A company’s market share is the amount of money in sales the company earns in the industry as compared to how much the entire market has earned as a whole. One way to measure a company’s market share is to divide the company’s sales revenue by the amount that was earned by the entire industry.

For example:
  Company X sold $1,000,000 in sales of handbags last year.
The entire handbag industry sold $5,000,000,000 for that same time period.
1,000,000 / 5,000,000,000 x 100 = 0.02% market share.

Companies concern themselves with their market share when they hope to bring new investors into their companies. Those who are searching for a new company in which to invest will want to choose companies that have a market share that is currently growing. This means that they are increasing their sales faster than the rest of the market and usually becoming more and more profitable as their market shares go up.

Another time for a company to concern itself with its market share is when they are looking into how much revenue they are earning relative to their competitors. As the market share goes up, companies can convince their management to increase their output and advertising efforts in order to continue increasing their profitability. If the company cannot demonstrate to its board of directors that their current strategies are having a positive effect with the increased market share they are commanding, they will have a more difficult time continuing with their present business practices.

A third time market share is critical is when you are in a “land grab” market, usually where the market is completely new and whoever gains the largest market share will command the largest profits in the future. Social networks are the newest examples of a land grab market.

Although the market share can show investors or boards of director that the company’s sales are decreasing or increasing, it does not always translate into decreasing or increasing profits. An example of this is the Apple iPhone. The iPhone has only 4.2% market share in the mobile devices market but it commands a massive 51% of the profits in the industry (AppleInsider.)

Market share is just a statistic as as the saying goes, ” there are three types of  lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Market share can be used to tell almost any type of story. The real usefulness of market share comes into play when you can use it to draw conclusions about past activities and future direction. When examining your market share, don’t get caught up in the number, but rather look at the number as a reflection of what you’re doing in your business and marketing.

When you perform a search in a major search engine such as Google or Bing, there are two kinds of results that show up. There are the “organic” listings, which are based on the search engine algorithm. There are also the sponsored listings, or advertisements. These advertisements are powered by a methodology referred to as Pay Per Click, or PPC. This has become one of the most ubiquitous forms of advertising on the Internet, and it is not limited to the search engine results page.

This is an entirely different model than that of traditional advertising. Traditionally, you would pay for a specific amount of airtime on the television or radio, or for a certain amount of space on printed media like a magazine or a newspaper. The payment structure of PPC is, to some degree, more like a finders fee or a commission. Rather than paying the search engine or publisher to display the ad, you pay them only when a user actually clicks on the ad, and visits a page on your website.

This payment is typically based on an automated bidding system. You choose the price that you are willing to pay, and every time somebody searches for a keyword of your choosing, your bid is compared to that of all your competitors. If you bid high enough, you will be listed in the advertising section of the search engine results, or an ad on a publisher’s website.

How Does Google Determine the Cost of PPC Ads?

As mentioned above, the cost of a PPC ad is based on a bidding process. However, whether or not you show up in the advertising space, and how high, depends on a factor that they refer to as Ad Rank. The higher your ad rank, the closer you are to the top of the advertisements.

Ad rank is the product of your maximum bid and your quality score. The maximum bid is simply the most you are willing to pay for each click, but your quality score is something more complex. The exact method used to determine your quality score is not revealed by Google, but they have released a list of factors that influence it. Google has said that additional relevance factors are used, but not released.

• The click through rate of the advertisement, which is the percentage of users who click on the ad when they see it.
• The click through rate of your account history, which uses the information from all of the ads and keywords in your account.
• The click through rate of your entire domain
• The relevance of your keywords
• The relevance of the ad to the keyword
• Your account’s past performance in the region where it will be displayed

How PPC is Better than SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is about trying to rank highly in the organic search engine listings. It can be a very effective strategy. PPC and SEO are not mutually exclusive strategies, unless of course you plan to monetize your site by publishing PPC advertisements. That said, there are some important advantages that PPC has over SEO.

Immediacy

There is no wait time between beginning a PPC campaign and bringing traffic to your website. As soon as you bid high enough, you will start to see results. SEO can take a long time to have results, and these results are not guaranteed by any means.

Exact Keyword Targeting

While SEO can get pretty accurate about the keywords it targets, it is still more of a shotgun, while PPC is a sniper. This makes it easier to measure the effectiveness of your campaign.

Budget Control

You can decide exactly how much to spend during any given period, change your mind on a whim, and there are little, if any, upfront costs.

Precise Landing Page

You control exactly which page of your site your visitors end up on in order to maximize your conversions. SEO, to some degree, could land a visitor on any page of your site.

Less Fallout

SEO may require extensive changes to the layout of a site, or even to the fundamental design. It could require pages and pages of new content that don’t necessarily provide any real benefit to a site visitor. PPC requires none of this.

Location Control

You decide where your ads are seen so that only specific locations are targeted. SEO brings in people from all locations.

Nimble

A PPC campaign can be adjusted in response to incoming data at a moment’s notice. If a particular keyword turns out not to be profitable, you can immediately stop pursuing it as a traffic source.

Fewer Opportunities for Waste

You can spend money for ages on an SEO campaign and see no results. With PPC, you only pay if you are getting results. This doesn’t always guarantee a profit, but at least you are guaranteed to see some activity for every cent you spend.

Buy Your Position

SEO can never guarantee the number one position, but as long as you have enough money you can guarantee the top position in a PPC campaign.

How SEO Is Better Than PPC

Despite the numerous advantages listed above, PPC is not without it’s disadvantages. Primarily, there are two ways in which SEO is fundamentally superior to PPC. The fact that there are only two, rather than the numerous advantages listed above, does not mean that PPC is “better” than SEO. Both are effective tools, and are effective in different situations.

Users Don’t Trust Ads

This is nothing to laugh off. Despite the fact that your advertisements will usually be listed above the organic search engine listings, many users are likely to simply ignore them and go directly to the organic listings. In fact, the vast majority of users do exactly that. This is why a PPC campaign will never bring in as much traffic as an authority site that has earned a solid ranking close to the top of the search engine results.

SEO Has No Cost Per Click

While it takes a great deal of upfront costs and usually takes a long time to be successful, SEO has one serious advantage over PPC, you do not have to pay for a single visitor that comes to your site. In other words, additional traffic does not require additional payment. Some SEO campaigns don’t even require you to continue paying for SEO once you reach a certain level of success. For this reason, the long term ROI of an SEO campaign is often higher than that of a PPC campaign.

Kinds of PPC Ads

Most of the discussion above is focused on search based PPC, but this is not the only way to undergo a PPC campaign, it is just the most popular. Here are the three kinds of PPC ads, and what they have to offer.

