Viral Marketing – Tips to Have an Effective Viral Marketing Campaign
Viral marketing is often associated with word of mouth. They are similar but definitely not the same. While word of mouth spreads the word about your products or services, it just dies out after a certain period of time. In viral marketing, you aim to reach a large audience by encouraging people to spread the word to others who will also inform other people about what you offer. A successful viral marketing strategy does not die out. It grows as more and more people know your services and/or products.
Viral marketing aims to create a buzz – to reach a larger audience and increase brand awareness. As the name suggests, viral marketing can be similar to a virus wherein a person gets infected, and he or she will spread the word about the virus to other people, until more and more individuals find out about the services and/or products that you offer. Viral marketing is an effective and inexpensive marketing strategy that disseminates information to a large number of people in a relatively short period of time.
Here are some methods or tools that can be used in viral campaigns:
– newsletters
– site address embedded in all outgoing emails
– site address in avatar
– blogs
– posting comments in blogs and/or forums
– special offers / promos
– free ebooks and/or white papers
– videos, interactive games, images, podcasts
– cross-promotion of sites
A viral campaign will be successful if it has a high pass-along rate. This will only happen if your content/article/newsletter/video/game/ebook is interesting enough that the recipient will pass it on to other people. Therefore, make sure you have original, informational, and interesting content to keep the ball rolling.
One good tip: make sharing easy for your target audience. Besides, it’s the whole point of viral marketing. For images or videos, make sure that it is easy for them to download.
There is also this magic word that can help you in your viral campaign: “free”. Anything that comes with this word attracts most people. For instance, you can make an eBook about your services and/or products and offer it online for free.
