Software Marketing Methods: Part 2

Types of word of mouth marketing:

Buzz Marketing/Viral Marketing/Conversation Creation

Creating a message that people will be eager to discuss and thus pass to others.

Last year a short film clip, rejected by Ford and its European ad agency, of a Ford car killing a bird by whacking it with its hood and chopping a curious cat’s head off with its sunroof was mysteriously distributed on the Internet via personal e-mails using a technique known as “viral marketing.” This is a strategy that encourages individuals to pass along a marketing message to others, usually because it is especially interesting or humorous, while also too offensive for mainstream audiences. (source: New Age Marketing)

Evangelist Marketing

Motivating volunteers to help you get the word out.

Example: FireFox. Mozilla Foundation enjoys a great support from the Spread FireFox community. Have you seen buttons like this one on other sites?

According to my log files, FireFox is used by 18% of surfers. I’d say it’s a great result.

Referral Programs

Getting happy customer refer their friends.

Example: Gmail. There are a lot of places to get free e-mail account. For example, Yahoo Mail. However, Google managed to create a great demand for Gmail e-mail addresses. Their marketing is stunning. At first Gmail invitations received people close to Google. Then active bloggers. What do active bloggers do? They blog, they write about the new product. Then AdWords advertisers got their invites. They created accounts and what… started sending invites to friends and relatives.

If Google simply released Gmail, no way it would be so cool and so popular. Perfect marketing!

See also The Methods and Marketing of GMail Invites.

Product Seeding/Influencer Marketing

Providing the demo or full version of your software to socially active and influential people.

Cause Marketing

Sponsoring social events. For example, Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Brand Blogging

Creating a blog sharing helpful information.

Community Marketing

Creating and supporting communities.