New Viral Tactic: 'Cause Marketing'

By Joe Bingham
Posted Sunday, October 31, 2004

Once again, I've discovered a NEW marketing technique. We'll call it 'Cause Marketing'.

It's a very simple concept really, pick out your favorite 'cause' that you can rally people behind, say for instance the fight against the use of Smart Tags.

Then, you set up a Non-Profit.org web site with text running down the evils of the Smart Tags you are fighting against. In the sales copy, er, uh, I mean, text on your Non-Profit.org site, you infuriate people against the evils of big business, such as Microsoft, and against another terrible aspect of society like say Communist or Dictatorship governments that dare to censor their citizens access to parts of the Internet.

Now, after really working up people against these things, you declare that you will launch a massive media campaign aimed at stopping these horrific practices.

The kicker, of course, is that you need a way to collect names and email addresses from this Non-Profit.org site. One good way to do this could be to ask visitors to sign a petition. Naturally, you will deliver the petition as promised, but what you will also do is ask visitors to sign up on your marketing ezine's list at the same time they are signing the petition.

Of course, you won't do this by requiring them to fill in their name and email again for the separate list, but instead you will just have two already checked boxes. The first box pertains to the petition, and the next to the subscription to your ezine.

The logic being that who, after reading about how you are taking on big business, censorship, and all other manner of evil, will not want to subscribe to your ezine?

Doesn't that sound like an incredible idea? Aren't you glad I am able to illustrate these new concepts for you?

Of course, there is an outside chance that if you undertake this kind of 'Cause Marketing' that a cynical ezine writer will take hold of your concept and devote an entire article to making fun of you.

Of course, nothing is more important than gleaning names and email addresses for your business, right?

Who cares that some may view asking for people to subscribe to a marketing ezine from a Non-Profit.org site as tacky?

Who cares that the only 'massive media' campaign you will be running will be to get people to your petition site so they can subscribe to your marketing ezine so you can in turn get more hits to your web site.

I mean, hey, you're fighting against people that are using illicit means of gaining traffic to their web site. You are the good guy!

About the Author
Joe Bingham, Editor of the NetPlay Newsletters Subscribe to One 3 Quality NetPlay Ezines, See which one fits you at: (http://www.netplaynewsletters.com)
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