There’s a reason why viral marketing has taken off on the net in that last few years and it’s because it’s never been so cheap to reach so many people. At its core viral marketing is all about letting other people spread the word about your site for you. But how does viral marketing work and where do you start?

One thing that I have noticed about all great viral content is that it’s unique and original. Surfers today really have no interest in anything they have seen before so in order to stand out from the crowd you have to be different. That doesn’t mean you can’t offer a new angle on an old idea though, some of those campaigns have been very successful too.

I see many companies over branding their viral content and this is a mistake. Don’t get me wrong the main purpose of any campaign is to tell people about your product/company/brand but people on the net often shut off when you try to over-sell to them, subtlety is key when it comes to viral marketing.

It’s important to get the ball rolling at the start of the campaign. Even if you have the most “sharable” content ever you really have to get someone prominent (i.e. a blogger) to get your campaign off the ground. It’s only after you hit a critical mass of people that your idea can start to snowball and this is when viral marketing becomes real value for money.

It’s still amazing to me how often webmasters will start some kind of marketing campaign but have no idea how successful it has been. To me tracking how many extra visitors and sales a campaign has brought is the only way to work out what works and what doesn’t.

Creating content that people simply have to share is definitely not easy. I suppose the toughest parts is coming up with a unique idea that hasn’t been done before and also not overselling the commercial aspect of what you’re doing. There are big rewards if you can crack the secret to web marketing though.

If you’re interested in learning more about Viral marketing then check out my marketing blog for more info. I have lots of ideas there on how you can attract more visitors.

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