Category Archives: How To

Quick and easy descriptions of how to do marketing things.

How To

Go Ahead, Bug Your Customers

What is a Viral Campaign?

Have you ever visited a website and found an article, a coupon, a special offer, or something else that impressed you so much that you immediately sent an email to a friend about it? If you have, you’ve experienced “viral marketing”.

Viral marketing is a low cost, highly effective way to reach your customers using the internet. This “word of mouse” method is like a bug or flu virus in humans. Instead of replicating and propagating itself to other humans it does it to other computers (in a good way). One minute nobody’s heard of it, next minute, it’s everywhere. Viral marketing is so effective because it lets you capitalize on referrals from an unbiased third party—your consumer! Let just one of your customers catch your “marketing bug” and they will happily spread it to everyone they know.

So what then is a viral campaign? It’s a specific marketing promotion that focuses on something you do, NOT on who you are. It is also not something malicious or under-handed. Viral marketing is used by reputable companies trying to promote reputable products. A viral campaign does not use spam or programs that force people to see or do things they do not want.

Instead, a viral campaign is something that is so cool, so exciting, or so creative that it gets people so excited; they can’t wait to share it with others. It’s subtle, not forceful. It’s uncontrollable. The exposure you get from this MAY raise sales or otherwise help your company name recognition, but that’s actually the by-product. That’s why it’s so effective if done correctly!

With a good viral campaign, people feel compelled to spread your word. They can’t help themselves (just like sneezing when you pass a virus around). The heart of a viral campaign is the content. People don’t spread what you say or do because they love you, they spread it because they can’t help but adore your content. Don’t forget! They are not evangelists serving you, they are self-serving.

So, all successful viral campaigns appeal to any one (or all three) of these basic human motivators: entertainment, greed, or charity.  For an example of a viral campaign, check out SkiHeroes.com.

How To

Choosing Blog software

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/images/blog_software_comparison.cfm Have any thoughts to add? ]]>

Frequently I’m asked by clients which blogging software I recommend.  Although, I’ve gone through a variety of flavors of blogging software over the past few years, I’ll admit I’m far from knowing every option.  Which blog software people choose should be based on what their goals are and web skills.

Here are my top tips when considering business blogging software:
-Hosting
Decide whether you want to use a service provider to host your blog (web page) or if you will do it yourself.  Note: While a hosted solution gives you less control over changing the software, it also saves you all the server setup and administration headaches. If you want to get started quickly, you can always start on a hosted solution and then export the content to your own down the road.

-Design
How your blog will look can be accomplished in multiple ways.  Many hosted solutions have wizard-based layouts that can be tailored somewhat–great to get started.

The next stage of design is custom CSS.  This is where you would start using background images and make other layout adjustments. This is a good option if you are looking to still use wizards and to control some basic design elements.

For the most control over layouts you can use full custom templates (html knowledge needed) and the time to test the code.

For some good side-by-side comparisons of popular blog platforms check this out

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/images/blog_software_comparison.cfm

Have any thoughts to add?

How To

How a ski area manager blogs

Ski Snowstar Winter Sports Park in Andalusia, IL. He’s a regular fixture at the ski area and has a great sense of humor. Yes, he’s a natural to blog. At first Ed was concerned he’d have nothing to blog about. I recommended that he discuss the trials and tribulations of the “inside workings” at the area. That’s just what he did. I think it almost became therapeutic for him. He’d write about his frustration with the weather, especially at 3am when it wouldn’t cooperate. He wrote about his joy of being able to open the area the earliest ever. Then the heartache of having to close most of January due to unseasonably warm temps. Readers and guests loved it! There’s tons of supportive comments all over Ed’s blog. He even said he’s heard from people all over the country that he hadn’t talked to in years! Talk about a win-win for both sides. So what made Ed’s blog successful? A large part of it is Ed. He was consistent in writing and able to not take the blog or himself too seriously. Want to check out this blog? Click here…]]>

Today I want to take a few minutes to highlight one ski area manager that took up blogging at the start of the 2005/06 ski season.

Ed Meyer is the General Manager of Ski Snowstar Winter Sports Park in Andalusia, IL. He’s a regular fixture at the ski area and has a great sense of humor. Yes, he’s a natural to blog.

At first Ed was concerned he’d have nothing to blog about. I recommended that he discuss the trials and tribulations of the “inside workings” at the area. That’s just what he did. I think it almost became therapeutic for him. He’d write about his frustration with the weather, especially at 3am when it wouldn’t cooperate. He wrote about his joy of being able to open the area the earliest ever. Then the heartache of having to close most of January due to unseasonably warm temps.

Readers and guests loved it! There’s tons of supportive comments all over Ed’s blog. He even said he’s heard from people all over the country that he hadn’t talked to in years! Talk about a win-win for both sides.

So what made Ed’s blog successful?

A large part of it is Ed. He was consistent in writing and able to not take the blog or himself too seriously.

Want to check out this blog? Click here…