Online marketing solutions

What is Email Harvesting? Email harvesting is the process Where your email address lists are obtained, without your permission or knowledge.  They are used in various bulk and direct email marketing campaigns, usually labeled as spam.  Through spiders, spammers have obtained programs which look through web pages for email addresses, as well.

How does this affect you?

Email address harvesting is not a good thing.  Once your client’s email address is stolen and is now in the hands of a spammer,  your client will get flooded with spam and trash – almost immediately.

You could even be held liable, especially if your email address is displayed somewhere in that spammer’s email.  Your client will think it is from you and soon you may be trashed, and spammed.  The implications and results will be chilling.  Imagine  having to cancel and create a brand  new business email address?  Think of all the clients, associates, and prospects who are already signed up and linked with an email address taken years to build!

Why are they doing this?
Their one goal – to sell something or to conduct some illegal activity benefiting them with some monetary gain, all at your expense.  You have inadvertently become a target of their bad intentions now that they have your your email address list.  Some, just collect email address lists and sell them to marketing companies.  Pretty upsetting don’t you agree?

Reunion.com – Reunion.com dupes new members into signing up by sending them an email that pretends to be from an acquaintance who’s been looking for them (on Reunion.com, naturally). After signing up, the site extracts your contacts and immediately begins spamming them to join by sending out a similar email.

More and more companies have been considering engaging in marketing campaigns that involve “address book scraping, (address book harvesting)”  in which a user is asked to import his contacts (i.e., the e-mail addresses he has stored in his e-mail account address book) into his social networking Web site or other online service so that a message can be sent to those contacts inviting them to join the social network or to participate in a joint offering of the company and its partner.  In some cases, the user is asked to provide the username and password for his e-mail account so that the import can be done transparently.  Read Full Article

Legitimate sites use deceptive email marketing tactics as well.
Upon my research, I came across an article about a site known worldwide called “Classmates.com” which promises to hook you up with former classmates who just might be looking for you, if you upgrade to their gold membership.

Classmates.com Agrees to $9.5 Million False Advertising Settlement
Classmates.com — the website that promises to reunite people with their mullet-haired friends of youth — has agreed to pay out a $9.5 million settlement for a lawsuit dating back to 2008 accusing the company of “false advertising” through “deceptive” marketing e-mails.

OK – You  have convinced me – What should I do?
First, for those of you who want all the technical ways to protect your email lists online, please see:  Effect Methods of Protection.

As for me, I am a simple kind of gal living by the rules of  “make it simple – PLEASE!”.  After my research in this topic, one thing is for sure.  I will never import my address list anywhere, on any website, EVER AGAIN!

If you know a better way, please share.

YouTube is one of the most popular websites that exists today and it can be a great method for online marketing, no matter what business you’re in. Everyone on the web has had the experience of seeing a video from YouTube or seeing a video embedded onto another blog or Website. After launching the site in 2005, and being purchased by Google for $1.65 billion dollars in 2006, there seems to be no chance of stopping YouTube from being the leader for online video sharing.

YouTube is both amazing and unfortunate at the same time for the same reason. It’s amazing that anyone can post a video easily on the site. It’s unfortunate that really anyone can post a video. Every other person is reaching out for their 15 minutes of fame as we speak with their video blogs, talent shows, Star Wars routines, karaoke, and so much more. Nowadays news stations use clips from YouTube, people can watch clips from their favorite TV shows as well as theatrical trailers for new and upcoming movies, music videos…. Why bother staying tuned to listen to the President’s Inaugural Address when you can watch it later on YouTube in your spare time?

YouTube is as simple as…

Anyone with a video camera or web cam with a microphone can post content on YouTube.

