Your thoughts on viral Marketing.

[Al Kreuz]

Hi everybody I just wanted to see opinions of what you people think about how effective Viral marketing is and what types of businesses would suit it?

[silkinteriors]

Hi Al,

I think when viral marketing works, it's a huge success and can work for pretty much any business. But for every viral marketing success case study out there, I bet there are 1000s more failed attempts.

Have you read 'The Tipping Point' by Malcolm Gladwell? It's a great book, written about ten years ago, that breaks down the chain of events & people that make something become popular, to 'tip' so to speak. I think it's highly relevant to the viral marketing campaigns we see today and well worth a read. 'The Idea Virus' by Seth Godin is another good book that specifically delves into viral marketing.

I think people are over being advertised to. So getting peers to market to peers on your behalf sounds like a great solution. If you've got the right timing, right marketing plan viral marketing can be a huge success, but I think most viral marketing campaigns end up on the junk heap and just fizzle.

[The Start Up Sage]

We totally agree with Silk! Viral marketing can be great. However it can be hard to get off the ground (best to hire a PR firm or online marketing company to drive it) and if it back-fires the client (that's you) can be seen as amateurish.

What sort of thing are you planning? If you give some specifics it may be easier to provide a more specific answer.

[Al Kreuz]

We totally agree with Silk! Viral marketing can be great. However it can be hard to get off the ground (best to hire a PR firm or online marketing company to drive it) and if it back-fires the client (that's you) can be seen as amateurish.

What sort of thing are you planning? If you give some specifics it may be easier to provide a more specific answer.

@ Silk thank you for your input, I read through it and understood it completely you do have a point, I get the impression Viral marketing can be a success, but you have to give it some calculated effort in order to fork it out to be brilliant.

@ Start up sage

Mainly I'm just starting to get my feet wet in the online blogging/affiliate marketing industry. After being dismissed due to the employer cutting staff during recession from my previous position as a sales assistant for an electronic retailer.

so to make you understand further, I plan on writing a PDF Ebook the details I'd rather keep private if you wanna know just send me a pm :)

Now I'm planning to put up a viral bit of marketing campaign for the Ebook.

Just to test the waters for it and see how it works.

[silkinteriors]

Sounds like you're hatching a plan there Al. Best of luck for your viral marketing plan. Let us know if you want any ideas :)

[seocourse]

Hi everybody I just wanted to see opinions of what you people think about how effective Viral marketing is and what types of businesses would suit it?

the problem with viral marketing, is that the most successful marketing ideas, have spread by users, without any real commercial background behind the idea.

Difficult to measure also the success of vial marketing... but if you manage to achieve it, expect tons and tons of traffic.

Keep in mind traffic is not always equal to customers :D

[Al Kreuz]

Sounds like you're hatching a plan there Al. Best of luck for your viral marketing plan. Let us know if you want any ideas :)

Hi Silk, yeah its going to take some effort to make this a quality ebook since I am just trying to get my feet wet.

lol I need to keep things structured cause I have tons and tons of thoughts that I wanna put into this.

@ seocourse

So what elements of peoples viral marketing do you believe is key?

aside from people not having a commercial background?

[Paul Baker]

A good viral marketing campaign can be powerful to your business success, but it needs to be planned and controlled appropriately.

Once the ball is pushed you have less and less control over it- good or bad- it has started.

For viral marketing to work it needs to have these things;

High value and desire by the targeted audience
Inspire the need to pass on the message to all circle of influence
Not appear to be a commercial message. In fact, if this is detected it will explode on your business.
Be memorable
You will need to understand human behaviour and conversation management with a little social pyschology thrown in.

[RyanChadwick]

It also helps if it is entertaining in some way. That means it has to be different/ funny/ amazing etc. You need the reason that people will want to tell others about it.

[urlelove]

I admit it. The term "viral marketing" is offensive. Call yourself a Viral Marketer and people will take two steps back. I would. "Do they have a vaccine for that yet?" you wonder. A sinister thing, the simple virus is fraught with doom, not quite dead yet not fully alive, it exists in that nether genre somewhere between disaster movies and horror flicks.
But you have to admire the virus. He has a way of living in secrecy until he is so numerous that he wins by sheer weight of numbers. He piggybacks on other hosts and uses their resources to increase his tribe. And in the right environment, he grows exponentially.

[seopiper]

It is actually effective if it is done properly... in a few short generations, a virus population can explode. Like tiny waves spreading ever farther from a single pebble dropped into a pond, a carefully designed viral marketing strategy ripples outward extremely rapidly.

