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Viral Marketing


Viral marketing is the kind of marketing where a created item takes on the characteristics of a virus, a disease that spreads rapidly. Viral entities can also spread rapidly, becoming extremely popular in next to no time at all. If the thing that goes viral also includes some form of advertising, then you have an example of a good viral marketing tool.

A YouTube video entitled The Evolution of Dance is a good example of how a popular video can become viral. Its enduring popularity means it has been viewed more than 140 million times. However, it doesn't appear to incorporate any kind of advertising, so it is not strictly speaking viral marketing.

One excellent example of viral marketing in a video is one on YouTube entitled simply, "guitar." You can see it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8 The young man playing in this amazing video is certainly an expert.

Are you wondering what the marketing part of this viral video is? The message below the video simply states: "Practice, Practice, Practice and get a copy of Guitar Master Pro, that's how I did it!" It would be interesting to know how many of the 70 plus million who have seen it since December 2005 did exactly that. Probably a lot!

Viral marketing needs some thinking outside of the box. When TaxBrain.com wondered how to promote their website about the boring subject of tax, they thought outside of the box and came up with a stunt that involved a stolen Nascar. Their YouTube video was so popular that they had over $1 million worth of totally free advertising on TV within a few days.

How can you use viral marketing in your business? It doesn't have to be through video. It can be a report. The Death of AdSense is a site that offers four free reports claiming that the Google AdSense program is dead.

It is not, of course, but they have been very successfully in their campaign, and at one time practically everyone had a copy of the reports, worrying that their attempt to make money through AdSense was wasted effort.

A controversial report is actually a good way to start a viral marketing campaign. It's easy to do and people will readily download a free report. It needs to be controversial. It needs to appear to impact on people's lives. And of it seems to be something that should concern them, they will want to know more.

Of course, your free report will have the answer they need. You will be able to direct them to a cure or an answer to their (perceived) problem. Be careful to not deceive people to the extent that it becomes illegal. You just want to make them think that they need whatever it is you promote.

Video is still one of the easiest ways to produce a viral marketing tool. The man doing the Evolution of Dance could have made thousands promoting dance lessons, for example. He chose not to, but his simply video demonstrates that viral marketing need not be difficult to do. For more examples of viral marketing, see Ignite

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