To open an account, you must confirm that you’re 13 or older and create a username and password for the site. Once you are confirmed, you can begin uploading anything you want to show on video to the world, as long as it’s not copyrighted material (unless you own the copyright). If it is copyrighted, it will be removed, perhaps not the second you put it up, but probably very soon after. If just one person claims the material is copyrighted, it will immediately be removed. Each video can’t be longer than 10 minutes. You can have a succession of 10-minute videos if you want. After that you’re done and perhaps even on your way to getting your 15 minutes of fame. People can view your videos, you can view others, comment on them….

Learning with YouTube

YouTube is not just a place to show your favorite music videos, it’s a place where you can learn and teach others. Offer your expertise with tutorials on video. Learn how to draw like an architect, escape from handcuffs, pick a lock, moon walk like Michael Jackson, get really White Teeth. Pretty much anything you can think of someone has created a video about it and how to do it.

Marketing with YouTube

If anyone can use YouTube, why can’t you? Why can’t you market your business on YouTube or your school or University? The non-profit online Western Governors University established a contest amongst students. Students were given the opportunity to create a video about how a degree from WGU can enrich a person’s life. The contest promotes creativity amongst the students and it also advertises the university in a positive light.

At one point, Swiffer established a contest for people to make a video about how to break up with their mop. This was great exposure for Swiffer, people were entertained with the entries, and some lucky winner got $15,000.

So how can you use this if you’re a small business? Just make a video about your area of expertise or the products that you sell. See if others like it, comment on their videos, link your video to theirs, and already you’re getting viewers and comments. Now do it again and again and you increase your SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Now link your videos to your website and blog, which helps you increase traffic to your website, so you should have a blog in addition to a website. And there you have it; you have successfully used YouTube as a marketing tool.

Whether you create targeted direct email campaigns or are the recipient of them, there is one point on which we can all agree, we want and demand our freedom of choice.  This passion for options and choosing is instilled within all of us.  That is why the opt-in plays such an integral part of our HTML or e-newsletter email campaigns.

Opt-In Email Marketing is a powerful marketing tool when we want to reach a very specific and centered audience of possible purchasers.  If understood and implemented correctly, you will be building a top quality client base to interact with, while rewarding them with valuable offers and service.

The Right Attitude Attracts the Right Client

What are your goals when you send out your e-campaigns and e-newsletters?  Your two primary goals need to focus on building your opt-in subscriber list which in turn, is building a solid client database.  This will be the most valuable resource you will own, as this list will represent those clients that are waiting for and anticipating your email on a somewhat regular basis.  These are not lists bought and rented; they are yours and yours alone.  Clients that opt-in are exhibiting trust and a willingness to see what you are offering.  A client base built on opt-ins opens up the door for honest and open communication and a future list of loyal subscribers and buyers.

What’s in it For Me? – Where’s the Beef?
Do you remember that great TV commercial by Wendy’s?  People advertise value, but what they receive is not what was promised.  Going into a restaurant anticipating a large and juicy hamburger, then receiving one that can hardly be seen, creates distrust while pushing away a possible loyal patron.  What a great parallel example to your e-mail campaigns.  What valuable offer have you promised your recipients?  When your e-mail is opened, will they be disappointed having expected much more?

According to MarketingSherpa, “consumers want special treatment. They are giving up their precious time in exchange for the benefit of content – so that content should convey some real benefits.”  In a sampling of over 1,400 nationally representative consumers, most wanted to opt in if there was a worthwhile exchange.”

Value Added Tips

•    Sell to help – not just to make money: Your service or product should answer a need.
•    Offer valuable information or tips your recipients can use
•    “How To” instructional type tips are very well received
•    Offer discounts to first time subscribers
•    Offer special sales and discounts to repeat buyers
•    Create interesting content that appeals to your entire target audience
•    Always encourage feedback.  This creates an ongoing dialogue with your customers.
•    Follow up is a Must!  Once a sale happens, that is just the beginning.  Communicate with your client.  Let them now they are valuable and you are standing behind your product or service.  We all appreciate the personal touch.  You can’t communicate with an office or building.  Let them know that you are a real person and can be trusted.