Search Based PPC

Discussed at length above, this strategy is most effective for local businesses, because of the fact that it can be used to target specific regions. This works best on users who already know about the products that you sell, but don’t know that you are selling them. In short, it brings in hot leads.

PPC on Content Networks

This is when you display an advertisement on a content-based website such as a news outlet or a blog. In this case, you are targeting users who have a problem and are researching this problem on the web. Once again, you can restrict the display of the advertisements so that they only show to users in specific locations.

Demographic Driven PPC

This is a strategy that allows you to display ads to users with a specific demographic profile. This method is most commonly employed on social networks such as Facebook. If you have a very specific customer base, or if you have separate landing pages for different demographics, this can be one of the most targeted approaches available. Because social networks are inhabited by people in a social, rather than a buying, mindset, there is some question as to how effective this can be.

Common PPC Campaign Mistakes

Sometimes, the best way to learn what to do is to start by figuring out what not to do. Here are some of the most common mistakes that advertisers make when trying to use PPC to increase their profits.

Clamoring for the Top Spot

Your ad is still very visible in the #2 spot, and the spike in advertising cost for the #1 spot can often make quite a difference.

Treating Search and Content Traffic the Same

Users who click on ads in the search results and users who click on ads on a website are not necessarily in the same frame of mind. It is best to approach these two different audiences differently, and test them separately.

Bidding Everywhere

Just because the internet is global, that doesn’t mean your customer base needs to be. Even if you target a global audience, users are more psychologically prone to work with a company that recognizes their location.

Conflating CTR and Conversion Rate

Don’t just track whether visitors click on an ad. Track whether that click leads to a purchase or some other positive action on your site. If all it does is get them to visit your site, there isn’t much benefit.

Going too Broad

You will receive more visitors per dollar if you target very specific keywords than if you target broad industry-wide terms. And, assuming the ad actually takes the user to a relevant landing page, this will also improve your quality score because of the increased relevance. Users will be taken directly to the part of the site they are looking for.

Eliciting Boredom

Do NOT copy the competition in your niche. Say something unique and interesting to stand out from all the other advertisers on your keyword.

Unsuitable Landing Page

The advertisement should reflect the content of the landing page. If an ad promises something that isn’t there, most users will immediately leave. Even if it’s on the page, they won’t notice it if it’s not in plain site. Internet users have a very short attention span.

Including Your Phone Number

Many studies have demonstrated that users will not call you just because they see your number in the advertisement. This space is better used doing something else.

Things You Should Do To Increase PPC Effectiveness

Bid for Your Own Brand Name

Competitors often try to bid for your brand name, stealing traffic from you. Don’t let competitors steal your traffic. It is especially important to check your own affiliates to make sure that they aren’t doing this.

Use Exact Tracking

Every single visit to your site from PPC advertising should be tracked by the exact keyword. If you aren’t doing this, you will never be able to judge the effectiveness of any given campaign, and you won’t be able to improve your results.

Use the Keyword in the Ad

This is basic, but it’s surprising how many advertisers make this mistake.

Use Seasonal Promotion

Making your ads seem up to date and relevant, especially with regard to holidays and current events, will have a noticeable effect on your results.

Specify Negative Keywords

If you are paying for a “broad match” keyword, it means that you will receive traffic from users who searched for your keyword with additional words added. If these are words like “free,” it wouldn’t make sense to advertise for them, because these users will be looking to pay nothing for your products. You can specify keywords like this that don’t convert.

Spotting the Frauds

If your ads are also displayed on content networks, some of these sites are complete frauds. Take the time to spot websites that send low or no conversion traffic. You can drop these sites so that they stop sending you fake traffic.

Report Offenders

If a competitor is using a tactic that goes against Google’s terms of service, contact them about it. It’s surprising just how fast they will resolve the issue.

Test Singular And Plural Versions

This can also include other alternative versions of the same keyword. In many cases, you will find that they have different conversion rates and click through rates.

Research Your Audience’s Search Patterns

Much of this research should ideally be conducted outside of the search engines. This includes surveys, polls, and so on in order to identify information that you might not be able to find.

Keep Testing

No matter how well your ad campaign is working, you should continue to refine it phrase by phrase and look for ways to keep improving your ROI.

Rotate New Ad Campaigns

The “best” ads according to Google are those that have the highest click through rate. You should be rotating the ads to find out which has the highest conversions early on, since the click through rate can be meaningless at this point.

Record Your Data

Lead data should be stored into a CMS system that is easily sortable and quantifiable. The goal here is to identify which ads bring in the highest quality leads, and try to determine what about those ads is so effective.

Use Analytics Tools

While free analytics tools can be very helpful, professional tools are much more in depth and provide you with the kind of information that can be extremely valuable for your campaign.

Watch Your Competitors

Changes in your competition can have a significant impact on your own success. Don’t copy them, but keep an eye on them to see what they are doing, and watch out for competitors who are copying you.

Who Should Consider Using PPC?

Virtually any time of business should consider whether PPC can be beneficial for them. It is a misconception to believe that your business has to be “online” in order for you to benefit from the internet. The fact of the matter is, more people use the internet today to find out about local businesses than the phone book. It can prove beneficial for businesses of all kinds: big, small, online, offline, global, or local.

That said, just owning a business is not a guarantee that PPC will be useful for you. As discussed above, SEO may be a better use of resources, and there may be many other investments your business could make that may prove more lucrative. It is not useful or beneficial to make blanket statements like “every business should use PPC.”

The key thing to remember about PPC is that, for the most part, it is only useful for selling products that customers are already aware of. You are attempting to funnel traffic that is looking for the kinds of products that you sell to your website. PPC can’t be used to spread awareness about a product that people aren’t already aware of. If they don’t know about the product, they won’t be searching for it, so they will not see the ad.

Another thing to keep in mind is that PPC may not be effective for businesses whose primary source of income is advertising. Using advertising to direct people to a site that uses advertising is simply asking users to jump through too many hoops, and it is questionable whether or not this complies with the terms of service of these networks in the first place.

The Best Way to Learn PPC

Most importantly, use it. No matter how much helpful information you can find hear or elsewhere, the only way to become successful with PPC is to try it, use it, test it, and keep refining your strategy. It is entirely up to you how much you spend on PPC, so the risks are as low as you want them to be when you are first starting out. A PPC campaign that isn’t working can be ended as soon as possible. You can test strategies on a few small, exact keywords and see which strategies are working the best for you. Many of these strategies can then be scaled to whatever size your budget allows.

