Web Marketing Consultant

Viral Marketing is the Key to the Future

As competition on the web continues to grow, businesses and advertisers look for new and different ways to make their businesses stand out. While Google AdWords and other pay-per-click advertising remains a viable option for many businesses, it is quickly becoming too expensive to maintain for others.

With Google dominating as much as 78% on U.S. search volume, getting a high ranking on Google's organic search listings can be a matter of life and death, for many companies. Any time something is that "critical", people will pay a lot of money for it ... they have to pay a lot of money for it, because every company they are competing with has the same desire. Again, this is a VERY expensive proposition for many companies ... especially if you're trying to GET ranked. If your company already IS ranked at the top, then it's not nearly the challenge to STAY ranked ... but attention MUST be paid ... as the old adage goes. "if you don't pay attention to it, it will go away".

Viral Marketing may be the key to success for many businesses. In effect, we are building relationships. Businesses should consider becoming active in Social Networking communities which are appropriate for their business and industry. A few obvious ones are Facebook and MySpace which are general and open to anyone. But there are also some very good industry-specific communities and other professional online networks which may prove to be invaluable.

Understanding the "rules of engagement" is very important! Remember, you are building relationships. If you blow it, you may not get a second chance with that group. There are tons of great books and articles about how businesses should engage these opportunities ... that is NOT the focus of this article.

Rather, understanding the importance relationship-building and mobilizing an "army" of highly motivated, enthusiastic "friends" is what we are discussing here. There are a few good books on the subject of Viral Marketing, Relationship Marketing, and related topics. Over the next few weeks, we will be releasing key information about this topic in our BLOG as well as in our Inbox Expert e-Zine. I strongly encourage you to get involved and read about this "key to your future".