Lastly, use all communication and feedback received to help you continue gathering a more accurate and detailed personal demographic profile for your email database.  This gives you the ability to create a more targeted future campaign, helping you become more successful; one campaign at a time.

Using these techniques effectively will increase your sales and opt in subscribers.  With the power of the internet and viral marketing, word of mouth will spread quickly from one happy customer to another.

What are you waiting for?  Get out there and build some long term trusted relationships right now.

Website Optimization is the process in which you specifically design and fine tune your website content to receive a high ranking in the Search Engines.   E-mail and internet marketers know, that this is no longer an option if you are seriously marketing your business online.  It is an absolute must.

Whether you are starting a new site, or re-evaluating the old, you need to know the building blocks of success.  You are building an Internet presence and becoming a worthy competitor in this savvy, hi-tech world.

Where to Begin? Keywords, phrases, title, images, and text  all play an important and integral role in determining website rank.  Your content needs to be keyword rich.  What are keywords?  Simply put, keywords and keyword phrases are the words you want to be found under when people search.  Don’t make them up in your head!  If you want to see how people search for your product or service, there is a free and powerful tool called “Keyword Tool” by Google.

Another way to be “keyword creative” is to list the brand or model name, as well as the keyword.  If you sell telephones, you should also list the brand names like V-Tech, Panasonic, and Uniden.

Placement of Keywords: Place your keywords throughout: header tags, titles, first paragraph of your body text, and the ALT Attribute of image tags.  The ALT attributes help get your images ranked higher for image searches.

How many Keywords/Phrases per Page? There is no right or wrong answer.  After researching this specific question for myself, the general consensus seems to be one keyword and phrase per page.  Others have suggested several more.  You will need to research your niche and see what others are saying and what their experiences have been.  You can also use the Google Keyword Tool to extract the main keywords of your competitor’s sites.  This will help determine what words they are using for a higher ranking.

Creating a Site Map: Site maps provide search engine spiders an easy access to site pages, as well as giving easy access to your site visitors.  Because search engines and visitors access your site map differently, different methods need to be applied that are friendly for both engines and search spiders. Google’s Tutorials on Creating and submitting site maps.

Search Engine Friendly: JavaScript and Flash navigation menus are cool, but  search engines don’t read JavaScript and Flash very well. Therefore, a workaround would be to have simple HTML links at the bottom of the page.  This guarantees a friendlier search engine page.

Submission to the major Search Engines and Directories. For a list of free directories, please visit:  Free Web Submissions.

Submission to Social Media: Social Media Sites are growing daily with thousands of new participants.  Submitting articles to these free sites, increases your Search Engine exposure.  Do you have a blog on your website?  It is time to create one.  Reaching out to clients and prospects with your personal voice puts a name and face on someone they can contact and respond to.  This is the age for personal communication.

Content is Still King: Nothing but nothing takes the place of  relevant and interesting content.  What good is it to have people find your site, and then click off out of boredom or frustration.  Is your content self serving?  No one cares if you think your company or product is the best thing since sliced bread.  People want to know, what’s in it for me?  Make sure your call to actions are clear and your text is to the point.  I personally hate going to someone’s site and having to keep scrolling and clicking to find out what I need to know.  Your most important information and capture leads, should be on your home page – standing out – easy to find.

Website Appearance:  I have been to many websites where the background was too distracting.  Make your site clean, use web safe colors.  Too many graphics and textures within your site make it hard to read and parse.

Lead Links: The most important links for any prospect to click on should be on your homepage.  Try to have your main links in plain sight.  I have seen websites that are literally over linked, if that is a real expression. Remember, most surfers have short attention spans and if they cannot see what they want quickly, they will most definitely find it somewhere else.

Promoting Your Business Online.  Today, many people search for local businesses on the Internet. Make sure they find you.  There are several ways to put your business and services online.  Please see our article entitled: Google and Yahoo Local Maps for Online Marketing.

