Here you will see some viral marketing examples that are considered effective by Business Week and other experts.The several techniques used are unique and they were effective for many different reasons.Some inspired curiosity.
In 2001, Business Week cited advertising for the Blair Witch Project as a striking example of viral marketing. The advertising campaign insinuated that the footage was “real”, filmed by a group of college students that had disappeared, presumably leaving only their video camera behind.
Teasers were first seen on TV and then posted on the internet.Viewers were highly encouraged to share the footage with all their friends.The film grossed over $248 million and cost only $35,000 for the production.Who wouldn’t want to see sky high profits like that?
It’s really just a way to get your information out to a boatload of prospects by using the power of other people e.g. word of mouth. In other words the idea is to spread your message much like a real virus would spread.
Infection in this case is usually can be a fantastic thing; in this context it’s your audience becoming aware of you and your web site.
Now the actual message can be in many formats, ranging from email to videos and everything in between. The idea is to convince potential prospects who already have your message to share it to people they know, multiplying your message spreading exponentially.
First, let me make it perfectly clear that I am not advocating spamming millions of people.
Apart from the legalities of doing this, sending spam is just dumb, because often not even seen due to smart spam filters, and even if is seen it’s clear that going to spread is it? After all if it makes it past the spam folders and actually makes it into someone’s Inbox, it’s just going to get deleted with haste when and if it is read.
Here we go with what seems the topical phrase of many articles relevant useful content is the key. Giving value to prospects is absolutely vital.
So how do we get internet users to do your work for you? How do you get them to do that? Spread your viral content that is.
First things first, it simply must be something relevant and useful.
In other words it has to have real value. The visitor who has got your information has to fully believe it will give value to someone else otherwise they won’t spread it to anyone else.
One thing I have found in this industry is almighty power of joint ventures. It’s a lot easier to get your message out there if you have partners in the industry with large lists of their own.
Let’s say you have released a new Podcast. You currently have a mailing list of 2000 prospects who have expressed an interest or actually purchased something from you in the past.
Your info product would be of course in a related niche so you feel sure you can generate some interest in it from your readers so that is the first place to attack.
You will likely find that some of your prospects will send the offer to their friends if they think it’s worthy.
Ahhh the power of word of mouth advertising, Is there any more powerful force in marketing then getting your customers telling their friends how cool, hip and fantastic you and your products are? This is a viral marketing campaign on steroids.
If you can get list members telling their family about your info and then once they get value out of it and then tell their friends well you can see that it will take very little time at all to have a dramatic response to your sales message.
You’ll be needing to buy more servers for your site because the old one has crashed with overwhelming web traffic you get.
Take the time to learn more about viral marketing. I feel confident that you will greatly benefit from using these techniques in your internet marketing.
