Viral Marketing

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Using Viral Marketing to Gain Attention and Attract People to Your Website

What if you could get thousands and even millions of people to suddenly know about your product or service, without your having to spend much money for marketing?

With a little creativity it’s possible for many small businesses. And it can be easier than many people realize.

Like a virus that grows and eventually takes over the human body, a viral marketing campaign grows across the Internet, with thousands and millions of people and websites sharing content you’ve created with their friends and audiences.

Viral marketing is the holy grail of all advertising, where you create a low-cost article or video and suddenly, millions of people see it or otherwise experience it, quickly and in many cases, with little or no additional cost.

Of course, just seeing your video or learning about you and your business doesn’t necessarily mean people will actually buy your product or service. So the key is not just to have something that goes viral, but through that, to have people actually buy from you.

Two of the best examples of massively successful viral marketing programs from small marketers are from Blend-Tech and GoldieBlox.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAl28d6tbko

In 2006, Blend-Tech, the manufacturer of a powerful food-processor, started producing YouTube videos to show how powerful their product was.

The videos cost almost nothing to produce except for the cost of whatever would be ground-up in the blender.

In somewhat tongue-in-cheek demonstrations, the owner would grind Justin Bieber CDs, an iPhone, an iPad and other surprising items.

The videos have generated over 175 million views, have been featured repeatedly on the major TV networks, and have helped this small company growing more than ten times its size quickly, generating millions in sales directly from the videos and the notoriety they created.

An important feature of the videos is, they weren’t just outrageous. They clearly demonstrated the value of the product for customers – a critical element that will turn an attention-getter into a money-maker.

Debbie Sterling invented a toy to help girls become interested in engineering and product creation.

She needed $150,000 to pay for the initial manufacturing order. So she created a fund-raising campaign on the crowdsourcing website KickStarter, to let people know about her product and why she created it.

With the help of a friend she created a fun 2-minute video of her daughter and a neighbor’s daughter singing Queen’s “We are the Champions” while nailing ballet slippers to a skateboard and then going riding, and building a sidecar on a bike and taking a dog for a spin. The video ended with a dozen girls running into a toy store screaming (see the image above).

Although the video is no longer available, probably because she didn’t get permission to use the song, it generated so much attention that she was able to raise just under $300,000 (almost double what she needed) plus it generated so much viral attention that Toys-R-Us and Target did deals to carry her product.

Actually, her viral campaign included two videos and contacting a few key websites to start the viral ball rolling.

First, she created the kids video. Next, she created a brief informative video with her describing the product, why it was created, and how people could go to Kickstarter to help.

Next, she submitted the video to the editors of a website called Upworthy.com/ explaining how she was trying to help girls get interested in engineering, and asking if they could help let people see her video.

The rest, as they say, is history. The video took off like gangbusters, and garnered Debbie plenty of additional publicity from TV networks, magazines and other media that got wind of what she was trying to do.

 

How to Get Enough Attention to Go Viral

If you are willing to be creative, viral marketing can be a powerful way to attract thousands and millions of people to your website and your business. Here are a few examples:

CREATE A FREE-MIUM – Could you give your product or service away free for basic services, with a premium version available with more features?

Companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, DropBox, Skype and the Angry Birds smartphone game are great examples of free-miums that went viral.

Of course, viral successes don’t just come from the Internet. Gillette became massively successful by sending out free razors to millions of people in North America. After a few weeks of using their revolutionary razors… guess what – You needed new blades, and their business exploded with success.

 

HAVE AN OUTRAGEOUS IDEA – Could you come up with an outrageous product or idea?

  • Outrageous Demonstration – Blend-Tech’s YouTube video crushing an iPad in a blender to demo the durability of the product.
  • Outrageous iPhone App – the iFart app for iPhones (making gross sounds on a timer so you could step away to watch people react – at 99 cents it generated millions);
  • Outrageous Name – Hooters, Fudruckers, The Vagina Monologues Broadway Play;
  • Outrageous Visual – actress Demi Moore with clothes painted on her naked body on the cover of Vanity Fair;
  • Outrageous Challenge – comedian Andy Kaufman mud wrestling women.

 

HAVE SOCIAL VALUE – Could you help make the world better?

  • Helping girls love science – GoldieBlox toys;
  • Giving to Charity – Newman’s Own Salad Dressings;
  • Giving shoes to poor children – Tom’s Shoes One-for-One program;
  • Trying to save the rain forests – The Body Shop cosmetics and makeup stores.

 

CONNECT TO SOMETHING OR SOMEONE NEWSWORTHY – Could you leverage off something in the news?

  • Jackie Kennedy’s 3-strand pearl necklace,
  • Plant store selling George Bushes and Du-Cactuses during Bush Sr. vs Dukakis national elections.

