Do You Know How To Set Up A Viral Marketing Campaign?

Hi,

samDman here again.  In this post I want to talk a little about Viral Marketing and tell you how I go about setting up campaigns.

Background.
In case you are not aware, viral marketing didn’t originate from the web. The term viral is named after microscopic organisms that reproduce at a very fast rate and viral marketing traces its beginnings from offline marketing. Have you ever heard of the term “word-of-mouth” advertising? This method has been one of the most powerful, yet cost-efficient, ways of promoting a business offline and online.

Viral marketing involves the exponential spread of a business message. After an initial distribution, the business message can potentially reach many people in a short space of time.

Take this as an example: If you deliver your business message to ten people and give them enough incentive to pass it on to friends and colleagues in their respective network, you’ll immediately have a small army of people pushing your offer to their friends. But it doesn’t stop there, because the new friends could then spread the word to even more individuals, and this same cycle would go on and on while you concentrate on other matters of your business.

Studies show on the average that a person has 12 people in his network. This statistic can be deceiving because ten persons can have 2 people in their respective network, while one person can have 140 people in his/hers. And we would therefore arrive at the same median.

Here are some of the things that Internet marketers use to encourage people to distribute the business message.  Bear in mind, please, that these are all offered for free.  FREE is still the most powerful word in marketing!!

1.  E-BOOKS. An e-book is the most popular method of delivering the business message. An informative one would cater to the needs of many people, which is already enough incentive for its self-propagation. You strategically place links within the pages of the e-book to promote your business or your affiliate products.

2.  SPECIAL REPORTS.  Special reports are just like e-books, only shorter. Special reports have also taken an aura of reverence in recent years as they are excellent vehicles for communicating a novel idea.

3.  SOFTWARE. Perhaps you have a program or a script which you would want to share.  This software can be designed to provide for a link to your site every time its features are used.

4.  SERVICE.  You could provide for a hosting service or an e-mail accounts to entice visitors to spread your business message.

5.  MEMBERSHIP.  You could also establish a membership site and give away access to the same. The membership site could contain a lot of FREE or discounted goods to its members.

6. NEWSLETTER. A newsletter or an eZine is also a popular way to kick start the exponential distribution of the business message.   By constantly providing your subscriber base with informative pieces on a variety of topics, they would feel inclined to tell their friends about your business.

7.  DISCOUNTS.  Offer discounts to the products you’re offering, and you would encourage people to spread the word about the bargain you are providing.

8.  TRIAL VERSION OF YOUR PRODUCTS.  If you’re trying to sell a software program, you could also try offering such for a trial period, which is usually 30 days.  This would allow people to try your product before they would decide to buy it.  Even if they’re too mean to spend on the full version of your product, they would still inform others of
your business at some point.

9.  ARTICLE MARKETING.  Submit an informative article with a resource box containing a link of your sales page to the many article directories on the net.  Encourage your readers to republish your article provided that they keep the resource box.

10.  OTHER PRODUCTS like screensavers, themes, fonts, images etc..

Now that you know what value propositions to offer, the remaining consideration is how to distribute them.

E-mail is the perhaps the primary mode of online transference. Mailing lists contain loads of e-mail addresses of people with similar interests.  If you could broadcast your business message in this media, the rewards would be tremendous, as someone is bound to take notice. Additionally, you only have to send it once, and you’ll touch base with every single person in that group.

Discussion boards or online forums also host a gathering of people who share the same passion.  These online communities hold discussions on various matters every minute of the day - the Internet never sleeps.  It is common to find people visiting and participating in discussions many times within 24 hours!!  There are as many forums as there are niches. Seek and you’ll find. 

Only target those that are related to your market and make it a point to first establish your presence as a worthy part of the community.  Remember this: It is a community, and you have to win the patrons’ trust first before you try to sway them to your way of thinking. 

Begin by answering threads which post specific questions that you can answer. Be helpful in your reply. In this way, you could subtly manipulate the readers to check out your business message.

Online chat rooms can also be a fertile source of hosts that would persistently distribute your marketing offers.

As with forums, you should join a channel that is about your business. Again, spend some time building up personal connections, then you can gradually introduce your business message. People have more confidence with someone they have actually chatted with through online means.

Well, That’s all for today.  Thanks for visiting.

Have a blessed day and remember… Keep Smiling

Sam D. Mann

P. S.  Talk about Viral Marketing!!  This is viral marketing on steriods.
Go check out a video that will have your pulse racing ===>>>

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