Having done all, visit Google Webmaster Central and learn all you can directly, from the masters themselves.

If your business is ready to expand its products to the outer reaches of the globe, it might be time to research your potential expansion. Nowadays you can use search engines to investigate your options and see what’s popular using online marketing tools. If your search marketing tools haven’t come in handy yet, just wait and see because now is your chance to use them.

Find out which Services and Products will succeed in the Global Market

Do some research before you begin wasting money sending out shipments of your products. You need to figure out who wants your products?

Come up with a list of key words that are relevant to your products and services. Test them out in search and see how many results appear. Now you have to be careful with this if you are writing in English and you want to market your products in China or Italy or Israel. You won’t be helped if you translate your keywords, especially with an online translator. You will not get the correct results and the whole process will have been useless.

A keyword that is translated from English is never going to give you the right amount of results on a Search Engine and instead will most likely tell you that there isn’t a possible market where you’re looking. You could potentially lose an opportunity to expand your products to a new market if you trust results from translated keywords. The solution for this problem is using native-speaking professional search marketers who understand keywords and can use the right ones in their native language to conduct the necessary research.

The most beneficial part of this type of market research is that it’s incredibly fast. The not so great thing is that your competitors are probably doing the same thing at an incredibly fast speed as well.

Plan your Market Entrance

You must figure out how you’re going to distribute your products and services to the public. Will you go through agents, your own offices which you’ll have to set up, separate distributors, or simply online? Whether you decide to work exclusively online or with physical distributors or agents, your website will still be a great resource, but your market research will be different based on each method.

Make a list of Companies to test your products on

Just because every time you type your product into Search and there are more results in Australia instead of China, does not mean that there is actually more interest from Australia. It just means that China uses English less in their search. This means that there are plenty of markets out there they just use different key words.

If you use the keyword process correctly, then you can use it for coming up with possible countries that might be interested in your products, just as you did originally to choose which products to market globally. But your research isn’t done there.

You need to read a little bit about the country and learn about the prices for products in each country and if people will buy your product for an equal or greater price than you are already selling it for in your HQ country. You need to know if it’s worth opening your product up and if you’ll earn money in that country, as well as knowing how easy it is to take your money out of the country of interest.

Time to Experiment with a Test Market

After your initial research, it’s time to test out one of your potential markets. You don’t want to invest too much in case it doesn’t work out, so be careful with your initial investment.

Also it’s not necessary to completely rewrite your website for specific market but it helps to make it more user-friendly. A great way to test the waters is by using PPC (Pay-Per-Click). This is an efficient, cost-effective method to test out the market.

Branch out with SEM and Online PR

After you’ve finished testing the waters with Keywords and PPC, it’s time to step up the game. Use some more SEM methods to establish your business in the country of interested. Expand your PR online, localize your website for that country using a Native-speaker and see how well you succeed.

You’ve succeeded once, so do it again!

Go down the list of potential markets that you created and do the research for the next one and the one after that. Start with the keywords, check the results, use Native-Speakers, try PPC, increase your online PR, and the process continues.

Why Use Market Segmentation?

Segmentation helps guide us as we focus on the prospects that will be a good candidate to purchase our offer, service, or product.  As an arrow is carefully aimed at a target, positioned strategically to hit the mark, so must our campaigns be accurately focused and targeted for the greatest receptivity and results.

When direct bulk email campaigns are carried out properly, it helps insure the highest return for our marketing sales and expenditure expectations.  Whatever the service or product you are selling, who you sell it to, will define the design, content, and message.  Each segment has its own unique demographical makeup.

Segmentation strategies have traditionally been used by email marketers for years…Clients or prospective customers are classified according to different demographic criteria and are then selected for different types of marketing activities or communications. Models can be used and tested to predict which segments are most likely to respond to which types of e-campaigns based on their previous histories.  Identifying profitable segments to be targeted, results in a much higher return on marketing investments (ROI).