 

ASSOCIATE WITH FAME – Could you associate your product or service with something or someone famous?

  • Salton’s sales exploded when they named their product the George Foreman Grill, licensing the famed boxer’s name and image;
  • Sofia Amorusa’s online clothing store’s sales exploded when she renamed it Nasty Gal, the name of a funk album well-known among teen girls (without paying for the right to use the name);
  • Kemmons Wilson’s hotel chain took off with the help of the name Holiday Inn, the name of a popular Bing Crosby movie at the time (without paying for the right to use the name);
  • Product sales explode with Disney, Sesame Street and Star Wars licensing.

 

ASSOCIATE WITH SOMETHING UNUSUAL – Could you associate your product, service or yourself with something or someone unusual?

  • When European crooner Julio Iglesias introduced himself to American audiences by singing a duet with gritty country-music legend Willie Nelson, it was such an unusual matchup that it skyrocketed both to stratospheric fame far beyond what each had previously achieved;
  • The Garbage Pail Kids became a toy and card phenomenon as a parody to the highly successful Cabbage Patch Kids line of toys;
  • Musicians Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson gained popularity in a large part because they are men with women’s stage names.

 

CREATE A HOAX – Could you create something noteworthy that intrigues and excites the media and the public?

  • Burger King’s Left-Handed Burgers – in 1998 as a promotional joke, Burger King ran a full-page ad in the New York Times announcing the introduction of the left-handed burger.They claimed the ingredients were turned 180 degrees to accommodate the nation’s 32 million left-handed people. To their surprise millions of people started showing up in their stores asking for the burgers, showing the power of odd-promotional ideas to capture people’s attention.

CREATE SOMETHING INTRIGUING OR FUNNY – Could something about your product or service be fascinating… or could you create something fascinating to bring attention to it?

Although certain 1-hour YouTube videos have generated millions of views, these tend to be the exceptions.

The best viral videos tend to be less than 2 minutes and tell a story. Problem to solution can be best, where it shows someone’s problem, and then, how their life changed once they got the solution.

Make sure it’s something that evokes emotion. It should amaze the viewer, make them laugh, excite or surprise them, or make them angry.

Having a great title can be crucial… something that quickly explains what’s unusual or special about the video or item, something that doesn’t sound like a commercial.

A great way to come up with an effective title is to finish this sentence:

“Hey, did you see the video of the…”

Remember, short simple words tend to work best.

 

How to Get the Word Out So Your Video Can Go Viral

No matter how great a viral idea you have, you still need to get the ball rolling so people see or experience it, and so it’s easy for them to share.

Release the video on a Monday or a Tuesday, to give your post time to build momentum. Weekends and holidays are momentum stoppers and should be avoided.

Start the viral snowball by posting your video on YouTube, Include keywords like funny and strange if that is appropriate.

Next, post a link on Facebook, and send a link to everyone you know, asking them to watch, LIKE, COMMENT and SHARE the video.

Next, submit a link to your video and a description of your post to social news sites, such as:

If they like your post, it could end up on major blogs like Mashable and Huffington Post that let millions of people know about your video.

Fiverr.com may also provide people who could further distribute links of your video to dozens of major viral channels, and at a low cost (typically $5-20). Always make sure you work with people who provide links to real people and resources. Fiverr.com lets you check comments from a supplier’s previous buyers, and bad reviews are almost impossible for them to remove.

Once you get past 300 views, YouTube and Google start to notice you. So whatever you can legitimately do to get there, the better.

 

Using Press Releases to Spark a Viral Avalanche

Besides social channels, Press Releases can be valuable in getting you seen by major media that will promote your video to viral status.

For a few hundred dollars a Press Release can be distributed to major radio, TV, newspapers and magazines through a paid newswire service, such as:

Free distribution services are also available, that distribute your Press Release to online and offline media, and can get you valuable backlinks that boost your search engine rankings. Although not as widely reviewed by formal journalists as the paid services, there are many cases where releases in these free services will get picked up by the major media as well.

Here’s a list of some of the best free news release distribution services, most of which will get your Press Release listed on Google News.

 

ALSO SEE

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Video & Blog-Sharing Sites

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Search Engines | Social Media | Directories | Press Releases, PR & Articles | Blogs | Posting Expert Comments on Forums | Article Directories / eZine Directories | Video and Blog Sharing Sites | Articles on Partner Sites / Partner Newsletters | Affiliates / JV Partners / TeleSummits and Alliances | Emails / Email Newsletters | Banner & Text Ads | Webinars / Teleseminars | Viral Marketing | Tell-A-Friend | Promotional Marketers | Offline Marketing