Description
VIRAL MARKETING FOR YOUR ONLINE BUSINESSES
The Elements of a Successful Viral Campaign
When you’re planning your viral marketing strategy, it’s important to keep in
mind the basic requirements of every viral campaign. Without these, your
stampede might turn out to be more like a leisurely stroll.
To build a good viral campaign, make sure your plan includes
A free product or service
The product has to be easily transferable to another person
It has to be able to scale easily
It has to take advantage of other people’s resources
It has to be unique
Over the next few pages, we’re going to take a look at each of these
elements, and examine how you can use them to design and launch your
own viral campaign. Don’t worry. It’s not as complicated as it looks!
There is a Free Lunch, and You’re Serving It
Every single viral campaign begins with giving something away. Every one.
It could be an ebook, a piece of software, an instructional video, or even a
few laughs, but it has to be free. And when we say free, we mean free. Not
free with an opt-in or a free trial. It has to be really free, because you’re
going to encourage your customers to share it with their friends, and no one
wants to tell their sister she has to sign-up for your list to get the cool thing
you’re giving away.
Now that doesn’t mean you’re giving away the farm. But you do need to give
away great stuff. There’s lots of ways you can do that, while still leaving
your customers wanting more.
For example, if you build and sell a software package that helps bloggers
find free photos for use on their blog, you could offer a free version of the
software that only searches one database instead of several. Or if you’ve
written an ebook, you might release one chapter for free.
One thing to remember, though, is that the free product must be useful all
by itself. You’re not releasing a free trial, you’re essentially building two
products. One which you’ll give away and one which you will sell, and they
both need to be valuable to your users. Free software that is so limited as to
be worthless is not a good candidate for a viral campaign. The same is true
for a chapter of an ebook that ends with a question.
5
Some marketers pull just this sort of trick to “force” customers to upgrade,
but very often it will backfire. Customers are savvy, and they dislike being
manipulated this way, so don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll lose sales
by giving away too much information, because the opposite is actually true.
You’ll gain sales by giving away great stuff. Especially if your great stuff is
easy for your users to share among their friends, family, and colleagues.
Share and Share Alike
The second element of a fantastic viral marketing campaign is the ability of
your customers to share your product with their peers. Think about the
hundreds of email forwards you get in a year. That’s because people love to
share great stuff. Good marketers know this and take advantage of it by
providing their customers with what they want, and then they sit back and
watch it spread.
Social Networks
Viral campaigns thrive on the Internet largely because of the social networks
that exist. Ten years ago marketers had to rely on telephones and email
(maybe) to get the word out about a new product or a great service. You
can imagine the results were unpredictable and slow to materialize.
Today, we have dozens – maybe even hundreds – of social networks to use
to get our message to the masses. But for some, that means having the
opposite problem: where do you start?
For an online marketer, the first place to start is with your very own email
list. These are the people who already know you, like you, and buy from
you. They’re your biggest fans, and they’re the ones who are most likely to
pass your great products on to their family and friends and social network.
So make sure you’re keeping them informed about the latest products you’re
developing, any contests you’re holding, or any other thing that’s going on
that they might want to share.
You probably have an account with several of the more popular social
networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. But for viral marketing to work
in these venues, you have to be hanging out with the right crowd. If you use
Facebook primarily for friend and family interaction, trying to launch a viral
campaign there is probably not a good move.
The same goes for Twitter and Google Plus. Do you follow those in your
niche, or those who are other marketers? If it’s the latter, your niche
campaign won’t have very good results here either. Instead, make an effort
to follow those who share your passion for your niche, instead of those who
are simply marketing their own online business. Now if your niche is internet
marketing, then you should be following other marketers, but that’s the only
exception. Concentrate on following – and being followed by – those who are
in your niche, but who are not necessarily selling in your niche. In other
words, you want to be hanging out with the buyers, not the sellers.
6
For strictly social interaction, Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter are your
number one choices. If your target market is other business owners, though
– say for example you sell a product aimed at accountants – you need to get
on LinkedIn. If you’re not familiar with it, LinkedIn is basically a database of
business professionals in all areas of expertise. It’s similar to Facebook, but
without the games and other social activities.
LinkedIn allows you to network with other professionals in your area of
expertise, form groups, organize meetings, and develop a vast network of
colleagues you can reach out to through private messaging or by posting
status updates. You can automate your LinkedIn updates just like you can
with Facebook and Twitter, and even link your other social network accounts
so everything is up to date. If your product is geared toward professionals,
LinkedIn is the social network of choice.
For viral campaigns built around funny videos, great photography, comic
strips, or other visual media, StumbleUpon is the social network of choice. A
combination of a social application and a bookmarking service, StumbleUpon
is where you go when you’re looking for new stuff on the Internet. Just click
the button on your toolbar, and you’ll be transported to the next interesting
thing as determined by the choices you made when you signed up. Like
animals? StumbleUpon will serve up a random cat video or heartwarming
dog story. Into sports? You might land on a video of Tiger Woods hitting a
hole in one, or an ad for a new kind of practice ball.
Of course, getting your content to go viral on a social network involves more
than just putting it out there and hoping for the best. Later on we’ll discuss
how you can give your campaign a virtual push to get it started, but for now,
just be aware of the options available in the social networking world. Each
has its own purpose and followers, so pay attention to where your customers
hang out to determine the best social networks for your needs.
