Going Viral: How to get the most out of your marketing

Viral marketing has become a respectable and most importantly, very effective means of marketing among businesses worldwide – that’s if it is done correctly and respectfully. Find out how to make your marketing viral.

Correctly and respectfully? What does that mean? It means not abusing the system. It means using viral marketing tactics to spread the word about your business, your product and your service without offending others or being self-serving.

But, viral marketing is inherently self-serving, isn’t it? Well, yes and no.

To be truly effective, viral marketing must include a give and take approach. You must engage others, take part in conversation, and give as much as you get. In other words, don’t expect your message to spread itself. Viral marketing takes time, careful planning and well-thought out execution.

It has, for lack of a better word, an incurable need for attention.

While viral marketing can be applied in a number of ways, there are 3 main approaches to make your marketing viral:

1 – To Share. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are in fact products of viral marketing themselves. While they’re sole purpose is to allow (and encourage) users to share information, they too must share their service via their users.

It’s simple, really. Their users believe in them and enjoy their websites so much that they share those websites with others. Knowing this and trusting this would take place, these social media powerhouses have become multi-million, some billion dollar businesses thanks to, you guessed it, viral marketing.

2 – To Add Value. Adding value is not a characteristic unique to viral marketing. It is a common marketing approach across the board. For hundreds of years, business owners have understood the importance of offering their customers “more”.

For instance, buy this product and receive this additional product for free. You get the picture.

So, this notion of adding value applies to your viral marketing in the same way. However, rather than simply applying added value to your products and services, make value-added offers to those who share your message. For instance, send this message to an additional 10 people, and receive a free product. Incentivize and you will see results!

3 – To create buzz. Similar to sharing, creating buzz can be extremely effective to make your marketing viral.

How is it different? While sharing refers to others literally sharing information with friends (i.e. Like my Facebook page? Sign-up for your own Facebook page today and see more of what I’m up to, including photos, favorites and more!) creating buzz is more about spreading the word.

Consider how gossip spreads, or the way in which gossip magazines create stories based on hearsay. The idea is to get people “talking” about you and your business in a positive way so that they begin to encourage others to become customers, sign-up or carry on the conversation on their own.

As you can see, viral marketing is about more than inundating your audience with your message. It’s about strategic planning and taking an approach that puts your business in a positive light while enticing others to not only become customers, but to spread the word as well.

The history of viral marketing

When you hear the term “viral marketing”, you probably don’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. That is, unless you know the history of how it began and the incredible story of what it’s become.

For internet marketers and business owners alike, viral marketing has not only woven its way into the advertising and marketing culture of modern-day success stories, but it is quickly becoming as necessary as billboards, newsletters and direct mail campaigns were just a decade ago.

In fact, some may argue, it has already surpassed these archaic forms of marketing and is now the single most cost-effective, reliable and strategic way to share information while gaining customers through an approach that truly offers the most bang for your buck.

So how did this technologically-driven marketing approach get its start? One word – Hotmail. Let’s take a look back at this email program before it got purchased by Microsoft and absorbed into Live.com.

Thanks to the historic Hotmail email program, the first among free web-based email service providers, viral marketing has taken on a life of its own.

When Hotmail first began, they decided that the best way to entice new customers would be to reach the friends, family and colleagues of each user they had. So, in the footer of each and every email that was sent from a Hotmail account, the Hotmail team placed a link that read something like this: “Want a free email account? Sign-up for Hotmail today!”

And yes, believe it or not, this strategy went, as we know call it, viral. Hundreds of thousands of users hurriedly signed up for their free email accounts and the rest is history. What a great way to make your marketing viral.

That Hotmail model is the foundation for the viral marketing we are familiar with today. From Facebook, to Twitter, to YouTube and LinkedIn, viral marketing takes many shapes and forms.

Make Your Marketing Viral and Grow Your Business

It can vary in approach and evolve within each format, but the bottom line is to share information and do so on a large-scale – for free. Rather than spend thousands on expensive advertising campaigns, businesses (both large and small) have come to recognize viral marketing as a cost-effective way to not only get their message across, but to increase sales and improve business overall.

