Lessons Learned from Bacon Salt

One question a lot of people are asking is how to use Web 2.0, social marketing, and the elusive phenomenon of viral growth to enhance conventional online marketing and brand-building strategies such as SEO/SEM and email marketing. I recently came across a blog post that details how one improbable brand's Web 2.0 efforts helped build a groundswell of awareness and trial that led to getting scarce shelf space in crowded retail chains. The brand is Bacon Salt, a humble food product with the seductive premise that "everything should taste like bacon."

It turns out that Bacon Salt was the brainchild of a couple of internet guys whose marketing instincts naturally gravitated to the web. They set up a web site and blog for their product, put it on YouTube, created Bacon Salt groups in MySpace and Facebook, promoted it on Twitter, and of course, sold it online. They didn't have much money, which dovetailed well with the web-based approach; online, many of the best strategies are free.

Within three months Bacon Salt was gaining significant buzz, including a mention in The New Yorker. Users began requesting it in local supermarkets; soon it claimed coveted shelfspace in major grocery chains.

The Bacon Salt story is a Web 2.0 marketing primer. If you're eager to rev up your online marketing efforts, start with the Bacon Salt checklist. Watch your analytics closely to see what works best in your market; that's where to focus followon efforts.

Want to learn more? Read details on the genesis of the Bacon Salt brand here; check out the Bacon Salt website; and follow the official Bacon Salt blog.