World Wide Rave - Q&A

This past Friday, Hubspot.com hosted a very interesting webinar with David Meerman Scott. For those who are not familiar with David Meerman Scott, check out his blog here. David Meerman Scott is an international thought leader in Marketing and using the tools of the internet to make your product or service stand out from the rest.

After reading his book "The New Rules for Marketing & PR", I have become a follower of DM Scott. So after I ran across an ad sent to my email in a MarketingProfs newsletter noting a new webinar called "Viral Marketing: How to create a World Wide Rave" through Hubspot.com featuring David Meerman Scott, I signed up and it was FREE! If you haven't seen my previous notes on Webinars, check them out here.

In today's post, I'm going to go through some of the questions and answers from the webinar and I will express some of my thoughts on most of them. I could do a whole report of the webinar but I would rather keep Mr. David Meerman Scott in the loop for a while, so why don't you look for his new book coming out sometime this week!! Let's get started.

"How do you launch a world wide rave?"
DM Scott stated that using various outlets would be the best way. He says using tools such as email, blogs, trade shows (postcards w/ links), webpage, and social networks are a good start.

I would like to add on this and say that all this is a good start but it will be most efficient with a strategy behind all of it. First, set a target market or buyer personas to understand not who your target market is but what your target market wants - the solutions to their problems. Second, develop a message. Third, vehicle the message - here we cannot sound like marketers, we must sound like the reader and act in a community fashion. This doesn't necessarily mean the message must come directly from you, the marketer. And fourth, set your goals.

"What are the time commitments to the world wide rave and is it cheaper?"
DM Scott says that YES! it is cheaper but it takes time for all the factors to play out. Also he says that most in most cases and especially for larger companies, a specialist will be needed to develop content for the rave and execute the functions needed to nurture this viral marketing process.

"How do you measure?"
DM Scott commented on the importance of this question. All good marketers want to see results. He says that good tools to measure are by looking at views for your youtube.com video, attendance to your webinar, downloads of your whitepaper, followers of your blog, replies on twitter, or you may simply be able to see your results in sales or in conversion rates from webinars, whitepapers, etc.

I just want to say that I think its a little bit more complicated to measure a world wide rave. Why? Well, not everyone who downloads the whitepaper will read it, not all your followers are really followers (especially on twitter). So numbers may not tell the whole story. However, measuring a world wide rave is not about the bottom line, its about feeding a virus. DM Scott might say its about losing control of the content that is out there on your business and your product. The ultimate goal is to create conversation both online and offline.

"Is a celebrity (sponsor/mention) a trigger for a world wide rave?"
DM Scott says YES but NO, it could be but it is not required. In the end you must create value for your audience.

True, true yet it could be a trigger for other unwanted results too. For example, you may not want to relate your product to Britney Spears or Phelps. Or then again, you might. What is important is knowing who the celebrity is and developing a relationship with that celebrity and connecting your product or service. Celebrities are people and they make "mistakes" just like all normal human beings - that has to be part of the strategy when using a celebrity to market your product. For example, if I want Phelps to market my product I also want to know ABOUT Phelps. I want to know or have an idea that he smokes pot before he endorses my product. The fact that he smokes pot may help or hurt my business - its all in the relationship that you develop and how well you know your celebrity.

"Can you start a rave too early?"
DM Scott says that it is most certain that you can start a rave too early. He says that you want to have a rave brewing when a sale is possible. This way, at anytime a conversation is happening, a buyer can be born.

I think this is mostly true for tangible products. But what about intangible products? What about products that induce emotion??? Concerts, for example, is something that can benefit from starting a rave early, real early!! Why? From my experience from working in a concert promotion company in OKC, the viral aspect of marketing is where promoters find big bucks. Not only do they find big bucks in the viral aspect but they can build confidence throughout the boundaries of their business (artists, tour managers, artist agencies, etc.). Imagine that you want to contract a moderately famous local group to your venue. Tickets don't go on sale until June. However, you can start talking about this band NOW! Create conversations and create demand for this group. Then in June you could sell out in one day or make a huge attendance the day the tickets go on sale. Afterwards, when the artist agency and tour managers find out...wouldn't they want to give you more business?

So there! Things to think about. I hope you have liked this post. I certainly think this is full of good viral marketing information. Have fun reading more posts and please comment.