Viral marketing techniques and how they work.
Would you like more word of mouth referrals? Would you generate more leads and close more sales if more people were talking about your business?
Word of mouth is what every business wants – customers talking about and referring your products and services to each other naturally – simply because they are good. Viral marketing works on this idea and attempts to deliberately make your product or service more likely to be talked about – usually by starting and encouraging those conversations. The term is often used interchangeably with word-of-mouth marketing and buzz marketing.
Viral marketing works on a simple principle – people are more likely to trust a recommendation from a person like them, than they are a sales message from a company. So, if you find ways to kick start those recommendations and conversations – and keep them going – people will buy more of your products and services.
Plus, if you have something good enough in the first place, more natural word-of-mouth will take over after a while and carry your message much further.
As you might have guessed, there are plenty of ‘viral marketing agencies’, most of whom work with big brands or niche brands in popular markets – although some do work with smaller businesses. They tend to do one of two things; either they have an existing group of people whom they get to start conversations about your business in return for free gifts, or they focus their efforts on targeting third party websites (like forums, blogs, social networking sites, and chat rooms) and start talking about your product or service there.
However successful this strategy might be, it does run the risk of the campaign backfiring and resulting in ‘bad buzz’ – negative conversations about your brand. Most online communities are very wary of people promoting products or services and if they feel that your ‘buzz’ is manufactured, they may respond negatively.
Word-of-mouth is virtually impossible to control so ‘bad buzz’ can have a seriously negative impact on your business. More recently some firms have started taking a more relaxed approach to building buzz by creating communities around your prospects’ interests. A discussion forum sponsored by a brand would be an example.
These communities can still help generate buzz for your business but the obvious sales pitch is kept to a minimum.
If using a viral marketing agency isn’t for you, you can still make your own products and services more ‘buzz worthy’ and help kick start a little word of mouth.
What Next?
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