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Viral Marketing Success Criterias
When used properly, viral marketing or viral advertising
is by far the best way
to promote your website, products and
services on the Internet.
- Explanation of Viral Advertising
- 9 Viral Success Criterias - Business Model
- Make
an irresistible free offer
- Build
a viral product - don't just try to market a product virally
- Target
alpha users
- Be
creative and ahead of market trends
- Easy
transfer is prerequisite
- Use
Existing Social Networks
- Use
other's resources
- Allow
for Big Scale Traffic:
- Measure
and optimise parameters of Viral Success
- Viral Videos
Explanation of Viral
Marketing
Viral Marketing implies a virus-like fast transfer of a marketing message.
Successful viral marketing results in this snowballfactor
- An exponential increase in users of the free
viral products
- A free exponential increase in website
traffic which in turn
- helps to improve the search engine rankings
which in turn
- leads to more free web traffic and so on.....
Thus viral advertising opens a golden door to targeted
potential customers of other products, introduced subsequently.
To achieve success simply follow the 9 Success Criterias.
The incentive: Once you
make it, you make it big time.
Here is an example of exponential growth on Facebook starting with
an
initial user base of 10.000 users. Each new user
invites 10 and 20 % of the invites turn into users. The total amount of users are:
Amount of users after 4 generations of
viral advertising
| Generation |
Users
passing on message |
Total
amount of users |
| 1 |
10.000 |
30.000 |
| 2 |
20.000 |
70.000 |
| 3 |
40.000 |
150.000 |
| 4 |
80.000 |
310.000 |
The growth is truly
viral since the increase in users
after
each generation is bigger than the number of users that
spread the viral message.
Viral marketing is primarily connected
with the Internet and
its high speed digital transfer, as well as the construction of the
viral marketing products.
Thus true viral advertising happens online by
using free viral products. Flickr, Youtube and Facebook are examples of inherently
viral tools.
Also
see the in-depth
definition of viral advertising.
9 Viral Marketing Success Criterias
For viral advertising to work successfully, as many
and ideally all of the following methods or conditions should apply:
Make
an irresistible free offer
You need to provide Free Viral
Products
or services since "free" is the biggest customer magnet. "Free"
even attracts people who otherwise wouldn't be interested. Build
a viral product - don't just try to market a product virally
Some discussions evolve around whether a product can be called viral if
it contains a few features that lend viral characteristics to it.
However just having a "Recommend to a friend" option on one of your web
pages doesn't make your website viral.
For the free viral product to be considered truly viral, meaning that
each user recommending the product should result in at least one new
user on average. Learn
the secrets of building viral
marketing products with inherently viral characteristics.
Untill you have created your own viral product
you can benefit
from this effective Free Viral Advertising! -
Target
alpha users
The viral advertising message ought to
target individuals with a high Social Networking Potential, the so
called influencers, ideal for spreading it. This method is known as Influencer Marketing.
To establish the characteristics of these alpha users, one needs to
study and understand the market, trends and what moves certain people
enough to desire passing on a viral message.
Some general motivational factors are: The need to be loved (or fear of
rejection), the need to be successful (fear of failure). For example
consider which messages and free products would result in respect and
appreciation of the sender when received.
In other words: Important and effective online influentials,
influencers, take a serious approach and want to pass
on only useful viral messages, not silly videos, jokes or commercials
without purpose nor marketing results. They
want to be perceived responsible by the recipients; their network.
Studies
indicate that using a "Public Relations" approach is more suitable for
targeting and reaching the influencers. Public Relations cares about
the user end and the corresponding viral advertising approach is
to target the needs of the potential customer.
Suggestions as to what characterises influencers are diverse and
include:
-
A range of third parties who exert
influence over their organisation and potential customers.
-
A third party who significantly shapes the
customer's purchasing decision but may never be accountable for it.
-
A person who has a greater than average
reach or impact through word of mouth in a relevant market place.
-
With regards to the consumer market,
influencers are well connected, have impact, have active minds and are
trendsetters.
Be
creative and ahead of market trends
Learn to think like
the trendsetters or rather like an Internet entrepreneur. Think ahead
in order to provide what turns people on, in exactly the right moment
and right way.
These questions are worth answering:
- Do you have the capacity and
know-how to come up with an innovative product?
- Do you have expert
knowledge to share?
- Do you have ideas and a network of
associates to
inspire and motivate you?
For your viral marketing to be
successful you
should be able to draw on as well the softer marketing skills as
the technical skills. If you are apt at both disciplines you
are well off.
Alternatively partner up with someone who complements your skills. Thus
if you are an expert in marketing but not technically minded, delegate
the technical tasks to someone who is.