Do not allow yourself to suffer from analysis paralysis like so many people first trying to break into the industry. Trial and error is the only way to know for sure what works, preferably if you track and record each and every trial and error so that you can perfect your technique.

A loss leader is a product that retailers put on sale at or below the wholesale price. Pricing an item below cost seems counterintuitive, but the retailers actually have an ingenious strategy here. The point is to drive the sales of other, more expensive items with the promotion of cheaper products.

Not every product can be a loss leader, so retailers need to examine the item before they decide to employ this strategy. The perfect loss leader is the one that a lot of people buy on a regular basis. These people know when these particular items are on sale and will be appreciative of that fact. Since the retailer will need to put a limit on how many of the sale items customers can purchase, they will need to keep coming back to look for more of these particular sales. One good type of loss leader for a grocery store would be something that has an expiration date.

When Does Employing the Loss Leader Strategy Make Sense?

The loss leader strategy is not always the best one to use, but there are times when it makes sense. Sometimes retailers have items that are not very popular with the customers. By slashing the prices of these items, retailers can encourage people to purchase these items. It also works when retailers have purchased too many of a particular item and they are not moving out fast enough. Creating loss leaders out of the overstock also works to help these items sell.

Another time to consider the loss leader strategy is when a store, a discount store, for example, wants to be known as a leader in the low price arena. Retailers can succeed at this when they can advertise their loss leader merchandise at its very low price. The other great consequence of doing this is that more people will become aware of these low prices and the retailer will see an increase in the number of its customers. Continuously employing this strategy makes these new customers permanent customers, because they will never want to stop saving money on quality merchandise.

Example of a Loss Leader

An example of an industry that is using the loss leader strategy very well is the mobile phone industry. These mobile phone companies that offer mobile phone service to their customers give away cell phones for free or at significant discounts. In exchange for the phones, the customers are required to sign a contract for mobile phone service for at least a year. The amount of money paid for this service more than makes up for the losses they incur from giving away phone subsidy.

Getting Started

The best way to make this strategy work is to employ it in the most honest fashion possible. This means that there should be enough of the product in supply to allow a large number of people to take part in the promotion. Because retailers cannot know how long this particular type of promotion may last, when advertising they will need to make sure to have the words “while supplies last” in the article.

If you’re considering utilizing the loss leader strategy, ask yourself: What you can afford to provide at a loss that would drive purchases of highly profitable products?

Final Note…

If you don’t thinking through all the implications of this strategy, it can lead to some serious cashflow problems but if you take everything into account, this can drive a significant amount of purchases in your business.

We’re building a marketing planning and management software. It’s going to be awesome or at least it’s vision of it in my head is awesome. However, so far it hasn’t been used by anyone yet.

The primary reason for this is that I’m currently building it while working on a number of other projects for my web design company clients. This means I don’t really know if it’s good. I don’t know that marketers really need what I’m building. And most importantly, I don’t know if they need it desperately enough to whip out their credit cards and become paying customers.

All of these things are pretty common unknowns for new businesses. As entrepreneurs and marketers, we instinctively have a gut feeling that people will need what we are building. We believe in the problem and that’s why we are building the solution… but we’re simply assuming. What we need to do is get to where we know there is a Product-Market Fit between what we’re offering and what our potential buyers want/need.

How do we get to Product-Market Fit? There are a number of really smart people who have written on the topic of Lean Startups and a lot of them cover Product-Market Fit pretty well. I’m learning by practicing.

There following are great resources for Product-Market fit that you should explore:

• The Startup Pyramid by Sean Ellis (read at least everything before “Race up the Pyramid” section)
•  Getting to Product-Market Fit by Patrick Vlaskovits (probably the best overview of PMF)
• The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 4: The only thing that matters

Creating a business plan is important for the successful development of your business. It is not only about having a plan to show investors, but it is also a rather essential process in your business planning stages. A well-researched business plan may take many weeks to complete.

By taking the time to thoroughly research every aspect of your business and think about the entire business process, you will gain a better grasp on starting your business. It will also help you to avoid critical mistakes down the road. Having a well thought out business plan could be the determining factor of whether your business fails or succeeds.

Pros of a Business Plan Template

A business plan template provides a visual guideline to help you organize your thoughts. As you go through the process of creating the business plan, you can think of concerns and issues that might not have been thought of before if you had not taken the time to create a business plan. Hypothetical situations that could arise in the future can be addressed in your business plan.

Cons of a Business Plan Template

A business plan template might not be the best solution to creating your specific business plan. There may be crucial information that should be included in your plan, which may not be a part of a generic business plan template. You have to make sure that you are putting the facts and figures in all of the right places. Also, you may find that you need several financial spreadsheets that require a lot of math calculations.

Important Tips

1. Stay clear and focused on your specific business plan.
2. Update your business plan regularly.
3. Create a business plan that custom fits the needs of your business.
4. Develop your business plan so that it is suitable to your reader, whether your reader is yourself, your business partner, a potential investor or a banker.

The business plan provided here is a generic template that is suitable for every type of business, though you should modify the plan to suit the needs of your business. It will help guide you through the process of creating your own business plan. You can add to the template, or revise it according to your business needs.

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I. Table of Contents

A table of contents is necessary in a business plan so that each section of the plan can easily be referenced. It is best to start each new section on a new page of your business plan. Using this generic business plan template as an example, the following is its table of contents:

I.  Table of Contents

II. Executive Summary

i. Objectives
ii. Mission
iii. Keys to Success

III. General Business Description

i. Mission Statement
ii. Goals and Objectives
iii. Personal Vision of Growth Potential
iv. Experience, Skills, Strengths
v. Legal Form of Ownership

IV. Products and Services

i. Product and Service Description
ii. Accepted Payment Methods
iii. Method of Distribution
iv. Customer Support and Services
v. Visual Materials

V. Marketing Plan and Sales Strategy

i. Identifying the Target Market
ii. Advertising Your Business
iii. Competitive Market Pricing
iv. Competitors
v. Promotional Budget

VI. Organization and Management

i. Personnel and Responsibilities
ii. Legal Requirements of Business Operation
iii. Suppliers and Inventory
iv. Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents
v. Professional Advisors and Support
vi. Exit Strategy

VII. Personal Financial Statement and Plan

i. Important Assumptions
ii. Break-even Analysis
iii. Key Financial Indicators
iv. Projected Profit and Loss

VIII. Startup Expenses

i. Cost of Licenses and Permits
ii. Legal Fees
iii. Equipment Costs
iii. Start-up Inventory
iv. Cost of Business Development Services
iv. Marketing Costs

IX. Milestones

X. Appendices

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II. Executive Summary

The Executive Summary is probably the most important section of your business plan. This is the section where you want to capture the attention of your readers and compel them to want to know more about your business, so try to make it sound enthusiastic, professional, and thorough. If you are applying for a loan, you should include information about the amount you are requesting, what you will use it for and how the money is going to make your business more profitable to ensure repayment.

