Viral Marketing: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 4:47 pm by Matt Van Atta

As we enter the holiday season, which is traditionally a time of giving and sharing, what better time than now to examine the concept of viral marketing? After all, good affiliate marketers know how to develop viral marketing content. When they give it away to customers for free download, they know that a certain number of those customers will eventually give something back to them.

Viral marketing is the creation and distribution of content that gets passed on to others. Its recipients perceive it as being valuable to them, but it also serves to promote your website. Viral marketers usually make their content available online and allow it to be copied and shared with anyone. It works somewhat like marketing buzz or word of mouth, except that it streams through people’s computers more than through people themselves.

The reason for the word “viral” is that given these parameters, such marketing can spread, like a virus, to potentially millions of customers – only this kind doesn’t wreak havoc on computers throughout the land.

But if you don’t like the connection with viruses, here’s a nicer spin on this definition: Think of viral marketing as a means to generate word of mouth over email and the Internet. Word of mouth is the oldest marketing tool in the book for a reason. Viral marketing allows the electronic equivalent of word of mouth to grow at relatively low cost to you, and with relatively low resistance from recipients because they choose to accept the content.

So what kinds of viral marketing content should you produce to promote your site?

The best kind of content is information presented in a straightforward manner along with the all-important links to your website. It could be contained in a PDF that facilitates ease of downloading and assures the user that no virus or spyware is associated with downloading the content. Reports and online white papers are ideal; articles are good, too.

Sure, you could make your content more visually exciting through such formats as video clips and Flash animations. But you’re likely entering dangerous territory by taking this approach. These options result in larger file sizes that take longer to download (and the 56k modem hasn’t completely faded yet). They also give the impression that you’re providing a lot of sizzle to hide the fact that there is little or no steak.

Which leads to the most important point: Whether you are tapping into an existing niche market or creating your own, viral marketing content should show that you know your subject matter. Those who download the content should trust your site. Such trust can go a long way when it comes to promoting products or services on your site.

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