- I've created
and promoted websites that have been
ranked in the Top 100 of all websites in
the world (yes, including pörn and
Yahoo). One of my sites reached #36 in
the world 6 weeks after its release.
- I've sold
millïons and millïons of dollars over
the Internet - most of it on a
zero-dollar ad budget.
- I wrote what
some credït as "the first
ebook" which was downloaded over
1,000,000 times (when I stopped
counting).
Why am I telling
you all this? Well, my ego doesn't need any
additional stroking today, so there must be
another reason.
See, I want you to realize that I know what I'm
talking about when I tell you ...
Simple effective plans executed with enthusiasm
lead to great success.
And here's a simple and effective plan that gives
me and my clients fantastic results every time I
use it.
If you give a dog one bone what does he do?
He plays with it and then he buries it.
Humans are just like dogs.
If you give them too many bones to play with,
they won't play with any of them.
If your website has too many options, your
surfers may clïck on a few things, but each
clïck will lack commitment. Why? Well, my theory
is that your surfer is wondering in the back of
his mind what those other clicks are all about.
So, he's in a hurry to get back to your main page
and find out.
So, he clicks on a few links and then he leaves.
Get rid of it all. Strip each of your pages down
to one thing and one thing only.
Create a linear path to the result you want.
I know – you're about to say, "But what
if my visitor doesn't want that 'one
thing?'"
Well, you have to ask yourself - would you rather
have some people do one thing, or all of them do
nothing?
Test this out for yourself. Time and time again I
have seen singularly focused linear web pages
"out-pull"
hodge-podge-links-going-everywhere sites on the
order of 100 to 1.
What is that "one thing" your visitors
should do? Well, it could be ...
"Purchase my product," or ...
"Sign up for my newsletter," or ...
(If you want to turn your site into an epidemic)
it could be...
Step 2. Use Turbo-Charged Tell-a-Friend
It's fairly common for people to have a
"tell a friend" scrïpt on their sites,
but most are going about it the wrong way.
Turbo-Charging your tell-a-friend action is
simple. First, you create a linear path to it.
You make it the raison d'etre for the page. Give
them some great information and then ask them to
tell friends.
Next, change the way you're asking people to tell
friends. Don't just put it there on your site as
a mild suggestion. Create a compelling reason for
them to do so.
It could be a reward of some sort of freebie, or
...
It could be access to a private members-only
area, or ...
It could be nothing at all.
Huh? Ponder this for a while ...
Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer once
conducted an experiment where she asked her
students to cut in line at a copy machine.
First she compared the following two approaches:
Case A: "Excuse me, I have five
pages. May I use the Xerox machine?"
Case B: "Excuse me, I have five
pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I'm in
a rush."
It should surprise no one that 60% of those asked
in Case A said "yes" and 94% of those
in Case B said yes.
In Case B, we have a more compelling reason. Case
A is not very convincing at all.
Here's where it gets interesting ...
Case C: "Excuse me, I have five
pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have
to make some copies."
A shocking 93% of those asked in Case C said
"yes."
" ... because I have to make some
copies" is not a very compelling argument,
but notice the response.
The conclusion hëre was that simply using the
word "because" induced those asked to
comply.
Try using this same approach on your
Tell-a-Friend förm and see what happens.
A worthy test might be:
"Tell a friend about this website because
it's Tuesday."
Or ...
"Tell a friend about this website because
they will thank you for it."
Write to me and tell me the results.
Step 3. Embody Buzzworthiness
Is that a word? My spellchecker and dictionary
both say "no." Please allow me to enter
it into our lexicon.
I think it's a useful word to describe the most
important factor of all in viral marketing.
Why do people buzz about a website?
In some cases people tell friends about websites
because they will get paid to do so. Affïliate
programs, MLMs, etc. all bribe people to tell
others their message. The problem is that people
can smell a bribed disingenuous referral a mile
away. This is why you rarely see mega-buzz
success based on bribery.
Sometimes companies will offer other incentives
like freebies, etc. to incentivize referrals and
again the result is much the same.
The greatest viral marketing successes employed
no such heavy-handed tactics. They were just
buzzworthy.
Take Napster for example. Napster is one of the
most downloaded pieces of software in the world
(millïons upon millïons of downloads) and they
nevër bribed anyone to tell others. They were
just ... Well, buzzworthy.
Here's another example. How long do you think it
took the average citizen of Planet Earth to find
out about the terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center?
I would venture to say that within the first 24
hours anyone living in an industrialized nation
knew of this event.
Why did people tell others about that?
It, too, was buzzworthy.
The nature of buzzworthiness is an elusive thing,
but you get the idea ... Below are some hints:
Be very cool.
Be very new.
Be very newsworthy.
Be very important.
Be very useful ...
Just be very.
The more very you are, the more buzz you will
get, and that will serve as the trump card that
will beat any other hand in the viral marketing
deck.
About The Author
Mark Joyner is a Number One best-selling author,
one of the first online marketing pioneers, and
has sold millïons of dollars in products and
services over the Internet on a zero dollar ad
budget. His clients pay him $2,000 an hour for
his consulting services and he recently distilled
his consulting lessons into an easy and fun 36
day course you can start right nöw for frëe at:
Simpleology.com.
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