfocused audience banner advertisements and search engine optimization often reach.
Viral Marketing Campaigns
One of the most effective ways to reach your target audience is to utilize a viral marketing campaign that is specific to your audience and ties in to your offering. In viral marketing, customers themselves promote your company through endorsements. The customers act as agents and are encouraged, usually through incentives, to pass along messages or offers from a company to their friends. Those who receive these word-of-mouth recommendations via email are more apt to respond positively to the message since it was received from a trusted friend rather than a nameless corporate entity. This illustrates the importance of personalization in a viral marketing campaign: emails forwarded from consumers to friends should be formatted to include the referring participants name to show that the information is coming from a trusting friend and thus a reliable source. Personal reference serves as one of the main sources for an individual’s information environment. It, more than many other forces, influences the customer’s purchasing decisions and views. Since the endorsement is coming from a friend and not the company itself, individuals are often more accepting of the messages being presented. Companies should thus focus on this notion of trust by placing a strong emphasis on sincerity in regards to the implementation of a referral program or other type of viral marketing campaign.
Cyber-NY worked on a viral marketing campaign for an Internet publication that was looking to increase email subscriptions for a newly released e-zine. The campaign used a fun interactive game that appealed to the target audience and was a direct tie-in to the subscriptions they were trying to gain. This game was emailed to a large group of customers from the company’s database and included an option to send the game to friends. The intended result was that once the customer played and enjoyed the game he or she would opt to send it to a list of friends who would then play the game and send it to their friends and so forth. This particular campaign was very successful and even received acknowledgement from top media sources worldwide. In addition to its success rating, the benefits of this type of campaign can be seen in its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. After the initial cost of a viral marketing campaign, in this case the cost of creating an interactive game, there is no additional cost. Once the strategy is implemented companies can essentially wait to see the results. These results include a strong ROI, increased exposure to a wider audience, and a positive image for the company. Viral marketing thus becomes a great tool to use in gaining initial exposure, but can and should be implemented continually in order to expand the reach of your company’s messages over time.
Opt-In Emails/Email Newsletters
As a follow-up to viral marketing campaigns, opt-in emails provide customers with the choice of what information they wish to receive regarding a specific company. Often a potential consumer will receive an email from a friend, illustrating a viral marketing approach, without any knowledge of the service, product, or company highlighted in the email. At this point the receiver can opt to obtain more information via email. This option allows the customer to feel a sense of control over the interchange and places the company in higher esteem for the customer who does not get bombarded with emails, but rather can decide what information to receive and for how long. The benefits for the consumer are thus increased knowledge and a lack of annoyance. For the company, the benefits are even greater. To begin, creating opt-in emails is a relatively inexpensive process especially when compared to the large audience that can be reached through an email campaign. These emails are personalized and thus allow the company to individually target and build ongoing relationships with consumers. Further, these emails are capable of being tracked so that companies can better evaluate their effectiveness and scope. Ultimately the increased visibility will lead to increased website traffic and sales.
An effective way to use opt-in emails is by including a promotion or offer within the email to entice customers. Incorporating promotions and offers into your marketing strategy is a great way to increase sales, drive traffic to your web site, reward loyal customers and gain a positive image. This strategy is inexpensive, but has the ability to have a tremendous ROI. Online marketing promotions cost significantly less than offline promotions do and are oftentimes easier to implement. Promotions and offers can range from contests to sales to sweepstakes, but ultimately should be created to arouse excitement about a product or service.
As an example of a successful promotion, Cyber-NY recently hosted a celebrity online chat in which fans could ask a well-known actor questions and receive immediate and personal responses. Working with one of its prominent film clients, Cyber-NY arranged to facilitate the chat, which attracted online participants from around the world. Both Cyber-NY and its client received tremendous exposure in a targeted audience as celebrity fans responded positively to the event.
Online Public Relations
Another means of generating interest to trigger sales is through online public relations. This strategy is directed at gaining free or inexpensive publicity through news sources, e-zines, and even fan sites, which often includes the use of press releases or incentives carefully distributed to relevant media and special interest websites. It is a well-known fact in the marketing industry that potential customers are becoming increasingly more skeptical of advertising and marketing tactics since there is an underlying acknowledgement that both tactics are implemented by a company for that company’s own interest. Public relations, however, does not inspire this critical approach since it is often viewed as unbiased due to its presentation as news rather than as a sales tactic. Customers are more willing to accept information they receive from public relations sources such as the news media or special interest websites because these sources act as information suppliers whose goal is to aid the customer. Public relations thus serve as a prime outlet for exposure. If used effectively, online public relations can increasingly draw highly targeted traffic to your website for little to no cost, while creating a general trust in your company.
Online Street Teams
Another marketing strategy has been the implementation of online street teams as a means of generating interest in a company or product. A street team is a coordinated group of fans that work to promote a product or personality through word-of-mouth strategies and promotional advertising. Similar to viral marketing, online street teams are successful due to their interpersonal communication of events and information. The focus is on continuing messages and reaching as many people as possible. If appropriately implemented and carefully managed, this marketing strategy can provide an inexpensive means of reaching a large audience that is interested in your message.
Online Partnerships
A final marketing strategy I wish to address is that of online partnerships through sponsorships or affiliate programs. This is a terrific way to reach a larger audience since partnerships increase the area your website could likely cover. Additionally this could be an opportunity to add credibility to your website through associations with an already established company or product. The ultimate goal again is to increase exposure.
Each of the aforementioned marketing tactics supports a type of unconventional marketing referred to as grassroots marketing. The focus for grassroots marketing is on the customer and building relationships. It invests time and imagination in its marketing solutions rather than relying on only advertising or marketing devices, which are limited in scope. Cooperation is also emphasized through approaches such as developing partnerships. The overall goal of this marketing is to gain increased, but more importantly, positive exposure. It is through tactics such as viral marketing, opt-in emails, promotions & offers, public relations, grassroots campaigns, online street teams, newsletters and online partnerships that exposure and sales are increased. In today’s competitive market it is important to implement new and successful marketing strategies that allow your company to gain an advantage over competition.
Kevin Fitzpatrick has been a project manager at Cyber-NY (http://www.cyber-ny.com/) New York City based online marketing agency for over 3 years. He has worked on numerous projects that involve search engine optimization and has secured top placements for numerous clients.