Easy
transfer is prerequisite
The viral marketing message
should be short and easily transferred via one or several of the
following digital medias:
- Email
- website
- instant messaging
- graphic i.e. videos
- blogs
- software download
- social medias such as facebook, twitter or
youtube, kind of smart online applications that facilitate the
exchange of viral messages by automating the distribution processes.
- media sharing sites
The interaction between internet users is highly facilitated by
using Web 2.0,
a design standard, making viral marketing possible.
Examples of inherently viral Web 2.0 sites are MySpace, Facebook,
Youtube and Flickr. These sites are as well free viral
products to the user as they are viral advertising tools to
both
the companies and the users.
Learn about the best viral marketing tools
and how the explosive viral power of Web 2.0 has now become available
to small internet business owners for a small price.
You might also want to try this Free Viral Advertising!
Use
Existing Social Networks
The distribution of the viral message takes place within
established social networks of
each individual that is first targeted. On average a person has around
10 persons within their closest circle, including family, friends and
associates.
Depending on the person's status and job, the broader network might
count
as many as thousands.
Affiliate programs make use of this fact when distributing. They often
inspire the affiliates to target their network.
Once an online influential with an extensive
network is reached, a snowball effect initiates, provided that the
viral product is useful and of high quality and the marketing message
catchy.
The
success of this snowball effect depends on the degree to which the
success criterias of viral advertising are complied
with. See examples
of the utilization of social medias as viral tools. -
Use
other's resources
Spread your viral marketing message by
placing articles on other websites (the medium) thereby reaching a much
larger group
of people than had you relied solely on your own web site. By getting
your message spread as news, you target many subscribers that might
decide to use your free article.
The same goes for free article directories where people might decide to
place your article with a link to your website link on their own web
site as a service
for their own visitors.
An
example of using other resources is the placement of Youtube videos on
different websites where interested visitors are given the easy option
to copy the video to their own site. This is an example of effective
viral marketing with rapid
replication. Alternative videos are offered in case the main one
doesn't make it.
Comparison Search Engines is another great
place to launch
your products since, if the quality is good they get
recommended,
which
strongly builds credibility and motivates interested visitors
further. See a list
of all the ways to use other's resources as viral tools.
-
Allow
for Big Scale Traffic:
It is imperative that the resources for
handling all the traffic need to be quickly upscalable to avoid
overload and break down of the replication cycle of the viral marketing
campaign.
In order to handle the expected
high volume of users, the process needs to be completely automated. For
example
customers are emailed using sequential autoresponders.
-
Measure
and optimise parameters of Viral Marketing Success
To achieve true
viral successful marketing, monitor the results
expressed by certain
parametres then test and optimise them.
Viral VideosA
viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of internet
sharing, typically through video sharing websites and email. Viral
videos often contain humorous content and include televised comedy
sketches such as Saturday Night Live's Lazy Sunday and Dick in a Box;
amateur video clips like Star Wars Kid, the Numa Numa videos, The
Dancing Cadet, The Evolution of Dance, the "Benny Lava" video,
Chocolate Rain on youtube; and web-only productions such as I Got a
Crush... on Obama. Some "eyewitness" events have also been caught on
video and have "gone viral," such as the Battle at Kruger.
Humor
is often a characteristic of viral videos, but not a defining one. A
viral video is any video that's passed electronically, from person to
person, regardless of its content.
With the proliferation of
camera phones, many videos are being shot by amateurs on these devices.
The availability of inexpensive video editing and publishing tools
allows video shot on mobile phones to be edited and distributed
virally, by email or website, and between phones by Bluetooth or MMS.
These consumer-shot videos are typically non-commercial, intended for
viewing by friends or family.
History
Viral
videos began circulating before the major video sharing sites such as
YouTube, FunnyorDie and CollegeHumor, by email sharing.
One of
these early videos was "The Spirit of Christmas" which surfaced in
1995. In 1996 "Dancing Baby" appeared. This video was released as
samples of 3D character animation software. Ron Lussier, the animator
who cleaned up the raw animation, began passing the video around
LucasArts, his workplace at the time.
The surge of viral
videos seen in the wake of this video's circulation can be attributed
to the advent of sites designated for video sharing, such as YouTube,
and the availability of affordable digital cameras. Due to these sites,
many of the traditionally shared videos have been phased out, though
some early examples have been added to the mainstream sites.
Viral
videos derive from viral marketing, also known as word of mouth
marketing, buzz marketing and stealth marketing. The history of viral
marketing is open to interpretation. Historians tend to focus on the
specific term "viral marketing." Viral marketing is analogous to
traditional word-of-mouth, so it can be seen as starting long before
the internet.
Viral marketing is perfect for promoting your
business, products and services when following the 9 viral marketing
success criterias properly.
Once you make
it you make it big time
Have some Great Experience with Viral Marketing?
Do you have a question or some interesting story about viral marketing? Feel free to share it!
Dino D., November 16. 2009
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