This summary should be no more than two pages in length. When writing this section, it helps to think about your business from the perspective of the investor or bank lender. Also, it is much easier to write this section last, after you have completed your business plan.

III. General Business Description

The General Business Description section should give a complete description of the business. At this point, you should have registered a business name and purchased an internet domain name for your website.

In this section, you should include:

• A mission statement for your business describing its purpose.
• A brief overview of the business goals and objectives.
• A personal vision about the growth potential of the business.
• A list of your reliable customers (or potential customers) with a list of backup customers.
• Reasons why you chose to register your business as a Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, S-Corporation, or Limited Liability Corporation.
• Reasons why you believe the company will succeed.

IV. Products and Services

The Products and Services section should make it clear to your reader what you are offering, how much it costs you, and how the customer is going to pay for it. Describe your products and/or services in depth and include technical specifications (if any), as well as visual materials including pictures, catalogues and brochures. If your business sells products, you should include information about any existing or pending trademarks, copyrights, and patents that are associated with your business.

In this section, you should include:

• A description of products and/or services.
• Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents.
• Types of payments that will be accepted such as cash, check, credit cards or COD.
• Methods of selling such as wholesale distribution, mail order catalogs, retail, internet, independent sales representatives, agents and contractual bids.
• Information about customer support, guarantees, warranties, returns, replacements and other product related services.
• Visual materials such as pictures, brochures, catalogs or drawings.

V. Marketing Plan and Sales Strategy

No matter how great your products and services are, it will not succeed without effective marketing. You need to thoroughly research the market to make sure you are on the right track. Analyzing the market plays a necessary role in determining whether or not your business will succeed. If there were no market, there would be no need for your business.

This section should identify your targeted market, your targeted customers and strategies on how you will reach your market. It should also describe the current demand or anticipated market situation of your business and the part your business plays in the market.

Identifying the Target Market

First, you need to determine whether your customers are consumers, wholesalers, retailers or distributors. Create a demographic profile of your targeted customers including information such as age, gender, education, income level and location. Information such as this can be found in newspapers, magazines, trade journals, and census data in places such as a public library or chamber or commerce. Another option is to gather fresh data yourself by implementing surveys and focus-group interviews.

Advertising Your Business

Describe how the targeted market would normally find out about products or services from a business such as your own. Common advertising methods include flyer distribution, business cards, brochures, mail inserts, websites, emails, internet search engines and word of mouth. It also includes media advertisements such as trade magazine advertisements, newspaper advertisements, radio advertisements, television advertisements and signage such as your business sign and advertisements on billboards.

Advertising your business through a website will require you to market your business to the Search Engines in order to have your website ranked high in the search engines. Many businesses use Search Engine Optimization strategies which include writing webpage content with keywords and meta tags to increase their web page rank.

Competitive Market Pricing

The rate of your services and/or cost of your goods will have an effect on the market segment as well as an effect on the targeted customers in that segment. If the market is highly competitive in costs, then you also operate your business in a price competitive manner. Explain how your business can offer competitive rates in the market.

Competitors

It is also an essential part of your business plan to gather information about your current competitors as well as future competitors. Consider the products or services that your competitors are offering and determine if it will have a negative impact on your business. A growing number of new businesses will indicate that the market for your products or services is available.

Include a short paragraph about the competitive advantages of your business as well as its competitive disadvantages. Explain why customers would choose your company over your competitor’s company.

Promotional Budget

It is important to determine your advertising budget before looking into advertising methods. This will save you from wasting time on researching advertising methods that may be out of your budget range.

VI. Organization and Management

This section will describe your business in detail with information such as personnel, legal requirements, suppliers, contractors and a network of advisory support.

Personnel and Responsibilities

In this section, you should include a list of the available positions and a description of the responsibilities that come with each position.

Legal Requirements of Business Operation

Include information regarding licensing, permits, bonding requirements, insurance coverage, and other regulations pertaining to your business.

Suppliers and Inventory

Determine where you are going to get your products or services and where you are going to keep your inventory if you are in the business of selling products.

Professional Advisors and Support

It is also advisable to list a network of professional advisors that can provide support for your business such as a consultant, banker, attorney, accountant, insurance agent and board of directors.

Exit Strategy

An exit strategy is a major part of your business plan. You will want to plan ahead for the future of the business. If the business should succeed, you may decide to build the business, take on a financial partner or sell it outright for a profit. If the business should fail, you may want to sell the business or completely close it.

VII. Personal Financial Statement and Plan

In this section, you will need to create a break-even analysis to find out how much revenue your business has to bring in every month in order to reach the break-even point.
Some of the important financial assumptions that you can use in your calculations are interest rates and tax rates. Also include the projected profit and loss from your business.

VIII. Startup Expenses

In this section, you should include:

• Cost of Licenses and Permits
• Legal Fees
• Equipment Costs
• Start-up Inventory
• Cost of Business Development Services
• Marketing Costs

IX. Milestone Plan

A milestone plan is a vision of progress that should be started or completed by specific dates.

X. Appendices

Include a list of details, studies and visual documents such as:

• brochures, catalogs, flyers, drawings, and other advertising materials,
• market research and demographic studies,
• photos and a map of the location,
• information gathered from magazine or other published writings,
• a detailed list of business equipment,
• copies of leases and contracts,
• a list of assets that can be used as collateral for a loan, and
• other documents that are needed to support your business plan.

Eye tracking is one of the newer tools that marketers can utilize to determine the effectiveness of an ad campaign or web page design. At its most basic, eye tracking is simply following what the subject is doing with their eyes during a specific interaction or task. Where on the computer screen are they looking? How long are they gazing at a particular area? Based on how long they look, marketers can draw an inference about whether something is working or not.

For example, if there is an important widget on a page but people are consistently not looking at it, repositioning may make it more effective. Recognizing that people are consistently not looking at it is one of the roles that eye tracking can play.

Why use eye tracking?

One of the core reasons to use eye tracking is that people in studies tend to provide answers they think are desired, often subconsciously. Subjects can say the content was clear and easy to understand, but if the eye tracking shows they reread it four times, it may need some refinement.

There are multiple options when it comes to getting eye tracking done.