Defining the Main Areas of Segmentation

Depending on whether you are selling to individual consumers or a business, there are definite differences in what you will consider doing, when defining market segments for your e-campaigns. To apply this knowledge accurately, you need to devise a specific segmentation strategy, designed and crafted around your message according to your subscribers’ preferences and action history.

Each Segmentation Focuses on a Different Aspect of the Targeted Client

Demographic Segmentation: The focus is on who they are:

• Gender
• Marital Status
• Age
• Profession
• Income
• Location
• Education
• Family Size

Using demographic segmentation research to determine subscribers within a particular age range and income is a real eye opener.

According to the Boston Consulting Group, “women drive the world economy. They control $20 trillion in consumer spending, and that figure could reach $28 trillion in the next five years. Women make the decisions in the purchases of 92% of vacations.”

These stats alone might cause you to modify your next campaign and its focus.

Behavioral Segmentation: The focus is on what they do. For example, how to people purchase?  What are their criteria?

• Benefit Preferences
• Brand Loyalty
• Readiness to Buy
• Impulse Shopper
• Price
• Time Constraints
• Need

When studying the stats from your last email campaign, following the behavior of your recipients is crucial to improving the future effectiveness of your next strategy.  What link did they click on in your newsletter?  What links did they visit on your website?  Did they click on the call to action?  Did they visit your landing page?  Each site experience is different.  With the help of behavioral segmentation, you can personalize their experience.

Attitudinal Segmentation – The focus here is on what they think.  Attitudinal Segmentation categorizes target customers, grouped together by a shared set of attitudes.  How someone responds to the world they live in, the things that they buy, and the services they desire, is what makes a person tick.  This is the most interesting segmentation, because it crosses over every other segmentation profile.

How a person reacts or what their goals and drives are, helps create a persona.  Personas cross all industries, markets, and culture.  Personas are created as a guide to help the seller or service better understand how to relate and understand that individual.  Whether you are a restaurant owner, designer, technical writer or developer, you need to create personas to market the right tools, and services, to the right audience.

In Conclusion:  No matter how much data we may collect, it takes time to get insight into our customers, visitors, and prospects.  Using surveys online along with customer feedback, we can begin to understand our prospects and clients on all levels.  With the right understanding, we can continue to create and modify successfully targeted campaigns.  So what is the right segmentation to use?  The right segmentation is the one that works for you.



We are living in a tech savvy existence.  Our day-to-day activities revolve and depend upon our ever-growing digital world.  This is a perfect setting for increasing our email campaigns.

From the very onset of the first email campaign, email marketing is and continues to be one of the most important tools for B2B and B2C email marketers in the arena today.  It is still the fastest and most cost effective strategy, sending out hundreds of messages to our lead databases in today’s global market.

The Internet is a main source of survival, not only for the seller, but for the consumer, as well.  Worldwide communication, for the most part, emanates from the Internet.  Our correspondence, conversations, and documentation seem to be headed towards a paperless society.  Every area of our life is affected.  The digital innovators of this age continue creating more tools and applications, with a focused dependency upon technology, not only for business, but for our pleasures and enjoyments, as well.

One Size Does Not Fit All

I am sure you have seen this famous tag (One Size Fits All) on many items of clothing.  Whether you are a size 4, 6, 8 or 12, they are telling you, one size fits all.  It denies our physical uniqueness, size, and preference in one’s appearance and choices.

This type of thinking may have crept into our email marketing campaigns.  Demographic studies show this just can’t be true.  Our target segments are constantly changing in age, marital status, preferences, physical locations, and professions.  Sending out generic mass emails is ineffective and may cause the loss of subscribers in the process.

I remember joining a cable company.  Spoke to and met the representative.  Long conversations and then we closed the sale.  Many times after that, I kept receiving mass  notifications under my door to buy their plan and get better deals.   They were generic advertisements absolutely nullifying my being a client and having met with and reached out to their client representative.  It really made me angry.

