You wish.
The Ford Motor Company is a believer in viral marketing. They just had their best SUV sales month EVER due to folks suddenly wanting to buy a Lincoln. Lincolns are cool again, partially because of Matthew McConaughey’s ultra-suave commercials, but much more because of Jim Carrey’s parody of those commercials on Saturday Night Live.
How awesome is that? Over 8 million views of the SNL video. A 25 percent increase in SUV sales. Continued buzz provided by parodies of the parody by Ellen Degeneres, Power Wheels and more.
And Ford didn’t pay for any of this marketing buzz after the first commercial.
Wouldn’t you love to bottle this kind of attention to use for your own business? To be fair, it probably helps a lot to start with a hot property like Oscar-winning McConaughey, but that kind of investment doesn’t ensure that you’ll go viral. Ford itself hired Jimmy Fallon for a Twitter-related ad during the 2013 Super Bowl that flopped. Just a reminder to the rest of us that viral marketing isn’t easily replicated!
So what does that mean for the average Joe? I’m not going to say that viral lightning will never strike, but when it does, you need to be ready for it. Are your your business operations prepared to handle a sudden influx of attention?
Too often entrepreneurs use the seat-of-their-pants method, which leaves them vulnerable. You run out of a popular product, your website crashes from the traffic or you have to turn away clients because your calendar is already full.
People say “I WISH I could have that problem!” But you should never have the problem of leaving money on the table. I sit down with clients to smooth out the rough spots so that the business runs more effectively. Using technology, tools and proven techniques, you get a better handle on your day-to-day operations, freeing you up to try something like a viral marketing campaign.
Give me a call today and we’ll get you scheduled to audit where you are today and what we can improve, including your online brand and your business processes. Then you’ll be in a position of strength when that viral lightning strikes!
President and founder of DVI, Aaron Boerger realized early in life that he had a unique combination of x-ray vision and business acumen for seeing the weaknesses that held businesses back – and the ability to define the right tools, technology and strategy to make them stronger.
From founding a successful technology support business in his early teens, to serving as Chief Operating Officer for several companies in the financial, technology and marketing industries, Aaron has developed a reputation for reinventing technology implementation tactics – and the willingness to tell people not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear, in order to achieve success without overwhelm.
Aaron will always go the extra mile to provide the accountability and support his clients need to achieve their goals, yet isn’t afraid to tell them when they are doing something wrong.