Eye tracking has recently gained a lot of momentum and today you have a number of options if you’re looking to get eye tracking done. The first is to outsource it completely to a research company that will attempt to answer your question. You provide them with a set of tasks that you want your subjects to complete and they’ll provide you with a heatmap of where people focused their eyes. A few examples of such companies:

• answerlab.com
• keylimeinteractive.com
• eyetrackingtest.com

Eye Tracking Products

The other option is to purchase or lease products that would allow you to conduct eye tracking in-house. There are a number of products on the market that can help you with this. Often they usually come in a combination of software and hardware, where the eye tracking software works with special hardware to detect eye movement and pupil focus accurately. Here are some solutions for you to consider:

• iscaninc.com
• sr-research.com
• smivision.com/en/gaze-and-eye-tracking-systems/products
• seeingmachines.com/product/facelab
• innerscoperesearch.com
• asleyetracking.com
• eyetracking.com
• tobii.com

Some packages can cost thousands of dollars while others may only cost a few hundred. Most eye tracking systems will install on any computer running a supported version of Windows. Many can also be installed on a Mac.

The investment can be recouped quite quickly by identifying oversights in design or implementation. Because it evaluates a persons actual actions independent of their verbal input, it provides a more reliable assessment of how effective a page or campaign is. Anyone serious about their Internet marketing should consider implementing eye tracking.

Direct marketing is widely used as it aims to reach potential buyers through a variety of media such as television, email, direct mail, fliers, promotional ads and letters and on community vehicles such as buses and company trucks.

There are a couple of characteristics that differentiate this type of advertising from other kinds of advertising. One is that it communicates directly with consumers. The other one is the main idea of getting the buyers to consider a purchase and take action in the near future.

Encouraging Repeat Sales

Today, some businesses send a variety of gifts to loyal customers who tend to be cutting down on orders, especially magazines, which often are offers for subscriptions at a lower than usual rate, or even a book. This strategy probably works best with the magazine subscriptions but can be applied to many other industries.

Direct marketing is said to have been recognized, given a name and described in 1967 by Lester Wunderman, who is noted as the father of direct marketing. Wunderman was also actively involved with the toll-free 1-800 number creation system.

Direct Marketing Led To Catalog Businesses

Aaron Montgomery Ward came up with his first catalogue for his mail-order business in 1872. Ward bought goods and then sold it directly to consumers. He was actually removing the middlemen at countless stores and greatly reducing prices. The Direct Mail Advertising Association forerunner of the current day Direct Marketing Association, was founded in 1917. This lead to bulk third-class mail postage rates being established in 1928.

Presently, there are many small mail-order businesses that use catalogues to reach consumers around the globe. Most of these are sent to every address available and continue to be mailed to customers. The customers who discontinue ordering will usually receive a new catalogue with a friendly greeting attached. The products sold by these businesses are generally priced lower than in a typical store – again, the middleman is out. These companies also offer a greater array of unusual products not found in a typical general store.

Track-ability as a Key Facet of Direct Marketing

One of the key features of direct marketing is that it’s often very trackable using various methods, such as by using many phone numbers, using coupon codes, color of paper, etc. An example of this action might be a marketer who sends out 1,000 ad-type notices by mail and 200 people respond, he can confidently say it brought 20 percent direct acknowledgements. Because of this track-ability, direct marketing is enticing to many marketers instead of other marketing types that give negative results directly measurable.

Drawbacks of Direct Marketing

A drawback to direct marketing is when direct mail is called “junk mail” because the messages are irrelevant to the people who receive them. Also, e-mail messages that are unwanted are taken as ‘spam.’ Marketers have begun to try and target their direct advertising for great efficiency and lowering the cost of budget waste and delivering a message with improved geodemography information.

Public relations is about building and preserving the image of a business, organization, or well known person. (1) Referred to as the art of managing communication with the public, it is also about promotion, or improving the visibility of a business.

While it can be synonymous with marketing, it is often used to refer to interaction with news media, endorsements, and items of public interest. As opposed to advertising, it often refers to public speeches, responses to emergencies, and media events. Today it is often expanded to include the realm of social media, a subject new enough not to have found a permanent home in either marketing or public relations.

The primary goal of public relations should be to establish rapport on a broad scale. This isn’t always with customers. It could be voters, investors, shareholders, or employees. Being a broad term, firms or individuals working in the industry often refer to themselves with the name of a targeted group or organization followed by “relations.” Examples include media relations, labor relations, financial public relations, and so on.

The nature of the word “public” in the phrase is mailable, and can often be stretched to accommodate virtually any group or individual that can have an opinion about the client. (2)

Often, the job of a public relations individual or firm is to submit press releases. Despite this, there are some sources who now claim the press release is on its way out as a useful PR tool. (3) Often, a PR professional is the individual who the public most strongly identifies with a brand. In the mind of the public, the PR representative “is” the brand.

PR Jobs and Salaries

Work in the PR field pays well, but it is also a very competitive sector of the market. (4) As of 2008, there were nearly 300,000 specialists in the industry. While these specialists tend to congregate in the cities, it is becoming more common for them to move into rural areas, where they have fewer competitors and are closer to their clients.

The field is expected to explode in popularity over the next ten years, growing by 24 percent. By 2018, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics expects there to be 341,300 specialists in the field. Since PR offers a competitive advantage, businesses will need to continually improve their PR to stay competitive, which should put specialists in high demand. Those with multilingual skills will be especially prized as the economy becomes more global.

The growing importance of social media is also expected to have an influence on the demand for public relations, which may become more important than advertising and traditional marketing within the next decade.

Competition is high for entry level specialists, and this shows no sign of changing. Graduates with a multidisciplinary degree will show the most promise, with at least one degree in either journalism, or, of course, public relations. First hand experience or internships will continue to be an especially important factor.

In 2008, the average PR specialist made $51,280 a year. The goal of most in the industry, however, is to go high profile. This is why the top 10% earn significantly more, over $97,910.

Basic PR Strategies

Most people are well aware of some of the basics of PR strategy. The basic process is about segmenting the population based on demographic data, creating lobby groups to influence government and public opinion, introducing a unique spin on a current event that benefits the client, and pointing out the flaws of competitors (1). Since lobbying is a strategy best left for entire industries or monopolies, we will focus on the other three strategies.

Demographics and Market Segmentation

Successful PR begins with good demographic research. This is all about segmenting the market into different categories. While the public is not strictly divided into groups that all think alike, certain categories tend to think similarly, and public relations is more effective if communication with each one of these groups is addressed separately, at least in part.

