6 Secrets of Successful Viral Marketing Strategy!

Marketers attempting a viral marketing campaign must measure the effort of the campaign by setting targets for it and taking solid baseline reports before starting it.

Stresses the importance of making sure that any viral marketing campaign is integrated with other marketing efforts.

An effective viral marketing strategy comprises six characteristics:

1 - It gives away products or services for free.

Although 'cheap' or 'inexpensive' may generate a wave of interest, 'free' will usually accomplish it much faster. The logic behind this is that 'free' attracts eyeballs, which in turn see desirable things that are purchased in most cases. Therefore, preferably give something away

2 - It provides for effortless transfer to others.

From a marketing standpoint, it is important to simplify the message so it can be transmitted easily and without degradation

3 - It scales easily from small to very large.

To spread like wildfire, the transmission method must be rapidly scalable from small to large. Marketers must realize that if the virus multiplies only to kill the host before spreading, nothing is accomplished. Marketers must, therefore, take care that servers, for instance, can be expanded quickly

4 - It exploits common motivations and behaviors.

Greed can drive people; so can the need to be popular, loved and understood. The resulting urge to communicate produces millions of Web sites and billions of e-mail or other electronic messages. Therefore, clever viral marketing strategies take advantage of common human motivations and behaviors

5 - It uses existing communication networks.

Throughout history, people have formed communities in which networks of human interaction convey social values, daily events and plans for activities that foster the well-being of the individual within the community and the community within the larger environment. Marketers must learn to place messages within the communications that exist between people because people in digital environments also develop networks of relationships. By exploiting these networks, marketers can easily spread messages in an even cheaper way

6 - It takes advantage of other resources to get the word out.

Affiliate programmes, for example, place text or graphic links on other people's or organizations' Web sites. The top moment someone else's Web site is relaying your marketing message, someone else's resources are depleted instead of your own.

All successful viral marketing strategies use most of the six principles as outlined above. Probably the best way marketers can 'go viral' with their current offer is to use a separate product that forces everyone who comes in contact with it to turn to the product or service the marketer is trying to sell.