There's a reason why viral marketing has taken off on the net in that last few years and it's because it's never been so cheap to reach so many people. At its core viral marketing is all about letting other people spread the word about your site for you. But how does viral marketing work and where do you start?
It's important to be different when hoping to go viral as the internet really has no time for ideas that have been done before. That doesn't mean you have to complexly re-invent the wheel, some of the most successful viral campaigns have been a new slant on an old concept. Mostly you will have to experiment to until you find the right formula.
Even though people usually create viral campaigns for purely commercial reasons you can't "oversell" things too much. Surfers are very vary of corporate advertising and are always reluctant to share things with their friends that are too "branded". Remember the main purpose of the campaign is to make people aware of you and not to just "sell".
Even though the whole point of viral marketing is that other people spread your content for you, you still have to get the ball rolling before things start to snowball. At the start of any campaign you need to contact influential bloggers and webmasters in the web-sphere who can spread the message, even the best marketing campaigns start manually.
It's still amazing to me how often webmasters will start some kind of marketing campaign but have no idea how successful it has been. To me tracking how many extra visitors and sales a campaign has brought is the only way to work out what works and what doesn't.
It's not easy trying to create something that 1000s of people will automatically want to send to their friends. It is possible to do though, even if the hardest part is coming up with the initial idea.
It's important to be different when hoping to go viral as the internet really has no time for ideas that have been done before. That doesn't mean you have to complexly re-invent the wheel, some of the most successful viral campaigns have been a new slant on an old concept. Mostly you will have to experiment to until you find the right formula.
Even though people usually create viral campaigns for purely commercial reasons you can't "oversell" things too much. Surfers are very vary of corporate advertising and are always reluctant to share things with their friends that are too "branded". Remember the main purpose of the campaign is to make people aware of you and not to just "sell".
Even though the whole point of viral marketing is that other people spread your content for you, you still have to get the ball rolling before things start to snowball. At the start of any campaign you need to contact influential bloggers and webmasters in the web-sphere who can spread the message, even the best marketing campaigns start manually.
It's still amazing to me how often webmasters will start some kind of marketing campaign but have no idea how successful it has been. To me tracking how many extra visitors and sales a campaign has brought is the only way to work out what works and what doesn't.
It's not easy trying to create something that 1000s of people will automatically want to send to their friends. It is possible to do though, even if the hardest part is coming up with the initial idea.
About the Author:
If you're interested in learning more about Viral marketing then check out my marketing blog for more info. I have lots of ideas there on how you can attract more visitors.
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