Some of the variables that might be used to categorize people include income, sex, nationality, race, education, religion, age, and family size. (5) There are many other variables that can be used, but these are common because the information is already well documented and easily obtained. It is a mistake to think that these are the only variables that should be used, however. A PR specialist can choose any variable they want if they feel it is relevant. (6)

Effective market segmentation should be approached in a scientific manner. There is an art to it, but engaging in extensive testing and research is preferable. Ideally, aggregate data should be retrieved from surveys, government institutions, case studies, and so forth.

Relevant behaviors should be recorded, and the data should then be analyzed to see if there are any patterns. Older segments of the population, for example, might respond better to reserved statements, while younger segments might respond better to bold, controversial statements.

The key here is to test each segment of the population with test audiences or surveys, if possible. This isn’t an option in every circumstance, but over time it helps to build a “template” of the behaviors you can expect from each segment of the market.

One challenge of public relations is to successfully cater to each demographic individually without appearing hypocritical.

Responding to Current Events

The primary difference between public relations and advertising, if there is one, is that public relations focuses on more “social” subject matter. It is less about a company’s products, and more about the activities of that company, and events in the industry as a whole. For this reason, it is easy to see how current events and public relations are closely intertwined.

Much of this is related to the concept of “spin.” Again, many of the techniques used to spin current events in an organization’s favor are already well known. These include “cherry picking” the facts to present things in the best possible light, implying things without stating them outright, making a positive announcement in order to counteract a negative one, or using a “non-denial denial,” which is when a carefully selected statement is chosen to dismiss a statement without actually denying its truth. (7)

There are several problems with these approaches, however. The public has become quite familiar with “spin doctoring,” and isn’t easily swayed by these techniques. This is one of the reasons why transparency has become a popular buzzword recently. These techniques are well known because they are infamous, and associated with the kind of dishonesty that the public attributes to politicians.

A more fundamental problem with these approaches is that they are primarily reactive in nature, rather than proactive. The focus is more on protecting an image than on building one. A well managed public personality is less susceptible to negative attention, and less likely to rely on these techniques.

Negative Public Relations

Relatively self-explanatory, negative public relations is about using the same tactics discussed above, but to harm the image of a competitor, rather than to improve the image of the organization. There is quite a bit of debate over whether or not negative PR is beneficial to the brand doing the “attacking.” (8) Some studies indicate that, at least in politics, negative campaigning can actually demobilize the audience. (9)

Despite this, there are certainly cases in which negative campaigning has worked for a company. For example, in 2006, the “Get a Mac” campaign, which hounded on the PC, improved Apple’s share of the market by 42 percent, a campaign that also won them the Grand Effie award.

Many experts seem to agree that the effectiveness of negative PR is directly related to what it says about your brand. While some discourage ever going negative, others say that, if it highlights the strengths of your brand, it is worth the effort. They also recommend only doing so in a fun, lighthearted way, rather than a demeaning and vindictive manner.

When used inappropriately, negative campaigning can actually hurt your own brand’s reputation. Customers might start picturing thrown stones and glass houses.

What Clients Expect from a Public Relations Agency

During 2009, the economic climate was not as stable as it has become today. In response to concerns about the future of the PR industry, PR Week released a list of focus areas that firms should focus on in order to be most desirable to clients. (16) The list works just as well for businesses who aren’t sure exactly what they should be looking for from a PR agency.

• Credibility. One of the first things a business should be looking for from a PR firm is accreditation and certification with relevant organizations. A firm can’t be judged on its fee structure alone. If they have made significant achievements, it shouldn’t be hard for them to receive recognition for them.
• Compatibility. A business and its PR firm should be on the same page. If they don’t have the same goals, understand one another, or speak the same language (literally or figuratively), it will be difficult to have a successful working relationship.
• Cost Effectiveness. Fees are not as important as the return on your investment. The more evidence a PR firm can use to justify the expense, the better. Look for the best value, not the lowest cost.
• Innovation. A PR firm should be able to come up with ideas that a business can’t come up with on its own. The ideas should not only be creative, but relevant to the brand in question.
• Recognition. An established track record is crucial. The quality of the work, rather than the number of clients, is key. Look for word of mouth recommendations.
• Personalities. The firm’s performance itself isn’t everything. The people on the team, and their past accomplishments, are also important. Even if the firm has produced some of the best quality work available, this doesn’t mean anything if they hired somebody off the street to handle your specific project. The firm should also consist of more than one “star player,” since they could easily leave and join a new firm.
• Contacts. A good PR firm will have working relationships with influential organizations, since endorsements from third parties are crucial to good PR.
• Things to Avoid. Agencies should talk about what they can do for you, and why it will work, not what they have accomplished before. It should not follow a template strategy. An agency that is straightforward about its strengths, rather than claiming to provide everything, is also preferable. They should have no problem spending time with you to form a plan.

Top PR Firms

Some of the most successful PR firms in recent history are Edelman, APCO Worldwide, and Waggener Edstrom, all of which earned over a hundred million in PR fees during 2010. (14) They also successfully increased their fee structure from 2009, which is a strong indication that they are in high demand. So what is it that these PR firms have that others don’t?

Edelman is widely considered to be the most successful global PR firm at the moment. (15) According to Advertising Age, this is because of a focus on conversation. Richard Edelman, the president and CEO of the PR powerhouse, says that “Marketing is more about the conversation now.” In other words, it is all about building a two-way communication channel so that you’re listening as much as you’re talking.

A major part of this is creating “true to life” work. The popularity of viral videos on the internet, perhaps reflected by the increasing popularity of reality television, is an indication of the direction that PR may be heading. Because of the fact that media has become relatively inexpensive, all major brands are encouraged to start acting at least somewhat like media companies. They are encouraged to produce their own content, build relationships with influential organizations, and create an online persona.

Globalization

Social media and the internet aren’t just connecting customers with themselves and your brand, they are also connecting the world. (12) This impacts virtually every aspect of society, but PR just might be one of the most directly impacted.

A global business has a much wider variety of types of customers and organizations to contend with, and we live in an age when even a small business can be global. This means there are more demographics to sift through, and thus the process becomes more complex. With this in mind, it’s not surprising that the PR industry is steadily growing. Here are some behaviors that help the transition along.

Stay Educated. Cultural norms shift from location to location, and it is vital that public relations adjust to account for this fact. Basic research starts with a visit to the World Bank and the CIA World Fact Book, two resources that make for a good jumping off point.

Stay Open. Your eyes and your mind need to be open in order to adjust to new cultures or demographics. There are subtle ques you will never find in any scholarly text. Try to understand these new audiences on an intuitive level.

Focus on the Positives. The most common response to culture shock is derision. Look for the positives, or you will never relate to your new customers or business partners.

