Viral marketing has gone mainstream. It has matured and become another part of doing business.
Various brands and marketing agencies now see the concept of Web marketing not just as another tick box that they check as part of their overall marketing campaign, but as a fundamental medium of promotion.
Take the movies, for example. Even before a new “blockbuster smash hit” is released, the promoters will usually create a website, Facebook and Twitter campaign, etc. to create a bit of a pre-launch buzz. In other words, big business “gets” the concept of viral marketing.
But does one need to have a big business budget in order to expect results from a viral marketing campaign? No! Creating a buzz can work for startup and small businesses too.
You will want to plan out your campaign a bit first, however. At the beginning stage of the process you should state your objectives and develop your viral theme.
In fact, every viral campaign embodies three core components, and such a campaign can be used by a business of any size. Those components are:
1. The creative embodiment of the viral message you want to spread. Obviously, online this will be in a digital format such as an e-book, special report, infographic, flash game, video and so on.
Creating such content need not be difficult if you have a good idea. For example, you can use Apple’s Pages to create a PDF ebook, GarageBand to create a podcast or jingle, iMovie to create a viral video and so on.
The trick (and the hard part) is to put together something that people will be eager to share with others. This is largely hit or miss, but it can be based on an educated guess to greatly increase your chances of success, and, of course, the more times you try, the better your chances of hitting the jackpot! Remember that people are much more inclined to share an “advertainment” than just a bald advertisement.
2. Placing or distributing your viral content online. We’ll call this “seeding.” You want to put your content in the places that will provide the greatest distribution. For example, you might place a free e-book on Scribd, a video on YouTube, a regular podcast in the Apple podcast directory, and so on. These direct downloads and links on third-party sites will help you get your material spread and create awareness of your destination site or blog.
3. Tracking. This is a measurement of the spread of your campaign so as to evaluate and guage your results. This will help you to determine what is and is not working in getting your viral message out. This means that you might want to create a different landing page that each viral component of your campaign points to.
There is a science to the process of developing a viral buzz. That much should be obvious, since big business has entered into the picture. Other viral marketers have developed trends that you can take note of in implementing your own viral campaign.
In any event, one thing is sure: viral marketing is here to stay, and strategic use of this “buzz” technique can make a big difference in the success of your marketing efforts.