Generic Emails do not Differentiate between Clients and Prospects

•    Generic emails give a strong disconnect message to the recipient of any prior buying or contact history.  It is as if it never happened.  They are impersonal.
•    Generic emails discount the tracking history and stat results of prior campaigns.  You are shooting in the dark.
•    Generic emails fail to create value and interest, since they are not based on demographics or history.
•    Generic emails do not create, nurture or encourage a personal dialogue or feedback.
•    Generic emails show a lack of appreciation and value to your clients.
•    Generic emails make everyone a prospect, never acknowledging the client.
•    Generic emails create irrelevant messages which can lead to unsubscribers, spam, complaints or inactivity.

As smart marketers, we need to follow the formulas that work – sending the right message to the right subscriber at the right time.  Our clients are the reason we exist.  They need to feel special, and more importantly, acknowledged and appreciated.

This type of parsing can only come from demographics, stats, and history.  Without careful segmentation, you can push away good customers, who just might take their purchase potential with them somewhere else.

Remember: Prospects and clients need different email campaign strategies.  Generic email campaigns tend to make everyone a prospect, resulting in ineffective and irrelevant messages and unwanted results.

With millions of people using the Internet and the Worldwide Web for shopping, communications, and business, reaching your targeted segment online becomes easier each day.  No one can promise any method of marketing brings in 100% results. However, the bigger the marketing mix, the better your chances are for success.

An email campaign marketer should use every resource available to create buzz about their company, product, or service.  The acceleration of knowledge and technology is growing and changing at lightning speed.  Sometimes is seems that we will never be able to keep up, but keeping up and staying on top, are the key elements of remaining competitive.

Marketers are very resourceful people, constantly looking and searching for the latest new technology to help their business be seen and heard.  Well Google and Yahoo are actually out there helping.  Not only do these tools work, but they are free!

Google Local Maps: There are so many ways to be found on the web.  When people are searching for products and services, does your business come up on top?  Do you know how your business ranks in the search engine results pages (SERPs)  Some marketing analysts  have stated, it may take from 3-6  months to gain good rankings.   Is there a way to expedite your business ranking?  Yes, with Google Local.

1.  Go the Google Maps. Click “Put your Business on Google Maps.”  -  If you do not have a Google Account, take a few minutes to set one up.

2.  Log into Google with your user name and password.  Click on “Add New Business”.  Note:  If your business has more than one location, you will need to create an excel spreadsheet and use the selection “Upload a Data file.”

If you need any help or information before proceeding, watch this video:  http://www.google.com/help/maps/tour/

3.  Fill in all the information  You will be able to edit, add photos, etc. after completion  Please read paragraph on top of the website page before going on.   Review all your information before hitting next and submitting.

4.  You will have the choice to be contacted by phone or by post card via mail.  Make your choice and hit submit.

Once you are confirmed, check to see if you are coming up with your search tags in the listings.  Google suggests 7-10 days.  Some people have found their listings within hours of verification.

Yahoo Local Maps.  Yahoo combines a search engine with a yellow pages style type listings.  Yahoo gives most of its space to business listings, while providing a tiny map in the left column.

Go to Yahoo Local Maps.  Click Sign up.

1.  Fill out all the information provided on the screen.

2.  Review and submit.  Yahoo states it will take around 3-5 business days.  Check your submission status at:  http://local.yahoo.com/ – for questions or to contact Yahoo Local,  go to this link:  http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/local/

Be aware, that Yahoo gives paid ads more prominence than Google.

Research and  use every tool available to help create a buzz about your business or service.  In today’s Internet marketplace, you need to be a very active player.   The tools are there, using them is up to you.

Valuable Resources: Here is a link that gives you great sites in which to start networking your site, service,  and brand.  Happy surfing!

