Unless of course, you take into account his promotional prowess. Weird Al recently flexed his marketing muscles by releasing 8 songs in 8 days, with the specific intent of selling more copies of his newly-released album. Thanks to the power of social sharing and well-known websites, the strategy was an overwhelming success, which underscores just how efficient online marketing can be when executed perfectly.
Weird Al understands just how quickly the internet moves on a day-to-day basis. Today’s meme is tomorrow’s tired cliche. In order to best capitalize on the short attention spans of online users, he partnered with several different outlets to produce his videos. In this way, a new site would carry a new video every single day, broadening not only Weird Al’s reach, but the audience of the partner site as well.
This deal was an all-around win-win. Weird Al vowed not to accept a single dollar of advertising revenue from any of the sites (which included CollegeHumor, Nerdist, and Funny or Die), yet saw an exponential increase in album sales. The campaign may end up being credited with bringing him his first No. 1 album of his more than 3-decade long career!
The lessons to be learned here are diversification and diligence; two of the core tenets of both content marketing, and social media marketing. Utilizing a full network of blogs, directory submission sites, and social media platforms to distribute content generates the kind of links and interest that cannot be bought. Creating posts tailored to each of your brand’s social media accounts provides those specific audiences with a unique experience and opportunity to engage with your content. All too often, clients are unaware of the various promotional options available to them online. No branded viral campaign achieved success through happenstance; proactive steps must be taken to win the public’s attention and affection.
When it comes to Online Marketing, it’s all Weird science
On top of a diversified approach, diligently producing new, relevant, and informational content helps to keep your brand at the forefront of your consumer’s mind. Online, every new day provides a blank slate. The article that brought you 1,000 new visitors 24 hours ago is now old news, leaving you no time to rest on your laurels. New information is a prized commodity, and brands that fail to take control as merchants of their own content leave themselves vulnerable to a competitor cornering the conversation.
Weird Al achieved his goals by relying on the internet’s inherent qualities, and provided all of us a lesson in viral marketing along the way. An artist who makes a living poking fun at pop culture just leveraged it to turn some serious sales…And it doesn’t get much weirder than that.
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