Content Crooner

photo credit: Phil McElhinney

Karaoke phenomenon: People with unusually poor singing voices are even more eager to sing than those with beautiful voices. There are countless online users starving for attention, searching the Web for a place where they can finally be heard. Use this desire to create a forum for healthy competition among your target audience. Give your prospects a voice by building an online forum, get them involved, and you will build a solid client base.

Create Your Own Money-making Microcosm

Yes, you can simply choose to post comments and create threads (forum lingo for new topic) on other people’s forums and save yourself some time. But you will only be able to do so in a limited capacity. The owners or site administrators for those forums have full control over what gets posted on their forums. Although this approach can yield some great results, those forum controllers can still snuff out your existence in their forum if they sense the least bit of competition.

Building your own forum gives you the power to create your own virtual microcosm. As the administrator you can create any topics you wish and accept or delete comments at your will. But since you have all the power it’s especially important not to forget that this is all about your forum audience.

Before you reach for your wallet, browse the Web for free forum software. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to find something that will at least be able to provide you with a basic level of functionality to help you get going. You might also consider asking your regular website programmer or designer to help you with that. But you small business owners will want to look into your free options first before you dig into your budget.

Your Marketing Campaign Must Keep Touch with Reality

One of the reasons why many online marketing campaigns fail is because they are created inside a vacuum. Business owners forget that sales and business are a direct reflection of life, and that their marketing efforts need to mirror that. A common departure from realistic online campaigning occurs when business owners lose sight of what gets people excited in their everyday lives. While we like to think that our product or service is enough to get people amped up, it usually isn’t the first thing to get our blood pumping. What is? Competition!

Whether it’s because our parents didn’t coddle us enough and we desperately seek the praise of others or we live to put our skills to the test and see how they match up against others, we love the inherent thrill of competing against others. Look for ways that you can incite healthy competition throughout your marketing. A forum provides a perfect opportunity to both encourage competition and get people talking excitedly about your product or service.

Dare your forum visitors to come up with the most unique way to use your product. Ask them how they would improve your service (remember, you can delete comments that full out attack your service). This will also help you get some useful feedback on how you can provide better service. You can also try asking about how the type of service you provide might evolve in the future. The point is to get people excited to share their insights. And always remember to be gracious and open to their comments and feedback.

There’s Always Something to Talk About

Your product or service may not initially have much that readily fuels competition. No problem! All you have to do is dig down a level or two and think of finite aspects regarding your offer that you can discuss. Don’t automatically think that you have to maintain a broad address of your business offer. Auxiliary topics are completely acceptable and help keep your subjects fresh.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!