It truly is a phenomenon that continues to gain momentum.

And the more businesses that recognize viral marketing as an acceptable and reliable form of marketing, the more intriguing this approach becomes. Why? Because more and more people and businesses are joining the conversation. More and more we are seeing the positive effects of viral marketing and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.

While Hotmail has suffered the consequences of major competition, the approach they used is considered an extremely influential model in the world of internet marketing. As the grandfather of viral marketing, Hotmail will forever be recognized as the service that started it all. Thanks to them, back time people were bitten by the viral marketing bug and our businesses today are better for it.

Creating a Viral Marketing Campaign

Creating a viral marketing campaign, while not difficult, does take careful planning to make your marketing viral. You must be strategic and clearly define your goal (or goals) as well as the means you will use to achieve them.

Here are a few simple steps to follow that will guide you through the process of creating and devising your viral marketing campaign.

Step 1: Clearly define your goals.

What is it you are trying to achieve? Are you trying to attain a certain number of click-thrus? Are you trying to grow your customer base? Or simply attract visitors to your site?

No matter what the goal, you must know what it is before you can achieve it.

Step 2: Choose which outlets you will use.

Do you plan to employ social media to apply your viral marketing messaging to? Will you focus on your blog as a means to get your message across? Or will you submit articles to multiple directories in hopes of driving traffic?

No way is better than the other, but try to choose at least 3 means of viral marketing, ensuring that each approach is unique, yet compliments the others.

For example, if you write a blog post as part of your viral marketing campaign, you can then drive people to read the post by tweeting about it, as well as emailing the link to your list.

Another example might be, if you create a video and post it on YouTube, you can drive traffic to the video by sending the link as a download or embedding it on your Facebook wall.

Step 3: Carefully craft your message make your marketing viral.

Once you know what your message is going to be, it will be much easier to know how to apply it depending on the outlets you plan to employ. In other words, say you set out to write an article. Once you know the title, you can then craft that title into 140 characters or less for Twitter, and post a slightly longer description on Facebook.

Do you see how this all weaves together so beautifully? That is why viral marketing has become such a strong force to be reckoned with in and among the online business community. It truly is a powerful way of communicating, of advertising and of doing business.

Now, more than ever before, we have the ability to communicate in real-time in such a way that carries a single message to millions within seconds.

While marketing in general has its limitations, the possibilities are endless. It’s up to you to make the most of your messaging and turn your target market into paying customers.

And remember, it’s not only about them. It’s about who they are willing to share your message, your product, your business with. That is the essence of viral marketing.

Keep this gold rule in mind and you will be on the path to success… or to going “viral” as they say.

What’s Next to Make Your Marketing Viral?

So you’ve decided to build your own viral marketing campaign. Good for you! Viral marketing is a fantastic, cost-effective way to bring loads of traffic to your site and hoards of customers through your virtual doors.

But there’s a trick. Seeding – which in viral terms is just another word for promotion.

Your own list is the very best place to start. After all, these people already know you, they like you (otherwise they wouldn’t continue to let you fill their inbox), and they may have even bought from you before. That’s a pretty powerful combination, and it’s going to be a big help when it comes to getting your viral campaign off the ground.

How can you use your list? Simple.

Tell them about your new product or your marketing plan and ask them to tell their friends and colleagues, too. Invite them to share your newsletter, reprint an article or two on their blog or website, and Tweet, Stumble, and Facebook your links.

The bigger your list, the better this will work, but even small lists can have a major impact, and every viral campaign starts with just one single person telling someone else about the great resource they’ve discovered.

Don’t be afraid to ask your list for help getting the word out. Chances are they’ll be more than happy to help!

Viral marketing can work for virtually every business model. Follow the above strategies and make your marketing viral.

Want to learn more? Check out “Are you an Internet Marketer? Here is How To Make Your Marketing Viral”.