Practical Marketing: Start by feeling it

Whether you spent a hundred dollars or a half a million on your virtual world marketing, the odds are you failed. If you didn't, some people will still call it a failure, but that's as may be.

When you're sitting with the team trying to analyze the results (you do that after every campaign, right?) and working on why user-engagement wasn't higher, rest assured that probably the biggest, most important reason isn't even mentioned.

Why weren't the users engaged? Because you weren't.

You and your team weren't engaged by the campaign. Heck, you weren't even really interested, let alone maintaining that level of genuine and energetic excitement that drives a solid campaign.

You know the right feeling. The marketing campaign that excites you so much that that excitement inevitably shows through in nearly every aspect of it. Don't forget that marketing is a conduit, through which your image is poured. If you're feeling lackluster and bored or uninspired, it shows. In virtual worlds it really shows!

A virtual world isn't a billboard (though it may include them); it isn't a broadcast (though it may include those). You virtual world presence holds the same personal location equivalent as 'down the street by the park'. Regardless of your site's location in the virtual world, you're in their home neighborhood where they live and work.

What campaign would you have on the corner of the street where you live in the physical world? Your campaign will be that 'close to home' for the users, and that means you've got to have respect for the people you want to receive your message.

Excitement, and respect. Now that is a winning combination for marketing in virtual worlds. As long as you maintain both of those to fuel your campaign, the users will forgive you if you screw something up, and even welcome subsequent attempts.