Viral Marketing 101 – Why Failure to Use Viral Marketing Could Destroy Your Business
No matter if you have the worlds greatest product or best designed website if nobody ever gets to find it. You are not going to be successful if you don’t have traffic to your website..
There are tons of methods to bring visitors to your site both paid and free. Most people think of pay per click programs such as Google AdSense when they think about traffic, but there are a lot of ways to bring in traffic that cost nothing out of your pocket.
Viral marketing is one of them.
While viral suggests virus and makes people think of bad things when related to a computer, viral marketing has nothing to do with computer viruses. Word of mouth advertising is another name for viral marketing.
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or word of mouth advertising or buzz marketing is a popular marketing technique used by the biggest brands to create public awareness of their product. They use many kinds of media to reach out to their audience without actually promoting their own product. They aim to get a person hooked, amused or wanting to use something, with their advertising message accompanying it.
Simply put, if people like the content of media, they will pass it on. Think of the funny emails, power point presentations and videos you get in your inbox that have been shared with you and by you. That can be viral marketing if a company has started the trend. Many beer ads work this way.
Viral marketing is very low cost. It isn’t spam mail because it is sent by one person to their friends and family completely willingly and without being coerced. Because it comes from a friend, it is unlikely to be blocked by the recipient, who in turn is likely to pass it on to other friends and relatives.
How to use Viral Marketing
Publicity is the purpose of viral marketing. It is about getting loads of attention and public awareness about your company and website. You get a lot of extra traffic that are potential customers and you have the opportunity to capture names and emails you might never otherwise get.
You need to be creative. The entire idea itself, is becoming more viral. Failing to use it could see your business failing while others who take the time to create a highly viral campaign will succeed where you won’t.
Creating a funny video or email or a compelling free report or ebook, running a competition and the like are all options.
Other factors such as search engine optimisation will also boost your public awareness and combining those two together can be powerful. You can also use paid advertising to increase your scope, though that is not part of a true viral marketing campaign.
Viral marketing can be seen as an unobtrusive way to get your potential audience to learn about you and your company as it gets passed along from person to person, with your company name tagged at the end.
Creating gossip or buzz or something popular to be passed around can really help your business take off. Think about how movies are often promoted.
Remember the biggest companies use viral marketing very successfully to increase their brand awareness with spectacular results. Now it’s your turn to turn on your creativity and come up with an idea of your own.
