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As competition increases in this stagnant market, it is evident that traditional marketing techniques may not work. It is not enough to follow the usual paths--advertisement in a newspaper, professional memberships, even networking--if those were ever enough. Enter viral marketing.
Viral marketing involves the delivering of a message to the masses in a variety of ways, and, in most cases, is free. Social networking is a great example. Many businesses are starting to take advantage of social networks, such as LinkedIn and Facebook to create company pages that explain the company and provide a forum for its customers. Some businesses use these services to write blogs, and others simply create blogs of their own. Blogging is an effective way to provide customers with information, such as product updates, in a noncommercial way.
Another popular trend is the use of "advice." Companies are reaching more customers and building brand reputation and recognition by submitting advice articles to various online sites, gearing their website as an advice site, writing an advice column and/or providing advice on complementary producer sites/newsletters. There are also free forum-building sites, such as Ning.com, which some businesses are using to provide a more interactive forum for customers, offering advice, a sense of membership/community and information relating to the product or the industry, for example. Some even use these sites to offer discounts to members; these types of forums can even be locked down so that only members can access them, making certain issues (such as offering free support and advice to users that have no intention of using the product/service) non-issues.
Companies are also making use of technology in the form of RSS feeds and widgets. These handy pieces of technology are being used in viral marketing as well as a value-added service. Companies use RSS feeds and widgets to provide customers with breaking product developments, anytime the company is in the news, notices of special events/happenings and project updates. Twitter is also being used in this fashion for those that are unfamiliar with the development of feeds/widgets.
