How to make viral marketing work for your online business
The term viral marketing may be taken to imply the use of computer viruses to market your products online. But that is not what it is all about whatsoever. It’s called that because of the similar effect it has, a tendency to spread and infect people….in a good way!
Viral marketing is a marketing technique used to build public awareness of one’s product or company and is a perfect way to trigger a domino effect in your online business.
Oxford dictionary defines domino effect as a situation in which one event causes a series of similar events to happen on after the other.
To paint the picture,let me give you one weird example and from an even bizarre source.
I came across this in the washrooms (I told you it was a weird example )when I was in campus and some naughty guy had written on the wall…
People who write on walls are jerks
…and what do you think followed?
This guy forgot that just by expressing his feeling about people who write on the walls, he became one of them. The next person to visit the washrooms with a pen in hand responded…
Just like you
And the next? And you too . It went on and on and I guess it still does and will continue for as long as the the next person to respond remains relevant and the painter doesn’t show his head there with a can.
That was a weird example of a viral effect but let’s now go back to viral marketing in the context of your online business.
Viral marketing basically refers to letting people spread the word about your online business to others when they come into contact with each other, who then let others know and so on and so on…
You can use many forms of media (videos, websites, pictures, games, emails, free stuff) to reach out to the public with the help of the user.
In a nutshell, you ride on the idea that if people like the content of a media they will pass it on to their friends and family, and they will do the same, resulting in it spreading like a virus.
The motives can be as simple as just being nice by forwarding a nice email or there could be some monetary incentive like you’d find with an affiliate program.
Viral marketing has become a popular means of advertising and marketing because they are relatively low cost and the results can be extraordinarily high.
For business owners, using Viral marketing techniques is a good choice to get their product out there quickly.There needs to be effort at first to get the ball rolling, but once it starts, it gets bigger and hard to stop.
Here are a few ways being used to implement viral marketing by online business owners.
Giveaway and resale rights: This as a viral marketing technique is hot right now. Basically, you create short informative reports or videos on a topic relevant to your online business and pass giveaway or resale rights to the users of such products.
If the products are worth their salt, they get passed along really fast as free bonuses to other products or as freebies on squeeze pages.
Rebranding rights: This works like the former but instead of giving people resale and giveaway rights, you give them the opportunity to brand the products with their affiliate links before passing the product along to their friends and family.
If the people they referred then purchases the products recommended in the products, you credit them with the sale and they earn affiliate commissions. You can also develop rebrandible softwares.
WordPress themes: If you are proficient with php, you can develop wordpress themes and give them away for free. You can then drop your url right at the bottom of the themes.
Personally, I discovered webdesignlessons.com blog from another site that used their free theme (I can’t exactly recall which site that was) and even though I later dropped their theme myself for another one that matched my preferences, I still visit the blog from time to time. So? The darn trick works. Period.
These are just some of the ways being used by internet business owners to create a buzz about their products or services. There are many more and I will share them with you on this blog in the next posts.
One last thought, have you ever come across an email or video that get sent from one person to the next, then the next and before you realize, it gets sent back to you for the second or even the third time?
Personally I have several of them in my inbox. I can send one of them to you if you like. (just kidding… but yeah, I can send one to you).
What if you had your URL or a graphic branded with your website URL in one of those viral videos and emails?
So, get creative and have viral marketing working for your online business.
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Related Posts:
How to Trigger the Power of Viral Marketing With A Bang in Your Online Business
10 Viral Marketing Techniques That Drive Massive Amounts of Free Traffic to Your Website
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Good post. Viral marketing is one of the most important methods to market a website. Once it becomes a viral hit, you’re pretty much good to go (at least until it dies down).
Viral marketing is also a great way to get links and help SEO. Produce a viral widget with your web link in and you will go up the search engine rankings!
Great post on the concept of Viral Marketing..
Some people do not have knowledge about this concept.
Thanks for the valuable information.
