Viral Marketing for Long Term Sales
December 21st, 2006 by Michael Gray in SEOIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
Over on threadwatch I recently made a comment that social media should not be used for meeting short term sales goals (link). I read an article today from Reuters that showed how giving something away to generate an early buzz resulted in more long term sales Disney learns lessons from “High School”
In print and online advertising for “High School Musical” that preceded the movie’s airing on the Disney Channel, tweens were directed to the “HSM” Web site to download a free track. That song, “Breaking Free,” ended up being one of the biggest hits on the album. “It was a great way to sample the music and to drive kids to the site,” Whiteside says. “The interesting thing is the track we were giving away as the free download ended up being the most-purchased on iTunes.”
Sphere It
December 21st, 2006 at 11:05 am
not being the online sales pro I am in the off-line world, I would think that giving things away online would make you see like the free guy and people would expect free things from you.
You see it with people who give away wordpress themes or wallpapers and then all of a sudden when they try to sell one for a whopping $9.95 people blow up and start unsubscribing.
I don’t get it either but I see it all too many times to get into the free ebook thing and then more paid offers later on.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:27 pm
I think it boils down to what kind of product you have. For some things “free samples” work great. Food, music, and video games are all great exmaples where giving a small part of the full product away is actually a great way to gain more exposure and potential sales. Free game demos on Xbox Live are hugely popular and seem to have a very positive impact on sales. Another example is Apple’s free song a week on iTunes that they started a few years ago. I remember a band called Snow Patrol had an awesome song on there called “Run”. Now a couple years later their next album is a much bigger hit. Call me crazy, but giving away a small portion of your full product for customers to sample is a great way to get exposure to people who might not have bought in the first place. Of course, the real trick it making sure the sample is high enough quality that people want to buy the rest.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:26 pm
I guess that means I am the victim of some sort of trickle down social media marketing. A friend just loaned the High School Musical dvd to my daughter and it now features prominently on her list of things that we must buy immediately.