During an economic recession, very few businesses have the option to expand their budgets. Most businesses are strapped for cash and are cutting all extraneous expenditures wherever possible. This being said, it’s hard to imagine any business being able to spend as much as they want on a marketing campaign. I know every business dreams of having TV spots during the Superbowl reaching millions of potential customers in 30 seconds, but chances are that your business can’t afford it.

But without marketing, how will you continue to stay in business? You can’t just rely on your old customers, especially if you’re a new business because you don’t have any old faithful customers. No matter what, you have to continue to maintain some kind of marketing campaign. Email marketing is an effective way to market your products, services, and/or business to those old faithful customers and to potential customers as well.

Why use email marketing?

There are so many reasons to use email marketing, especially in a time of financial crisis. One reason being, that it’s just cheaper. Sending emails into the inboxes of all of your customers and potential customers is much cheaper than using snail mail. Direct mail involves extraneous costs for paper and postage stamps. Let’s not forget that it is much less effective than email marketing.

Email marketing lets you directly communicate with your customers, instead of sitting and waiting for them to get in touch with you. It reminds them of your presence and what you have to offer them. You can your customers updated, entice them with sales and post direct links for certain services or products that you know they’ll be interested in. The truth is that Google does this all the time. They watch and take note of all of our activity on the web, and then they begin to advertise certain products that they know we’re interested in.

With an email marketing campaign you can see how effective your advertising. You can see how many people click on your links through CTRs (Click Through Rates) and want your services. And you’ll see more traffic to your website. The nicest thing is that email marketing is fairly simple and there are products all over which will help you set up your campaign and continue tracking it to see how effective it is.

According to marketingterms.com,  “viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.”

This type of marketing depends upon  passionate  individuals – passing on your marketing message,  increasing its potential of exposure and influence within seconds.  Like a virus, its ripple effect is passed on quickly, infecting hundreds and possibly thousands, in a relatively short space of time.

Of course, there was a time the expression “word of mouth” was sort of the same thing.  In a way, viral marketing is the Internet parallel, since most of us will be blogging, emailing, using SMS and Skype, to share and announce our latest and most exciting discoveries of products, resources, and specials.  With just the multiplicity of email, a company’s ROI can skyrocket within a matter of weeks.  With all this potential and power at our fingertips, we need to make our campaigns as effective as possible.

Viral Market Strategies:  Here are some effective components to include in your next Viral Marketing Campaign:

1.    Free is good: Free has a powerful pull, but free should never represent poor quality.  The free approach draws people in, after that; there are more opportunities for a sale, according to Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, E-commerce Consultant.

2.   Easily transmitted:   As a virus spreads quickly and rapidly from person to person in the right conditions, you need create and use the fastest and most seamless vehicle that will spread your message without delay.  Using email marketing campaigns to your targeted lists will help expedite that process.

3.   Backlinks and Affiliates: Network with different affiliates.  Get your links, ads and logos out there.  The more back links pointing to your site, the greater importance your site is deemed by the search engines, thus, giving you a higher standing in the Search Engine Results Pages known as the SERPs.

4.  Evoke Reactions: Your message needs to be a catalyst of emotions and opinions from your audience, piquing their interest and curiosity to read further, and know more.  Why not do something unexpected or different.  Catching people off guard with the unexpected is great marketing.

5.  Market the Social Internet Communities: The more accessible information can be shared, the more rapidly it will be spread.  submit your news on the social networking and bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg.  They have established niche communities.  Find yours.  Submit articles, make comments on other stories, be seen, be heard, and be out there!

Have you signed up with Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or LinkedIn?  What are you waiting for?  With thousands of people registering per day, it would be foolish to pass up such a lucrative marketplace.

The tables have turned with the evolution of the Internet.  The power has shifted from the marketer to the consumer.  Within a matter of seconds, their opinions and voice are spread rapidly throughout the world by one single email.

So don’t be a viral marketing casualty as Laura Lake reminds us to:

1.    Mean what you say and say what you mean.
2.    Stand behind your product or service.
3.    Under promise and over deliver … always!