Stay Flexible. With a multitude of audiences, your business needs to be more fluid than ever before. Patience, flexibility, and even a sense of humor are some of the factors that will help you rebrand yourself in each new situation.

Etiquette. Learn business customs, follow expected norms, remember what time zone they’re in, and try to learn the language.

You Won’t Get Everything Right. Be prepared to fail in many ways, and be ready to cope with and learn from those failures. No amount of preparation will assure perfect international public relations.

Public Relations in the Digital Age

The Financial Times has boiled down the opinions of many industry experts in order to identify the five things that good public relations should achieve in the modern age. (10)

• It must seek endorsements from impartial organizations.
• Communications should develop trust not only with customers but with key players in the industry.
• It should influence opinions, increase exposure, and enhance image.
• Brand loyalty should be established.
• It should result in action on behalf of those receiving the communications.

Achieving these goals should always be the first thing in mind. Some of the basic public relations strategies discussed in the previous section are beginning to grow obsolete, because they may not necessarily be the most efficient path for attaining these goals. The emergence of social media as a widespread tool, used heavily by all demographics, can not be ignored as part of a sensible PR strategy.

Unfortunately, many of the top PR firms seem to be doing just that. (13) At least in 2009, over half of PRWeek’s top PR firms didn’t even run a blog on their website, and 20 percent of them had less than 30 links pointed toward their websites. A tool called WebsiteGrader measures the marketing capabilities of a website, and it found that the average score was below 50 on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the best.

It’s not hard to understand why many PR firms are struggling. Social media is inherently different from traditional media. It is a two way communication. Like it or not, the Internet has made it far easier for the public to get their own ideas out in the public light. The conversation is happening regardless of whether you take part in it. If you join in the conversation in a productive, trustworthy way, you can expect the public to do a lot of the work for you.

Getting Started

Here are some steps recommended by experts in the industry (11):

1. Start a Blog.
2. Blog about events in the industry, not just your own company. Your business’s “opinion” on industry events helps form your public image.
3. Read customer comments on your blog and industry related forums and communities. Respond when appropriate, and use the information to get an idea of what your customers are looking for.
4. Stay in tune with what videos become “viral” on the internet, and try to understand why. (More on this later.)
5. Set up a podcast or a similar multimedia outlet.
6. Share your content, and make it easy for your customers to share it. Share content from non-competitors in your industry to become a part of the community.
7. Encourage users to create their own content.
8. Use social media to release information as well as traditional press releases.
9. Be as transparent as your business model allows you to be, including things like “behind the scenes” information or video.
10. Pay a community manager to be your “social” public relations persona.

Blurring the Lines Between PR and Marketing

The emergence of social media has made it more difficult to distinguish PR from marketing, a distinction that was once easier to make. Both have always been about image, but advertising was advertising and the press was the press. Social media is neither.

During 2009, Edelman used innovative techniques to help market brands using the overlap between public relations and social media (17). The focus was on encouraging audience participation. They got over a million customers to pledge not to buy plastic water battles, and to protect the environment by buying Brita water filters. They created a viral video called The Science of Sexy to promote a new Wonderbra product. They used Facebook to encourage people to choose a new flavor for Ben and Jerry’s. These campaigns all proved very effective, and achieved staggering growth during a down economy.

PR firm Ketchem has done similar work. (18) Their invitation for customers to “Crash the Superbowl” with their own advertisements earned them the Campaign of the Decade award from the Holmes Report. They also helped update Barbie’s image by creating a runway show at the Mercedes-Benz fashion show.

Ogilvy’s recent PR work has taken the same approach, but with a business’s own employees. (19) Participants from a call center, during an American Express training seminar, were asked to create their own films about ways to improve quality control, customer communication, and so on. This led to an open dialogue which improved employee morale and helped lead to new solutions.

The Importance of Women

Many industry experts are starting to realize the important role that women will play in the future of PR, both as a part of the public and in the industry. This is largely due to their tendency to use social media. When it comes to Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, women use the sites more often than men. (20) The only popular exception is LinkedIn, although women still make up a significant portion of the users.

Women are also much more likely to share information on virtually any topic besides sports. This includes information about sales, deals, and new products. (21)

Some might claim that this is because women are more prone to gossip. It would be a mistake, based on a reckless stereotype, to take these studies as an indication that PR should focus entirely on women.

The fact is, if a firm had to choose between communicating with one of the two genders, they would probably have the most success with women.

Furthermore, women are more likely to believe in the ability of social networks to facilitate change, and more likely to support causes. (22) This has two important implications. Since women are more likely to believe in the power of social networks, many of them might actually be more effective at using them for public relations. It also means that they are an important target in any PR campaign that is about social change.

About Viral Content

With this new emphasis on social media, effective PR firms need to understand why somebody is willing to share material. The public won’t share a site or a piece of multimedia if it doesn’t suit there purposes. It has to say something about them, serve some social function, resonate with strongly held beliefs, and elicit informative reactions from the people it is shared with. (23) In short, the public won’t share something if it doesn’t fulfill a social need.

For example, somebody won’t share information about a good deal just because it offers good value. They will only share it if their knowledge of the good deal makes them appear savy, chic, in the know, or cool. They aren’t “just clicking a button.” It doesn’t matter how easy it is to share the material. If it has social repercussions, they won’t do it unless they are fairly sure those repercussions will be positive.

While there are numerous reasons a person might feel compelled to share something with their friends or colleagues, common factors can be identified. Here are seven of them. (24)

• Humor. As the saying goes, laughter is contagious. This is probably the most common reason people share content.
• Inspiration. If content causes somebody to feel motivated about something, or to get a “warm and fuzzy” feeling, users are also more likely to share it.
• Cuteness. Something that sets off people’s paternal and maternal instincts won’t go ignored.
• Creativity. People won’t share a video if they have already seen a hundred videos just like it (or even just one).
• Shock. A video that elicits a sense of righteous indignation or disgust, ironically enough, tends to get shared.
• Surprise. If somebody gets caught off guard, it’s not uncommon for them to want to do the same to all of their friends.
• Nostalgia. Old media that reminds people of the “good old days” also tends to get shared, possibly because it helps people reunite.

These factors should help you realize something important about how viral content relates to public relations. Most importantly, just because content is viral, that doesn’t mean it is good for your public image. Crafting media that paints a business or organization in a positive light, while also going viral, is not an easy thing to pull off. One recent example of a campaign that did will it off really well is the Old Spice Man campaign.

