Last week, I got this viral marketing question in the form of a comment -
I am building a new web application that sends reminders in the form of text messages, emails and voice messages to subscribers. The idea originated from my wife’s situation, being a soccer mom and everything, and having four kids, its hard sometimes to keep track with all the practices and games… so she either carry a notebook with her all the time, or she checks her emails. To make a story short, i am thinking now of having this public service web site, and people can subscribe for a small amount of money. Do you think such an idea can be marketed some how?
Initially, I like the idea, (my wife struggles with the same problems) but I do see some problems with this service actually taking off (and making any money) and the main reasons is because of Cell Phones. Everyone has them, and everyone for the most part, carries them with all of the time. Most cell phones these days, like the Blackberry my wife carries has notifications that do just what your service is offering to do, and it would be for free. I know my iPhone does the same thing, and I use it all day long to remind me of what I need to be doing.
With that said, if you were going to go through with it, and market this kind of a service, I see you having no problems finding some pretty amazing viral marketing ideas that you could use to promote your site with. The first headline that sparks my interest right off the bat (because of all the Hockey Mom talk with Gov. Palin) would be “10 Things Soccer Moms Got That Hockey Moms Don’t” (or vice versa) - start some controversy right off the bad and get these “Moms” going back and forth with each other etc. It could be funny, and interesting all at the same time. I mean, what guys doesn’t like a good cat fight right? The service you are offering fits right in because these are the kind of people who you are targeting with your business model, so even though the service itself is pretty boring, you have lots of topics surrounding it that are not, that would make it very exciting.
After doing a quick search on Google Videos and You Tube, I also found some pretty interesting videos show casing some pretty angry and aggressive Soccer Moms during their kids games. (Side note - some of the stuff I saw was actually sad, and I can’t believe some Moms act this way during games.) Always thinking like a marketer though - This got me thinking of a pretty cool post where you could find 10 of the craziest outbursts from Soccer Moms during games, and title it “The 10 Angriest Soccer Moms Of All Time Caught On Video” or “Be Glad This Is Not Your Mom” or something similar that would make people want to click. Remember your link bait is the key here, we want to get people interested in clicking.
Speaking of making things interesting, and getting people to click - what about this post as an idea “The 10 Hottest Soccer Moms” or “The Top 10 Hottest Hockey Moms Of All Time” and then just research a little on Google, or any photo sharing site, and you will find what you are looking for - trust me …
In Conclusion:
I think there is no limits to the amount of viral marketing ideas and posts that this industry could bring, but as far as a business model itself, I really don’t think it will fly with all the technology out there already. If it were a free subscription based service, and you just collected a huge database of users, and drive massive amounts of traffic to the site, and sold sponsorships and advertising - it might work. I just don’t see people paying for a service like that right now, in this economy. At least you know that you won’t run out of viral marketing ideas though, and I hope this at least got you starting to think about what direction you want to go! Good Luck, and thanks for the question. As always, if anyone ever has an industry they want featured on these viral marketing idea Friday posts, just comment, or send us an email.
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