Often, it is what your customers have to say about your business that matters. There are a lot of online business out there, some rises up and completely conquer their niche. And some struggling just to have a foothold. Why is this so? One of the reason is because of this, “understanding of your customers“. You need to know what your customer’s needs, then only you can fulfilled it.
Let me give you some example here. If you know your customers well like this:
- You offer the right products and at the right price
- You write the right sales copy and with the right graphic
You can conquer your niche easily. But if you don’t understand your customers like this:
- Offer the wrong products and at the wrong price
- Write the sales copy that fail to capture your customers
- Not an attractive graphic, using the wrong message
What will happen then? Of course you will fail to conquer your niche. Therefore now you know how important knowing your customers can be.
So what I’m going to tell you next is that, market research is very crucial! You must learn how to do the market research correctly before you can even tap into a market. When you heard your friend told you that he wanted to run an online business, the first question to ask him is whether is he did the market research. If he told you he didn’t do the market research, then just turn him down. But if he had done the market research, sit down and listen more about the business detail.
No matter the old days brick and mortar business or the modern day online business, market research is a must! Just like playing tennis, if you don’t know the rules, there is no way you can beat the game. Starting a business without doing market research is just like going into war without having your bulletproof vest. That is why those big companies are so successful, this is because they will do the proper and complete market research before entering a new market or launching a new products.
Just because they did the market research correctly, their business can rise in a very short time. Have you notice that some of the products around you, which are not really a compulsary products, but the products still can sell. Just because they did the right market research and, their products sell. However, if their products have no values, then their sales will decrease in a very short term. Hence, market research is very important if you wanted to success in your niche. This is especially true if you want to make more money online.
Frankly, I believe that everyone here knows about Hotmail, and most of us use Hotmail. Do you know how Hotmail was develop? The way Hotmail can become so famous and it gains its popularity so fast is just because of its creative way of marketing. The original Hotmail service was founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith , and was one of the first webmail services on the Internet.
Hotmail’s marketing strategy is by viral marketing. Hotmail was hot because of the way it was marketed. It spread like a virus, going from zero customers to over 40 million in only three year, increasing its subscriber base more rapidly than any company in history of the world. The key to Hotmail’s phenomenal growth was the free price tag and the fact that every email contained the following tag line and an implied endorsement by the sender, “Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com”
The more Hotmail was used, the faster the word was spread. Hotmail was sold later to Microsoft for a reported $400 million, and it joined the MSN group of services. Not a bad return for a free product! All these ideas spread through the population like a virus. So how can you implement this idea into your website and promote it like wildfire? All you need is to be creative and an idea that works. Viral marketing proved to be one of the most powerful marketing strategy that surpasses any other if you know how to implement it, and implement it creatively.
Here is one website from Seth Godin, you can download excellent parts of them and read it for free. If you want to know more about viral marketing, then you definitely have to check out this site:
Permission Marketing - Seth Godin (www.permission.com)
Studying theories and case studies encourages you to come up with ways to create a positive epidermic of your ideas and products. I hope that this information about viral marketing can help you create an idea to promote your websites and businesses. Be creative and always think out of the box!
This is an article provided by my friend, Franck Silvestre.
I was reading an interesting article on Shawn’s blog about Hotmail and Viral marketing. (Read: Do You Know Hotmail?) Viral marketing and word of mouth are the most powerful form of advertising, and you can profit from it with your blog as well.
Here are 3 ways to implement viral marketing:
1. Free viral software creation
Create free software in your niche, and send it to your subscribers. Don’t forget to tell them that they can give it to all their friends.
For example, if you are in the ‘learn Spanish niche’, you could get someone (from elance.com, guru.com…) to develop translation software… You get the picture.
Post this software to big sites like download.com
Here is an example of such software: Free Keyword Generator
2. Viral scripts
If you are on the Internet for more than one year, you probably heard about the $7 script.
It works like crazy because when people promote your product, they get 100% commission directly into their Paypal account.
Write an interesting report, and add your affiliate links (or your own products inside).
What is the viral effect?
Once people buy your low priced product, they will subscribe to your newsletter.
3. Article marketing
Article marketing is viral because other webmasters will take your articles and distribute them to their lists. They will also post them on their blogs and websites.
Your name will spread over the Internet at light speed.
4. Tell a friend script
Simple. Just add the script to your web pages, and many of your visitors will use it.
You see, viral marketing is not difficult. So take action today towards your success.
Franck Silvestre is an affiliate marketing and SEO expert. His own methods have increased traffic to his own website by more than 467%! To download his amazing report and increase your traffic and sales, visit: http://www.seoseductionsecrets.com
