Viral Marketing 101

Wikipedia defines viral marketing as:

marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.

The huge portion to take out of that paragraph is brand awareness and self-replicating viral processes. Most viral marketing campaigns do not lead to direct sales, but they can have an impact on brand awareness. I’ve ran viral marketing video campaigns before (and some videos have over 1.5 million views), and there was no lift in sales. However, the site did get a few links to it, so I’m sure it’s ranking a little higher than previous. Also, if you are having to do quite a bit of work to make the “viral” successful, it’s no viral marketing. It then becomes regular marketing that won’t have a large impact on sales (large generalization of course).

Videos make great viral marketing, but whatever it is, usually falls into a few key categories:

• Porn, beautiful women, etc
• Current events / news
• Something new and never seen before

A great place to start with viral marketing is to send a personalized email to around 30-60 related blogs. Disclose everything and say that their readers might find it interesting as well. I usually get a 50% post rate and have had posts on boingboing, gizmodo, espn, i-am-bored, make magazine, crunchgear, LA Times, and numerous other authoritative sites. Not bad for an email.

I’d then submit whatever it is do digg, stumbleupon, and del.icio.us. Make sure not to SPAM these sites.

If you’re spending a lot of time advertising your viral marketing, it’s time to stop and try again with something else. The whole point of viral marketing is reaching a ton of people without a whole lot of work.

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I think the idea of reaching a lot of people with little work is where viral started but today people are shelling out a lot of money for viral marketing campaigns with a strategy to reach a secondary market that isn’t the traditional way of reaching there consumer.

An example of this would have to be the Dark Night Viral Marketing campaign that is all over internet. Even though the design looks cheep I’m sure the agency that is in charge of this campaign charged WB a pretty penny.

Blogs
http://megorious.com/blog/film/the-dark-knight
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33468
http://mademistakes.vox.com/li.....iller.html

Released sites from WB
http://www.rent-a-clown.com/
http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/
http://ibelieveinharveydent.warnerbros.com/

Every viral campaign needs some form of marketing, pr, and promotion to get it off the ground and in front of as many people in your target market as possible. There are two things that should separate viral marketing from traditional marketing or advertising.

The first thing is intent, the goal of viral marketing is to be spread by word of mouth through e-mail, blogs, IM, and if your lucky news outlets. This simply means that your content needs to be worth talking about and spreading. If it’s not, your campaign has no chance of becoming viral no matter how much you promote it.

The second is price, viral campaigns should be budgeted knowing that there is a good chance only a few people will see it. If you keep the price of your viral campaigns and videos low, then it is a low risk addition to a marketing campaign.

I agree Nial. There needs to be something that “kicks it off,” but when you find yourself having to push it all the way, then it is no longer a viral marketing campaign. Giving the rock a little push so it can roll down the hill and gain speed and momentum on it’s own.

I do agree with both of you in terms of how the message is delivered but I don’t think that the budget is one of the defining criteria for viral marketing.

Ian, thanks for all the comments, but can you please elaborate on where budget is mentioned? I see Nials comment about budget as if it the campaign won’t have a large impact on sales, but I don’t see where budget was mentioned as a defining factor for viral marketing.

I was referring to this statement bellow:

“but when you find yourself having to push it all the way, then it is no longer a viral marketing campaign. Giving the rock a little push so it can roll down the hill and gain speed and momentum on it’s own..”

But reflecting upon that I think your spot on in your statement.

The means of the message being delivered is what make it viral. If you end up pushing “the rock the whole way” it will just end up being a traditional marketing. Which is very true.

Great post!

Thanks Ian! I should have been more clear, as I was focusing on time rather than cost. To put it other words, if you’re spending lots of time, having to input something along the road ALL the time, then it’s not viral. If you’re pushing it and it’s not pushing itself.

Glad you enjoyed the post and thanks for the discussion!