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 Business 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

[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.