Today’s post on viral promotion methods is the concluding post in a series of posts on viral marketing. Viral promotion methods involve press releases, joint ventures, contests, getting listed and testing.

Make sure to read the following three posts: “Watch Your Profits Grow by Using a Viral Marketing Campaign” , “It’s time to Launch Your Viral Marketing Stampede” and “Reach for the Stars by Creating Viral Content”.

Going Viral

Can you force a viral stampede? Probably not. But there are things you can do to give your marketing tactics a nudge that might just send them over the edge.

Great content. This cannot be stressed enough. Without this, no matter how much effort you put into your marketing strategy, people are just not going to pass on links or eBooks or newsletters that aren’t any good. Make an effort to go the extra mile for your readers, and they’ll reward you by bringing in new customers for you.

It’s important that you give your readers (and listeners) exactly what they’re looking for, in a format they love. Anything else just won’t have the same impact with viral promotion methods.

How can you know what they want? Ask them.

• Conduct a poll using Survey Monkey (free)
• Ask for comments on your blog
• Email your list and tell them you’re planning a new launch and ask them what they need most from you
• Study niche forums and pay attention to the questions that get asked repeatedly
• Do a keyword search on Twitter and see what questions pop up surrounding your niche
• Follow the top blogs in your market and see what their readers are commenting about
• Pay attention to other viral campaigns to see what’s worked for them, then replicate it

Once you’ve built your content, it’s time to promote it. We touched on this earlier, but now we’re going to cover viral promotion methods in-depth, so you can give your viral marketing campaign the kick in the virtual pants it needs to start a stampede!

Press Releases are Part of Viral Promotion Methods

Press releases are a powerful way to get your message to the masses and are a great part of viral promotion methods. They’re easily distributed to hundreds of websites all at once, are frequently picked up by other websites and print publications, and have a way of “going viral” all on their own.

Try to put a newsworthy spin on your launch for best results, then submit your release to a number of press release sites. You can go an extra step and (social) bookmark your press releases, Tweet about them, add links to your Facebook fan page, and include links to them in your blog.

Joint Ventures for Your Viral Promotion Methods

Joint ventures refer to mutually beneficial partnerships with other marketers. They can take many forms, but some of the most common are simply the cross promotion of each other’s products. If your JV partner has a free eBook she’s hoping to work up some interest for, she might ask you to send it out to your list. In exchange, she’ll promote something of yours.

Another form of JV partnership is simply the exchange of ads – either in newsletters, on blogs or websites, or in audio and video files.

You can also have a partnership of sorts with other bloggers, offering to guest post on their blogs, author articles for their newsletter, or even appear as guests on their podcasts. All of these ideas can be the tipping point of a viral campaign, if your JV partner has a large and responsive list.

For sure include joint ventures for your viral promotion methods.

Contests

Holding a contest on your blog or website – or even Twitter or Facebook – is a natural lead-in for a viral campaign. When you give away great prizes, people will be more likely to participate. But your prize doesn’t have to cost you a lot, it just has to be valuable.

For example, if you run a hosting company, a year of free hosting is a valuable prize to your customers, but costs you very little. If you’re a service provider like a writer or a graphic designer, giving away free services costs you nothing but time, and has to potential to build your business exponentially.

The key is to make your contest interesting and fun, but not complicated. One hosting provider held a contest recently that required participants to film a short video singing the praises of the company.

The winner got a year’s worth of free hosting, and the company got lots of short commercials posted all over the Internet talking about how wonderful they are. The result was a lot of free advertising that will continue to make sales for years to come.

You can do the same thing no matter what your business model is.

Some ideas for contests include requiring participants to

• Post a photo in a Flickr group of them using your product
• Write a blog post listing the five best features of your product
• Tweet about your giveaway – one tweet per entry
• Comment on your blog for a chance to win the prize
• “Like” your Facebook page
• Digg or Stumble your blog post or article

Just remember – don’t make it complicated. Don’t require your reader to comment on your blog, Tweet about it, then email you and tell you they did it.

The second element of a viral campaign is easy sharing, so make it easy on your customers, and they’ll help get the word out for you.

Just Ask

Your mailing list subscribers and blog readers are a valuable asset and should be part of your viral promotion methods. They already know you and like you and do business with you, and will be quick to talk you up to their friends and colleagues – all you have to do is ask.

Write a great newsletter article all about your upcoming viral product launch, send it out to your list, and at the bottom, ask them to forward it to friends they know will be interested. Or use the “call to action” in a blog post or article to ask readers to Stumble, Tweet, or otherwise share your post.

Get Listed and Viral Promotion Methods

One article format that is commonly shared is the list, and specifically “best of” lists. If you can get your video, eBook, or podcast on a Top 10 list, just think what that will do for your viral marketing campaign!

But how do you get on such a list.

The first step – you may have heard this before – is to produce fantastic content. Then spread the word. If that fails to gain the attention you need to make it onto the next list of “50 Greatest YouTube Videos You’ve Never Seen” then consider making your own list.

Of course, making your own list and putting yourself at the top is a bit self-serving, but if you combine this idea with a joint venture, and together put out a big list promoting all your (and all your partners’) videos, you might be surprised at the results.

Pit Your Users Against Each Other

You’ve probably participated in this kind of viral campaign, where users are encouraged to do battle with each other in public. The makers of Farmville, Mafia Wars, and other games are great at getting this kind of campaign rolling, by getting players to share their scores and recruit other players.

Test, Regroup, Test Again

The last – and most important tool of viral promotion methods – part of every marketing campaign is to evaluate the results and refine your plan accordingly.

If you’re seeing a ton of traffic from YouTube, think about releasing another video. Not many sales coming in from Twitter? Maybe you should spend your marketing energy elsewhere.

Use Google or another analytics package to track keyword searches, traffic stats, and other relevant information to help you get a good sense of where your most valuable traffic comes from, and where you’re wasting your time.

Many of the distribution channels we’ve discussed in this guide include detailed analytics which will allow you to see exactly where your traffic comes from, how much of your video they watch, and whether or not they download your eBook or software. Be sure to take advantage of all the information available to you, and use it to refine your current campaign, and to plan a better, even more effective campaign the next time.

Final Thoughts About Viral Marketing Methods and Campaigns

If you’ve ever dreamed of logging into your website stats and seeing those number spike, of having thousands of Twitter followers, or of feeling the thrill of your video hitting a million views on YouTube, then you need to get started planning your own viral marketing campaign.

But remember, viral doesn’t have to mean millions – to a blog with a small readership, a viral event might be 1,000 visitors – then you build from there! With careful planning, each subsequent campaign can build on the last, until you finally reach the numbers you’re dreaming of.