Old Spice combined humor, cuteness, creativity, shock and surprise to showcase how it’s products can turn you or the man in your life, into a real man aka the Old Spice Man. Now we all know that it isn’t even vaguely true but the humor of it was so fantastic that we, the public, just went along with videos created by “Mustafa Isaiah” aka the Old Spice Man. Using dialogue such as “We’re not saying this body wash will make your man smell into a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it.” The beauty of the campaign was that it was one of the first large scale viral campaigns by a relatively old company to utilize multiple facets of social media in co-ordination with advertising and public outreach.

Should You Outsource Public Relations?

The answer to this question will depend on your situation. Some argue that hiring a PR firm is like hiring somebody else to propose for you. (25) Others argue that outsourcing is a better allocation of resources, because a PR firm has intimate knowledge of how to communicate effectively with the public. (26)

Both arguments have merit. There is an argument to say that nobody has more passion about your business and what it can do than you and your business partners. By the same token, you might not have all the right contacts, or understand how the public might react.

If you don’t outsource, it is at least ideal to hire an in-house PR specialist. As long as they are willing to have an open dialogue with you, and will do everything in their power to understand your business, this is usually a good move. Most business professionals, except for those employed in media companies themselves, simply do not have an intimate understanding of how to relate with the public.

For example, a business owner might be intimately familiar with all of the merits of their business, but they might not be aware of the fact that bragging about these merits on their blog is not the most effective PR strategy.

As discussed above, PR professionals understand how to get endorsements, develop trust, enhance your image and visibility, influence opinion, motivate public action, and establish brand loyalty. If learning these skills would distract you from higher ROI activities, outsourcing is the ideal solution.

Cited Resources

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations
2. http://communication.howstuffworks.com/how-public-relations-works1.htm
3. http://www.clickpr.com.au/2010/12/why-the-best-press-release-is-no-press-release/
4. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos086.htm
5. http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/segmentation_bases_demographic.asp
6. http://www.mindofmarketing.net/2007/05/customer-segmentation-why-exactly-does.html
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_%28public_relations%29
8. http://www.platformmagazine.com/article.cfm?alias=Negative-Advertising-A-PR-Dilemma
9. http://www.jstor.org/pss/2586120
10. http://www.ftpress.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1324513
11. http://www.ftpress.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1324513&seqNum=3
12. http://www.platformmagazine.com/article.cfm?alias=Reaching-Across-Borders
13. http://www.pr2020.com/page/top-pr-firms-fail-to-make-the-grade-online
14. http://www.odwyerpr.com/pr_firm_rankings/independents.htm
15. http://www.edelman.com/news/2011/AdAge_74671.pdf
16. http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/900447/PRWeek-Top-150-2009-Eight-reasons-why-clients-will-choose-agency
17. http://www.edelman.com/news/2010/Adweek_2009AgencyoftheYear.pdf
18. http://www.ketchum.com/files/Holmes_Report_Large_Agency_of_the_Year_2009.pdf
19. http://www.ogilvypr.com/en/case-study/american-express-0
20. http://www.flowtown.com/blog/social-media-demographics-whos-using-which-sites?display=wide
21. http://www.groketeer.com/blog/survey-report-women-use-social-media-differently-than-men
22. http://www.ogilvypr.com/files/opr_womencauses.pdf
23. http://www.theoceanagency.com/blog/understanding-why-people-share-the-key-to-social-media-marketing-your-chicago-business/
24. http://socialtimes.com/share-content-social-networks_b27350
25. http://infochachkie.com/prpassion/
26. http://www.teamclarus.com/should-you-outsource-pr/

Your unique selling proposition are the reasons that your customers buy from you instead of your competitors.  These are often benefits that your products or services offer to it’s customers but sometimes it’s not limited to just about what your products and services offer. Sometimes it can be the support that you offer or the customer service practices you implement.

For example, Amazon.com bought Zappos.com for $928 million. Zappos sells shoes online. They have about the same selection as everyone else and they sell the same shoes as everyone else. So what makes them worth close to a billion dollars? Their customer services is amazing and this breeds a very high repeat sales and referral rate. One facet of this customer service is offering 2-way free shipping. If you order a shoe and it doesn’t fit or you don’t like it, return it at no cost to you (not even shipping back to Zappos.)

The company may also indirectly criticize or challenge their competition, such as in the case of M&M’s recent campaign slogan: “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand”. M&M’s is targeting competitor confectioners, accusing no one in specific of having chocolate treats that melt in the hands or are too messy to eat.

The original rules of the USP state that the proposition in the advertisement must be so strong that it motivates tens of thousands of new customers to purchase the product or sign up for the service. In the changing landscape of modern marketing, applying old techniques to new frontiers like internet marketing can sometimes lead to the most successful campaigns.

Viral marketing is a relatively new marketing technique used by businesses of all sizes. It can include word of mouth, but mainly refers to using social networking sites to increase brand awareness or increase sales. It is so termed because the message self-replicates like a virus to be spread to other people.

Viral marketing can take many forms. The most popular methods are status updates on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. Messages can also be delivered via text, software, images or Flash based games.

Viral marketing depends on the message being passed along quickly and to many users. When the first message is sent, the more followers that pass along the message to their followers, the faster the message will begin to spread. Many factors are used when creating a viral marketing campaign. The right message must be sent to the right messengers in the right environment.

The message should be directed at followers with a high social networking potential. These are people with a high number of followers or have faithful followers. This creates the highest odds that the message will be delivered to many others in a short amount of time.

The message should be interesting and memorable in order to be more likely to be passed along. The more interesting a message is, the greater interest that will be sparked. Social networking users are more likely to pass along a message they think their friends and followers will enjoy receiving.

Timing also plays a crucial element in delivery of message. Posts should be made at the appropriate time before the event. The time of day and the day of the week can also affect how a message is received and passed along. Because social networking sites operate in real time, the message should be delivered at the time when more followers or fans will be online to see it.

Using the right combination of time, message and social network can make a single message go viral. Viral marketing is very effective, as a single message has the potential to be seen by thousands to millions of people. People spend more time on social networking sites than any other activity online. Ignoring this powerful marketing technique can be detrimental to any size company.

An excellent example of a viral campaign is the Old Spice Man. It featured an attractive, alpha-male type man saying and doing funny things and tying it to the fact that you or your man could be like him if you used Old Spice. What made this campaign particularly viral was not just that it was funny and amusing but that it was also interactive and evolving. As people commented on the Old Spice commercials, the Old Spice Man would create additional videos that were both funny and personalized. Beyond just targeting normal people, Old Spice Man would reply to celebrity twitter comments. These celebrities typically have a louder megaphone than most people and this helped Old Spice Man spread faster and more successfully than most campaigns before him.