The twelve billion dollar marketing strategy

The marketing strategy I’ll be disclosing here is none other than the one used by Facebook and I call it a twelve billion dollar strategy because thats the company’s current valuation. Facebook is one such company which spent very less amount or almost close to nothing on marketing and promotion. It was their ideas and unique ways to tap into mass networks which brought the company to this level. They had to face many set backs, but they made it and I was really impressed by the way they promoted their sites and services, and I felt that I’d got a live example for my beliefs and principles on marketing.

The below methods are not meant for only social networks or sites, its meant for all webmasters and even businesses. The points below are principles not exactly methods because they help justify and does not contain instructions to achieve, so in this post you’ll learn why and what to do and learning how to do all depends on you.

Friends, family and other contacts – your first audience

Whether its your first blog or business, getting the first few clients or users are usually the toughest, but later on its spreads like wild fire. And their is no better first customer or user other than your friends, family members and other contacts. Thats why entrepreneurs with good influential contacts are made for success. In case of Facebook, just after 24 hours of launch 1200 students from Harvard joined it, thats because Mark Zuckerberg had built a great network in Harvard and almost all of them were willing to help the young entrepreneur, this way Facebook got a quiet good audience on the very first day, the initial base which triggered a viral chain leading to millions of visitors.

The number may seem small, but will be worth millions in the long run, this was the first step Facebook took towards their glory and I think this is the first milestone every business should achieve. This is will also help you get feedback and suggestions before you get the big customers and you can also find loopholes.

Showcase yourself where the crowd goes

Another thing which every entrepreneur should master is showcasing himself successfully where ever he finds an audience. This usually starts with a pen and paper and ends in forums and party’s. If I had to do this you’ll usually find me in forums, meetups and party’s with a wide audience and related to my niche. This results in more promotional methods rather than users, because at such places you’ll usually see the media, powerful persons and celebrities, so you see these guys cannot be your potential users, but a medium to spread out the word of your business.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg started this by visiting colleges in his locality and exposing his project to the students there, and as expected all of them were eager to try it out. This is not very recommended in case you don’t have a very unique idea, so if you don’t attend party’s where you’ll find people whom you know.

Build premium contacts

By getting your friends and family into your business you’ll find a way to slowly expand your business through the word of mouth and get a few feedback, but when you want your business to reach the masses you’ll have to try mass communication and target mainstream media. This would include newspapers, Televisions, blogs and webmasters. The word of mouth marketing has gained a new platform with the birth of social media, so its much easier to gain free exposure.

The first thing I’d do for this would be mail all webmasters and bloggers who are likely to be interested in my business and later on I’ll release a paid press release, so that it’ll reach mainstream media. Facebook was unique so this worked really well for them, they got featured on newspapers and television channels just days after they launched. If you successfully attract the media then your sure to have a successful business.

Do things differently

From my childhood I have been hearing a proverb which says ‘Don’t do different things, but do things differently’. I’m not a believer of proverbs and principles, but in this case I can’t disagree. Facebook did everything to keep up with the latest trends of the society like most social networks did, but they kept up with those trends in a different manner, either by adding new features or by changing styles. If you see most of the successful companies in the world, all of them have done something different inside their niche or industry.

In this century its important that you differentiate others from your ideas, this will help you gain funding, media support as well as support from the public.

Don’t lie, just tell stories

Ok, I copied this from Seth Godin, but I will add my substance to this. I was really inspired by Seth Godin’s theory of All marketers are story tellers and I’ve researched a lot of about this. Most marketers are liars and half of the things they tell aren’t true, but they aren’t actually lying because lies are those which harm others, whereas these lies are just fooling people and are more like telling fairy tales. Such lies are always profitable in the past and even today.

When you want to impress a customer a small story will be really efficient, but the key lies in generating belief and that can be brought out by not promising the moon and some facial actions. Many times such stories have caused great buzz online and the story tellers business is often a success.

Spread virally through an existing base

When you get your first few customers, instead of profiting from them you must think about providing the best quality service and impressing them, so that the initial customers brings in a chain of customers through which you can increase your profits. For Facebook there was a certain amount of advantages as it was an internet company and referring others was much faster and easier.

They took maximum advantage of this and made it easy for their users to invite new users and as it was a social network, users were constantly trying to get in touch with their friends offline and online on other sites through it.

I have seen many businesses which give cash prizes, discounts and other rewards for those customers who refer friends and relatives to its business. This will be really effective, but the real effect comes when customers refer others depending on your quality and service.

Be controversial

Most of you would definitely have heard of the movie Blair Witch, which happens to have the highest profit to cost ratio in history. The movie wasn’t going to be noticed by anyone, not even the critics because it had a low budget, unknown actors and bad direction, but something made everyone eagerly wait for the movie, that is because the movie makers spread out a rumor according to which three movie makers had died before they picked up the story. As I said they weren’t liars they were just story tellers.

Facebook did not have to do anything controversial them self as many celebrities and politicians did that, this may have affected the careers of some politicians, but gave Facebook everything it needed.

Thats why I say that every modern day entrepreneur should have abundance of creativity, and those who do will attract popularity if they implement it well. Being controversial may have short term side-effects, but it’ll definitely help in creating a long term brand strength.

On to our readers

All of us have dreams make our businesses like Facebook, this is just the marketing principles you need to reach there, and their are many more factors to consider which I’ll be writing in my future posts, so to stay updated please to subscribe to my feed and connect with me on Twitter and Digg for mutual benefits.