What is Viral Marketing and Do I Need It?

Visibility

You need to be seen to be competitive in the realm of Internet-based business. Competition for keywords and traffic within various niche markets is intense. 

Every method of marketing utilised needs to be laser-focused and aligned with your niche. Too broad an approach will dilute the effectiveness of your campaign.

If people don't recognise that you exist, it doesn't matter whether you have a killer product, the latest mobile app, or an incredible website. You're unlikely to generate massive success. 

Untold marketers have had these excellent products, software and websites and still failed. Worse of all did not recognise they could boost their marketing efforts by looking at other methods.

Tried and proven strategies used by many e-commerce sites today should are still immensely valuable. Make sure you have not overlooked any that could assist you with an additional boost in the popularity ratings. 

With the exploding influence of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest and the growing following using Instagram, the importance of Viral Marketing is overpowering.

Viral Marketing Overview

Viral Marketing or Viral Advertising occurs when the promotion, idea or product spreads without payment. The general public rapidly shares and disseminates the information, usually via social media. 

Various and sometimes alternative forms of media can be used to reach out to the public without actually promoting the product itself.

Looking at popular posts on Facebook, and seeing the number of likes, and shares they have received, how many views a YouTube video has received as another popular media.

Find or produce content for a media type that will engage people so much that they will want to share it with friends, family and others on their social networks. 

Cool flash games, funny videos, amusing stories, quotes or inspirational photos, which someone may pass on to another with your message, brand, logo, call to action or products and services attached.

Viral marketing has become a popular means of promoting and advertising due to its relatively low cost. While avoiding the spam problems of email marketers, you still must be aware of the types of posts or messages that are considered spam by the various media and social networks. 

Viral marketing reckons on the willingness of one person to pass on the content to which the marketing message is attached. The people sharing content within these social networks are usually known to each other. There is a high probability they will not only engage with the content but are highly likely to share this with others.

There are countless permutations to viral marketing. Be innovative and original around your product or service. Even if you are an affiliate marketer, think outside the box, and dare to be different. 

Funny videos, funny photos, killer infographics, coupons, discounts, quizzes, polls, surveys, contests, and rebates are all potential viral content. Consider them all, as well as writing that killer article that people want to share.

Using Viral Marketing to Your Advantage

The first and foremost advantage of viral marketing is that you can generate a great deal of publicity and public awareness about your products, services and site. 

This source of traffic can yield hundreds if not thousands of potential conversions, whether you are growing a list or selling a product or service. Couple a little ingenuity and a good dose of imagination, with some incentives, free giveaways or prizes, and you could be reaching out to ever-increasing numbers of potential targeted customers.

Of course, not everyone can write or produce content that will have the potential to go “viral”; however, this method of promotion can still work for you. 

Within your niche market, search out engaging content. Useful ideas, stories, photos and videos which you can share and post while adding a comment and like to will also result in your message being spread. 

An excellent rule of thumb rule to use is the 80/20 principle. Deliver 80% good valued content and 20% promotion. Just blasting out non stop advertising with everything you do will only result in your audience ignoring you, or worse labelling you as a spammer.

Viral Marketing has no known formula that you can follow that guarantees success. Monitoring and tracking your results can help tweak your results. 

The challenges and fascination with this type of marketing are to search for something new and exciting. Something millions of people will engage with and want to share. 

The killer piece of content that will explode your viral marketing is out there. Set aside some time to do some research, do some lateral thinking or just some everyday surfing the web and see what turns up!

Happy hunting.

Please share any thoughts or comments you have regarding viral marketing below.

To your success,