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There is an interesting marketing strategy you might like to use.
I call it 'Positive Viral Marketing' or PVM for short.
The goal of Positive Viral Marketing is simple...
To get large numbers of people positively recommending your business.
There are many ways you could put PVM into practice.
1: You might create a 'must watch' video that people eagerly share
A good example of this type of video is the 'WestJet Christmas Miracle' video.
This video has now been watched by over 35 million people
Plus it's had a large number of positive mentions in major media outlets like newspapers, magazines and TV Stations around the world.
Now you and I may not have the budget to do something as elaborate as this particular video.
But perhaps you could provide a short 'how to' video and put it on YouTube.
Your video might have 5 minutes of useful advice that a number of people would love to watch and then share with people they know.
I picked a topic at random and did a Google search on 'getting a baby to sleep'
The first video I watched has now had over 1,600,000 views. (And it was put together by a business that specialises in products for babies.)
Even a video I watched on something as simple as "how to fold a fitted sheet" has had over 2.5 million views.
2: You might write something that thousands of people read and then happily share.
I often come across helpful online articles that I love to share with my clients and subscribers.
I read one a while ago by Daniel Burrus that I particularly liked.
Daniel is the author the wonderful book 'Flash foresight' and is a leading futurist and technology forecaster.
The article he wrote was on how to think ten times bigger and I loved it. (And here I am telling you about it today.)
What could you write that a lot of people would like and also happily share or recommend?
3: You might do something fun for your clients.
And your clients tell a lot of people about what you did.
I saw a great example of this with Derek Sivers.
Derek used to own a company that sold music CD's. The business was called CD Baby.
He wrote a fun thank you email for people who bought CD's.
The email took Derek 20 minutes to write. It was fun and quirky and his customers loved it.
You can read the email at this link
This 'thank you' email has been circulated around the internet.
In fact I did a Google Search just now on 'CD Baby Jet'
It got over 16 million results!
I know of an appliance store that does something fun for their clients.
They send out a small pot plant and thank you card to each new client. They do this about 3 weeks after they buy a major appliance like a stove, fridge etc. This produces a huge amount of repeat and referral business as their clients tell lots of people they know about this fun and unexpected gift.
I met a recruitment consultant who specialised in recruiting office staff for large companies. He would regularly go into the offices of these companies and give away a lovely rose to all the staff who worked there. He told me he became known as 'The Flower Man' by his clients. He said this was a very simple way to differentiate himself from his competitors and he got a lot of repeat business by giving away these free flowers. It was also fun at the same time.
How could you create a fun experience for a customer?
As you can see, there are many ways to use Positive Viral Marketing in a business.
It could be worth trying in your business as well.
'Word of mouth is the best medium of all'
William Bernbach
Action Exercise:
How could you put Positive Viral Marketing to work in your business?
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