It’s Day 28 in our Growing Your List challenge and the final chapter of the Viral Marketing section. Today we’ll brainstorm ideas for viral tools, services & products you can create in your niche...
For Day 28, refer to pages 66-67 in the free
31 Day Guide to Growing Your List
What tool, product or service can you create that requires people to "sign up" using the tool? What products can you create that carry your marketing message such as blog themes, plug-ins, software, etc?
Our guide gives two examples: PayPal and Adobe PDF Reader. PayPal had timing on their side with the growing popularity of eBay. And it went viral fast due to two things: the pay-per-lead affiliate program during their launch phase, and the fact that you had to open a PayPal account to receive money from someone that sent you (or wanted to send you) a payment.
Other examples that come to mind are:
- Hotmail
- Yahoo! Messenger
- Skype
- Blogger (you often have to sign in just to comment!)
- FourSquare
More recently, WordTracker began requiring you to create an account and sign in to use their Free Keyword Research Tool. I'm sure there are many more examples, and I would love to continue discussing those in the comment section as they can spark creative ideas.
The key is to consider the things your market needs and wants, or could really use, and approach it from that angle. Are they competitive? Do they track anything in particular? What tools do they need, or which tools would they love to get free?
Another good angle is to consider what they use now, and what add-on products or services would enhance the experience. PayPal rode on the coattails of eBay as we discussed earlier...
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Best,
About Lynn Terry
Any examples on a smaller scale? can you point to anything like this that isn't one of the 5 most successful viral niche tools in existence?
Great question, and should be a great conversation starter. The top examples provide working models and successful ventures, so they are definitely worth studying.
There are many on the smaller scale, so I'll have to work on coming up with specific examples. And would love to hear from other readers on this as well...
Wow - after half a day, there's not much from the readership! I'm getting very interested in this and think a well put together niche tool could definitely be a unique value prop for a blog.
Think, Graham, think!
It'll be quieter than usual due to the holiday weekend. I am offline myself packing for our summer trips in opposite directions. 😛 I'll be back to brainstorm with you more though. 😉
You are right about the tips but there some countries for which there is no facility of paypal.I am interested to know about the alternative in this case.
I really like the idea of creating "viral" tools that will appeal to one's market. Got some brainstorming to do 🙂