I think your article was actually a strong start to a potential series of write ups about this topic. A lot of users pretend to comprehend what they are writing about when it comes to this area and really, very few people actually get it. You seem to grasp it however, so I think you need to take it and run. Thank you!
I keep hearing and reading about something going viral. Have yet to experience it but I’m just starting out–a newbie. Good information. Thank you.
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Good post. I think it’s interesting how viral marketing has developed. People used to give away content because it had loads of affiliate links, but know they are doing it to provide their audience with reall value, and no strings attached. All this means that the quality of viral marketing that is around at the moment is really good, and that can’t be a bad thing.
Thanks for the info
Matt
Thanks for the article on viral marketing. I am currently working on ebook detailing an SEO method I am using which has been working for me. I was thinking about releasing for sale on Clickbank, but that sounds like a lot of work when you factor in customer support and everything that comes with being a product vendor. Now I am thinking about releasing the ebook as a free product, and I will earn from affiliate links embedded in the product. This might be better because I am actively promoting affiliate products and I can give the ebook to my customers as an incentive to buy from my affiliate link.
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I think people should also place more emphasis on QUALITY content. I think people just think they can add whatever kind of marketing efforts and presto they make millions. This simply is not the case. If you hand out low quality content (AKA crap) you will not witness anything viral in your marketing. Also I think people should contemplate approaching the social media specifically from the point of view of the person rather then the marketer so that way they have a better idea of how to impliment these tools. Just my two cents.
Gabriel Mendoza@makecashontheinternet recently posted..Online Business Models- Part 2
Great post and I think viral marketing is the most powerful as it usually involves people telling each other about something in some way which people trust. The key is getting that idea which will spread and is related to your project.
Hey Kevin,
Using the “WordPress theme marketing” idea is just brilliant. Maybe I could hire someone from ‘go codes’ who could build themes.
Thanks
I agree with the previous poster stated (Gabriel) in that content is extremely valuable. This will help spread the idea. Creativity is very important – just wish I had the talent.
Twitter: kevoh99
says:
I also agree with you Kathleen and Gabriel that content is king. It is the power that fuels the internet and you can achieve great success if you can continuously provide good content.
Excellent article… but no matter how much I read on going “viral”, I never seem to get the hang of making it happen… although, I do think I am going to try my hand at video…
A lot of points on viral marketing. It can be seen on a number of sites.
i hadn’t thought of selling Giveaway and resale rights. nice post.
I will earn from affiliate links embedded in the product. This might be better because I am actively promoting affiliate products and I can give the ebook to my customers as an incentive to buy from my affiliate link.
I think the key with viral marketing is developing great relationships with the people that can spread your message and creating great content for those people which will be of a high enough content for them to want to spread. Its all about creating desire.
With the use of most efficient marketing tools, you can promote an offer, builds database and motivate your brand. Whatever be the size of your online business, an effective viral marketing campaign helps your online business to gain several advantages like
• Drive targeted web traffic to your website effortlessly
• Improve sales for a product or service
• Improve search engine ranking
• Boost reputation
• Increase brand awareness
So try to develop a viral marketing campaign with the help of a leading Internet marketing firm only..
Great post … you have given very good description about viral marketing. It really helps to various people who make use SEO techniques in order to promote their businesses.
Viral Marketing takes an immense part on growing an online business. I find your post really helpful. Also i visited the website webdesignlessons and I learned a lot from it.
i hadn’t thought of selling Giveaway and resale rights, which is simple and effective. cool post.
Congratulations on this another beautiful post. I agree that viral marketing has become one of popular sources to introduce people about your business and products. But the way you have described this term “viral marketing” is unbeatable. Thanks!
Viral marketing is a very splendid way to get the new out about your website. The idea is to simply leverage on other people and website visitors to drive traffic to your own website and brand your website or products. I really like your post. Cheers!
Sure man, viral marketing is a great way to amass backlinks to your website and improve your search rankings.
I will be on the lookout for your ebook. I would really like to learn your secret SE method. Cheers!