Go Viral or Go Home
Writing a message that doesn't spread is a waste of others' time and a waste of your life.Ideas that spread win!
After working in the Internet marketing field for more than five years and creating numerous successful marketing campaigns, here I am going to summarize the key elements that I have used every time to make a message spread out like a virus. Some examples are supplemented to help you understand each element more deeply and see how others apply them in real life.
Let's see how to go viral now!
1. Surprise
The message you want to spread has to be logical and reasonable, but somewhat beyond people's expectation. More importantly, you'd better do this in the title of your message.
Example: Remember the news "Steve Jobs has just six weeks to live"? It is common for a person to go to hospital and in fact Steve went to hospital many times. So what's surprising? It's "six weeks to live".
Question for you: What surprise in the message do I have for my clients?
2. Simple
Nowadays, people are overloaded with information. If you want your idea to get inside people's head, make it simple! The most effective way is to create a visual image for your idea, at least subconsciously. A picture is worth a thousand words.PS: If your idea is too long and complicated, make sure you divide it into pieces and spread it one by one.
PPS: Make a video whenever possible.
Example: Remember the story that the average person consumes 4 spiders per year in his sleep? Can you picturize a spider slowly crawling into your mouth in your head? Yes, you got it!
Question for you: Can my clients see pictures in my message?
3. Emotion
People's emotional brain (right brain) always works faster than the logical brain (left brain).If you count the news in the past few weeks, you will notice that bad news has occupied most of the columns, such as wars, murders, diseases, car accidents and natural disasters. Why? It is because bad news triggers the No.1 emotion in a human's head: fear. Fear attracts the most attention and calls for action.
When people spread your message, they either want to ask others for more information, or just want to seek for calmness through simple sharing.
Example: Still remember the spider?
Question for you: Any emotion you can embed into your message?
4. Jealousy
Jealousy is a very complicated human emotion. I specifically emphasize it here because it works quite well on people's subconscious mind. It is just so difficult for a person to admit that he takes the action because he is jealous of something.The resource is always limited on the planet. The fact that you get it indicates I lose it, in a sense. And lacking resource is a life-or-death issue.
Example: Remember the news of someone winning the lottery? Remember the news that some movie star had slept with several women? Remember the story that a simple business model made several millions of dollars per month?
Question for you: How could you create a sense of competition in your message?
5. Authority
This is the most critical factor why your audience has to listen to you, not others. Biologically, people were born to listen to authority because the world is full of uncertainties and the authority creates a sense of safety for us.
Example: No offence, but Made in Germany and Made in China, which do you trust more?
Question for you: How can I prove to my audience that I am authorized to talk about my idea?
6. Repetition
Something unfamiliar or unknown indicates danger. When it is repeated many times, it gets familiar to you and it creates a sense of safety in your head, unconsciously. Safety is a good thing.
Example: Why ads are repeated again and again on TV even though you hate them? Why an awful song starts to sound familiar and nice to you when you hear it everywhere? Why people fall in love with someone even though they do not have feeling for each other at the first sight?
Question for you: How can I show up in front of my customers more often?
7. Timing
When you read the headline news every morning, pause and think for a few seconds. It may be your chance.Try to relate your products to something popular recently. People are eager to read and spread everything related to it.
Example: Prince William's royal wedding boosted the sales of everything in the wedding industry, such as wedding dresses, rings, matchmaking services and divorce lawsuits. Anything else you can think of?
Question for you: What's today's news? How can I relate my ideas/products to the news?
8. Time
The longer a fact exists in our head, the harder it is to deny it. When the fact is proven to be false, people would fight to defend it, because the fact has become part of our belief, and we live upon such belief to survive in the world.
Example: In China, a majority of grown-ups still believe the Great Wall is the only construction humans can see through eyes from the universe. In United States, today most people still believe Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Question for you: How can I get my words out as early as possible?
Recommended Tool
Now you understand the key elements of how to spread ideas. You can actually apply them everywhere in life, through word-of-mouth, social media and emails.I use emails more often. Nowadays, people still allocate a specific amount of time every day scanning and replying emails, during which, they are more focused and willing to accept new things when they see something interesting or beyond their expectation. Therefore, apply the above-mentioned elements in your next emails today and see how viral they go!
Last but not least, you may need some powerful email blasting tools to assist you in spreading ideas. Using professional email marketing software ensure the deliverability of your email campaigns and you can personalize every email for each of your customers.
1and1Mail
Easy-to-use free email marketing software, perfect for small businesses. It allows you to create, schedule and send personalized mass email campaigns, manage email lists and design email newsletters. 1and1Mail Personal Edition allows you to send mass emails to 1,000 persons per batch, and it is so far the most affordable email marketing software that I can find in the market.
Original Post: http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-spread-ideas