When looking for something which can liven up your business and increase return of investment efficiently then consider viral marketing. This campaign costs little to start and to maintain and once it has created a buzz, the promotion will be free. It is extremely vital to utilize the different kinds of social media tools for your business model. They can make or break the viral campaign. It is called viral because it works just like a biological virus. It infiltrates the target and then replicates. You might notice the little effects, but before long one single virus has infected almost everyone.
How does viral marketing work?
Viral marketing is a buzzword which refers to marketing procedures using social networks to create a buzz for certain products or companies. Examples of popular social networks are Facebook and Twitter.
Viral marketing has gained immense popularity in the Internet. It is a powerful tool which includes images as well as texts which are designed to build a brand image slowly. Viral marketing techniques often use catchy and engaging materials, which people would surely like to share or pass along to others. Word about the product or the company is spread by people sharing information with one another through these social or media networks, either intentionally or inadvertently.
Great examples of viral content
Most people think that viral marketing is just limited to video clips. These are all over YouTube reaching millions of viewers. Although this is the most popular, it is just one of the many viral marketing tools. Other tools are the Ebooks and email. There are also different viral marketing business models.
1. Ebooks. These are electronic books in Adobe Acrobat PDF. They are like textbooks. Most companies give this away upon signing up for their mailing list because they know that most people pass it along to others.
2. Email tags. This is a way of cleverly putting short tags on email that promote a certain product. Every time you a message is sent, that person gets to read that tag.
3. Games and applications. These are extremely engaging and fun and people enjoy it and access it often. If one person likes a game very much, he or she is bound to tell his friend, and that friend will try it out for himself and spread the message to others. This is particularly effective for teens and children.
4. Case studies. These are created not only to provide useful data, but these can be easily passed along by business people downloading the information for their own use.
Getting the Word Out
The viral marketing business model is indeed immensely useful for a product or a business. If utilized properly, a company can save a large amount of money on advertisements but get a lot of profits.
Social Media and Viral Marketing allows Small Businesses to reach large audience with minimal funding and effort. The key to receiving maximum exposure is to announcing your presence, I have a quote that I stress to my clients “Stop singing in your bathroom” Simply put, no one hears you but yourself and maybe a neighbor. This of course addresses the” if you build it the will come” attitude that newbies commonly have about the internet.
Let’s examine the subject; two essentials that I would recommend when planning a viral marketing strategy, is using the press and social media to their fullest advantage. If the common consensus is building a brand with publicity, why would it change in this situation?
Major Press Release Engines and Newswires are a great way to the word out. This is an underused tactic, but if you look at the benefits you would wonder why. Press Syndication sites such as PR Web, PR Newswire, PR.com and PRLeap all have their own Social Accounts with tons of followers, why not used their fans to spread your message.
Think about it, how many time have you read an interesting article or seen a funny video that you compelled you retweet or share, now why wouldn’t a reader have the same compulsion to with your content. Another benefit is blogs seems to gravitate towards News Releases. Bloggers are notorious copy artists that live to break news stories. Give them what they want!
