Okay, I admit it. I’m a cliche.

I grew up wanting to be a novelist… and a rock star. I’ve written several unfinished screenplays… I have the first draft of a novel sitting at the bottom of my desk drawer…

And when I started my Internet business with my husband in 1997 what I *really* wanted to do was to create an entertainment website!

(Actually, if you want a laugh, check out the initial incarnations of Weeworld.com at Archive.org. You can’t view much now - a lot of it was in the form of Flash movies – but there is still some sufficiently embarrassing content there…)

Fortunately, I am pursuing my no.1 passion now (business) so I don’t harbor any regrets. But as a marketer I’d be foolish not to see how entertainment is integral to many aspects of marketing (e.g. major product launches), products (e.g. DVDs) and events (e.g. seminars).

I’m guessing you also see the parallels which is why Todd Krieger’s recent article about ’social shows’ is a timely food for thought. In the article, Todd discusses the rise of social entertainment company Eqal and what it regards as the ingredients of a successful social show. The ingredients are as follows:

• Two-way initial distribution of the video content.
• Multimedia storytelling i.e. not just in the form of video, but also via Twitter, photos, messages, chat rooms, etc.
• Interactivity between the show and the community.
• A social community site as the show’s hub.

Hmmm… sounds like the right ingredients for a product launch… or a membership site… or many other kinds of products and marketing initiatives…

Andrew Warner recently commented on my article, 3 Tips For Viral Marketing Success. It turns out that Andrew recently interviewed viral marketing ‘guru’, Hiten Shah, partner at ACS SEO and a guy who has helped grow online traffic for major tech players such as TechCrunch, Guy Kawasaki, HP and Samsung.

During the interview, Shah revealed a number of powerful techniques he recommends for optimizing viral marketing campaigns. Here are six (6) such techniques - techniques you may wish to consider using in one or more of YOUR viral marketing initiatives:

1. Use a ‘beat me’ or competitive approach. Websites that allow users to challenge each other are inherently viral. For example, eduFire.com went viral by allowing its users to play language games and then challenge friends to score higher.
2. Require people to refer others to the viral application or content in order to benefit. Put it this way, no-one can use Skype… unless others also use Skype. And the same goes for numerous other applications and services, ranging from email to PayPal.
3. Let people show off - let people create or contribute content, and share what they’ve created. Doing so is a major reason behind the viral success of GE’s online whiteboard.
4. Encourage people to share - make it super-easy for users to share and embed your content. Who does this exceptionally well? YouTube!
5. Give people something to boast about - give people something to brag or boast about… and they will! For example, when Feedburner created a badge allowing bloggers to show how many readers they had, bloggers everywhere began displaying Feedburner badges – leading to Feedburner’s growth.
6. Measure your progress - measure your viral growth to see what is working… and what isn’t… and make changes accordingly.

To learn more powerful viral marketing techniques, click here to listen to the full interview between Andrew and Hiten Shah.

Source: Andrew Warner, “7 Essential Tools of Viral Marketing - The Hiten Shah Interview”, Mixergy.com, September 5, 2008

This is truly shameful.

I call myself a marketer. I provide marketing products and services. I publish a 6-day-per-week marketing newsletter.

But when it comes to investing in marketing, exactly what percentage of company expenses do I spend on marketing?

Let me explain…

We’re finalizing our end-of-year financial reports (the financial year ends on June 30 each year in Australia). Although I should keep MUCH better track of these things, the fact is I am not the numbers person I should probably be.

Yes, I’m a big believer in ITTI (innovating, testing, tracking and improving) and it’s the numbers that indicate the extent of any improvements (or lack thereof), but this is a learned skill… not one that has come naturally to me. So I have a tendency to keep track of some numbers… and not others…

So when it came to finally evaluating our annual performance and seeing the numbers in the cold light of day, I was shocked to see how little our company actually spent on paid-for marketing initiatives last year.

Now I should say that this figure does NOT reflect the time we devote to marketing, which is considerable… but it does reflect a “tightwad” mentality. A mentality that is, I must admit, a
carry-over from (a) building two companies with negligible startup capital, and (b) being too product oriented.

So what’s the damage? Well, our spending on advertising and marketing services constituted just 2 percent last year.

That’s right, an anemic 2 percent!

Granted, we poured a lot of our budget into development last year (and still are - if you’re familiar with DomainerIncome.com… you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!) so that was bound to reduce the percentage spent on other things.

But I’ve always thought that the bulk, if not a significant percentage of ANY business’s expenses should be invested in marketing. If anything, there should be NO upper limit as long as the amount spent on marketing is generating a sufficient return on investment (ROI). So the fact that we haven’t followed our own advice is, indeed, shameful.

Moreover, we’ve left money on the table!

So that’s my embarrassing admission… but what about YOU? Have you been fed the myth that Internet marketing is all about freebie marketing tactics and avoiding any marketing initiatives that cost money?

Probably not. Let’s face it, no serious business skimps on marketing.

For us, it’s time to get serious!