You've just heard it through the grapevine: Pay Per View Marketing is the next big thing. As someone scraping the bottom of the barrel in hopes of landing the big fish in your online marketing efforts, you pounce on the opportunity PPV traffic provides. Countless articles have been read online, giving you all the cliché you can handle. You've heard them all: go for your active audience; focus on your product's strengths; establish an image; and everything else Advertising 101 advocates have spewed out since time immemorial.
Don't get me wrong. Doing all these will give your PPV campaign a big boost. The only problem is most of your fellow competitors are doing the same thing. Competition in the realm of online marketing will always be difficult. You do everything to the letter only to find out that you're doing "okay." Well, here's my take on this: "doing okay" is simply not enough. Why settle for the moon when you can reach for the stars? In order for you to set the bar higher, you have to grab the bull by its horns and charge with relentless abandon. What I want to say can be summed up in three words: Shock Marketing Tactics.
Let's face it. Most people who sign up for PPV networks are only in it for the free software. Pop ups and pop unders can be an annoyance and some Internet users have mastered the art of ignoring them as a result.
Now inducing some shock value to potential customers isn't altogether new. However, it takes a healthy dose of viciousness in the mind to be able to pull it off. Perspective, in a roundabout way, should be drawn from the crude or the absurd. Your penchant for college humor, believe it or not, can be beneficial to your PPV campaign.
Got an anti-smoking product to sell? How about using dilapidated lungs as an image for your ad? If you're selling cologne spray for men, an image of the most unattractive male you can find as he gets subjected to the advances of a very beautiful woman would give results. If you offer auto-insurance, a Chevrolet reduced to smithereens in the wake of a car crash might do the job.
You now get the picture. The key here is to blindside the customer and send him reeling a bit.
This doesn't mean that you have to spread menace on the Internet and scare the kids. A line should still be drawn somewhere. Remember, as PPV marketers, we only want to grab people's attention, not send them into crying fits or lamentations of a cruel world. What I'm saying is - don't be too nice, and don't get too cute. Too many ads have gone that route already. What you want to do is provide your ad an edge.
Sometimes the best way to win over customers is to slam through the backdoor of their minds. In directing Pay Per View traffic, a little nastiness can go a long way into making other competitors eat your dust.