Elements of Successful Viral Marketing Campaigns
1. Free Product or Service Giveaway
Everyone loves free stuff. Even if the stuff isn't super useful, people are at least willing to give it a moment's worth of consideration. Sometimes, this is all you need. Offer some type of free information, a fun animated game, a painfully hysterical video clip or free website widgets. Google started giving away free e-mail addresses a few years back. Those who signed up then shared the message with friends and associates, and before long, Gmail became a household term. (Also, if you can offer some free trial version of your product's real deal, eventually you'll be earning money off of upgrades. Marketers love delayed gratification.)
2. Make it Easy to Transmit
Simplify your message so it can be easily transmitted from "host to host". Remember, the strongest viruses are the ones passed most easily (think: Swine Flu). The digital format of viral messages makes their copying effortless, so make sure you create something that lends itself to this model. Keep download times and file sizes small. Take advantage of the fast, easy and inexpensive nature of online communication by creating viral content that won't require more than a minute of someone's time to pass on. Putting up a simple "Tell a friend" form on your website can be an effective way to spread your content.
3. The Surprise Factor
Taking advantage of the emotions of your hosts is an excellent strategy for viral marketing success. People love sharing things with their friends and co-workers that they find surprising, important, unique, beautiful, funny and sometimes even disgusting - depending on who your market is (young males are most receptive to this one). create a free website specifically designed to shock or inspire people to share it with others, and include your company's name on the site's homepage. It's worth knowing that people assume that what is exciting or surprising to them will be also be exciting or surprising to others. It is human nature to want to share things we find interesting, with others.
4. Using Pre-Existing Communication Networks
Social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. contain networks of people who are already connected, and already share messages and ideas with one another. Take advantage of this by integrating these networks and injecting your viral marketing campaign's message somewhere within these networks. While the average person has a certain amount of people in his/her close network of friends and associates, social networks can include a person's contacts numbering in the hundreds or even thousands. This means thousands of potential customers or visitors to your website. Viral content that mentions something specific to a mini-community or specific type of social website can be especially effective.
5. Make Use of Others' Resources
Just like a real virus takes advantage of its host's health, your viral marketing plan should use the resources of others to get your message across. For example, get your company's logo, text or graphic links on others' websites. Writing a press release can send out hundreds of copies of your original marketing message, transmitted through the web pages of websites other than your own.