[seopiper]

Viral marketing is way more effective than other marketing ideas.
One way of viral marketing is video marketing. If done effectively, every viewer can possibly become a client.
Just be creative and make sure to know what your client needs, not what you wanted to give.

[urlelove]

I believe every business suits well for Viral marketing.
The biggest argument should be the idea you wanted your audience to have...
The more interesting your idea can be, the greater the chances it will catch attention on your targeted audience.

[maikon1100]

I also agree with Silk.Viral marketing can be great if u have proper planing

[HWT]

You have to get viral first though!

That seems to be the tricky part. I started a facebook page a couple of days ago to see what would happen http://www.facebook.com/pages/Photographic-Dictionary/147823888563690 << that's the page, so set it to like! And I have a grand total of 8 fans ... only one of them is 'viral', ie a friend of a friend.

How the heck do you get more?

[rustyhands]

if it works, do it without turning away customers ;)

[HWT]

I released a new website onto the internet 2 or 3 days ago. I have seeded teh intarwebs with: 1 forum post here, 1 forum post on a low traffic graphics-related forum, and a sig link in one other forum. And that is ALL the marketing I'm going to do because I want to see what happens!

It now has two people using the service (me and someone on a Greek forum) and has used 90 meg since I released it :) I think I'm going to need some serious cacheing lol

[annieshark]

My experience with viral marketing has been really hit and miss - but then I don't specialise in it! this thread is really insightful!

[Jason Bishop]

In viral marketing, like any kind of marketing, people will buy from you, not your product. They will not care how much you know until they know how much you care. It is important to remember this when marketing.

[dipper]

Viral marketing is grrat if its done properly and is both applicable and presents your business in the light you want.

When done poorly (which is the majority) it is a huge waste of time and effort.

[Jason Bishop]

I'm not so keen on the term myself, it has negative connotations. I agree with urlelove, in the right environment, the virus will thrive. It just so happens that the internet is the right environment.
It has only been in the last few years that the "secret" techniques used by the World's top marketers have been exposed. There are now marketing training companies providing the necessary training that you will need to be successful online. Viral Marketing is great if you use it correctly. If you go out there and sell, sell, sell you will drive people away from you. To succeed in the biz you must become a leader and an expert service provider that people will seek out rather than a direct salesperson that will be avoided.
I'm offering a Free 7-Day Video Bootcamp which will go into more of what I am writing here, follow this link to register http://magneticfluxworks.net

To Your Future Prosperity!
All the BEST
Jase Bishop

[terymolin]

Viral marketing has giant potential for any business that decides to make use of it in a creative way. Generating an impact in your target market with the right viral marketing campaign requires you to have a nice understanding of it, and simultaneously you ought to know your own product inside out.

[vanessalane]

Re:Your thoughts on viral Marketing.

Viral Marketing is a marketing strategy that has a common goal as SEO and that is to give your site some user visits using a different approach, and that is through the help of individuals or people. A good example of Viral Marketing is when someone posted a video on YouTube and someone had viewed it and found the video interesting and then he spread the news online through word of mouth. From that you can see how powerful it is, unlike in SEO you need to find related sites where you build links and most of the time it will take a few weeks before that backlinks to take in effect in terms of rankings. Once the rankings improved, that’s just the time you will see an increase in traffic to your site.

[Lizzie]

Much food for thought. Thanks guys. Viral marketing is an area I had not thought to explore ... and will now seed it in the back of the mind to ferment for a while.

[JessicaLi]

Hi Al,

I think when viral marketing works, it's a huge success and can work for pretty much any business. But for every viral marketing success case study out there, I bet there are 1000s more failed attempts.

Have you read 'The Tipping Point' by Malcolm Gladwell? It's a great book, written about ten years ago, that breaks down the chain of events & people that make something become popular, to 'tip' so to speak. I think it's highly relevant to the viral marketing campaigns we see today and well worth a read. 'The Idea Virus' by Seth Godin is another good book that specifically delves into viral marketing.

I think people are over being advertised to. So getting peers to market to peers on your behalf sounds like a great solution. If you've got the right timing, right marketing plan viral marketing can be a huge success, but I think most viral marketing campaigns end up on the junk heap and just fizzle.

I agree with Silk too. It's hard to pull off viral marketing. The plan has to be ingenious, and should be backed up with tons of hardwork and preparation. And it's really hard to tell if a marketing campaign will go really viral. It can only go so far in most cases. It's an ambitious move -- viral marketing. It's risky, I think.

Why don't we try other online marketing campaigns, other than viral marketing? They can be effective too on their own ways. And yes, before businesses go viral marketing, why don't they do the basics first? Like, a decent website, Facebook and Twitter pages, and the like. :)