It's hard to get noticed on the World Wide Web, but now there's a new tool that companies can use to build their brands online – and it's practically free!
Widgets also known as gadgets are similar to miniature television screens, usually no more than a couple of inches high or wide, which can be posted on a website, blog or desktop.
How it works: You design a widget and put your brand or logo on it. It can display any kind of information: the weather report, a slide show, scores, etc. Visitors to your site will see it, download it, and post it on their own blogs or Facebook pages.
Presto – your brand is now in front of thousands of new customers.
ComScore, an Internet marketing research firm claims widget-adorned webpages reached 239 million unique visitors in the month of June 2007. That was up from 178 million when ComScore started tracking widgets in April.
The best part is that your widget doesn't have to be fancy or expensive to develop to be a success.
Take, for example, Babystrology.com. Here your can download a “baby ticker†where an expectant mother can put her due date into a simple form, then download the widget to her desktop or webpage. The virtual fetus actually grows as the date gets closer! The result – about 95 percent of the website's traffic comes through the baby ticker and the widget has been downloaded more than 70,000 times.
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Widget Marketing
- Companies can build their brands online by creating widgets that can be shared and displayed on websites and social media platforms.
- User-generated Widgets
- Creating widgets that allow users to customize and share their own content can help businesses reach new customers and increase website traffic.
- Interactive Widgets
- Developing widgets that provide interactive and engaging experiences can attract attention and create brand awareness.
Where This Applies
- Digital Marketing
- The digital marketing industry can take advantage of widget marketing to increase brand visibility and reach a wider audience.
- E-commerce
- E-commerce companies can utilize user-generated widgets to enhance product visibility and encourage social sharing, leading to increased sales.
- Entertainment
- The entertainment industry can leverage interactive widgets to create unique and immersive user experiences, enhancing audience engagement and loyalty.
