History

The term “viral marketing” was probably first coined by Jeffrey Rayport in an article “The Virus of Marketing” in the December 1996 issue of Fast Company.Jeffrey Rayport, “The Virus of Marketing,” Fast Company, December 31, 1996, http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/06/virus.html(accessed May 10, 2008). That’s not to say that there weren’t viral marketing campaigns before that, but as the Internet developed, so have the electronic tools for passing on information.

Word of mouth has existed as long as there have been words and mouths, but it is a fairly recent phenomenon in the world of marketing. Positive word of mouth can have a tremendous impact on a brand and can take up little to nothing of the marketing department’s budget. However, planning for and measuring word of mouth can be tricky and unpredictable.

As the connected nature of the Internet has allowed for easier spreading and tracking of word-of-mouth information, it has become possible to see how this can be modeled on the spread of a virus in a population.

Organic Viral Marketing

Organic (or in-the-wild) viral campaigns grow with little or no input from the marketer. Sometimes, a message is passed around in a viral nature without any intention from the marketer. Usually this happens with negative messages about a brand, but it can also be a happy coincidence for a brand if the message is positive.

Organic word of mouth is credited with the sudden increase in the popularity of Hush Puppies shoes in the mid-1990s. Word of mouth increased sales from an all time low of 30,000 in 1994, to 430,000 in 1995, and to four times that the following year.

This is an example of an organic viral campaign:

• It was not planned (though it was very welcomed) by Hush Puppies.
• Participants made an active choice to pass on the message.

When successful, this type of campaign can build tremendous brand equity at a marginal cost. Because the communication takes place directly between consumers, the marketer has to be prepared to let go of their brand so that the message and flow of communication is not restricted. This is vital to ensuring the viral campaign is a success, as people are more likely to try a new product or fulfill the campaign goal if their friend or a trusted source referred them.

Amplified Viral Marketing

Amplified (or controlled) campaigns have been strategically planned, have defined goals for the brand being marketed, and usually have a distinct method of passing on the message (that can be tracked and quantified by the marketer). The Hotmail example above is a controlled campaign:

• The goal was to grow membership.
• The e-mails being sent were automatically passing on the message.

A viral campaign can be an important part of an eMarketing strategy. Viral marketing campaigns contribute in a number of ways:

• With correct planning, a viral campaign can provide plenty of link love for your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Campaigns should be built with that in mind. While there might be a microsite created for the viral campaign, ensure that it is easy to link to the main Web site.
• It can be difficult to measure brand awareness, but this is usually the chief aim of any viral campaign. Bear that in mind, and make sure that the campaign is targeting the right demographic and that branding is clear without detracting from the social nature of a viral campaign.
• Viral campaigns can also drive direct response, from newsletter sign-ups, to collaboration on consumer-generated media (CGM), to purchases that can be directly correlated to the campaign.

Step 1: Define the Aims of the Campaign and How You Will Measure Success

A video created by your department and watched by millions of people on the Internet is certainly an attractive proposition, but if it does nothing to contribute to your business goals, it is a fun but pointless exercise. Can this medium reach your target market?

Determine if your campaign will be aimed at building brand awareness, driving traffic to your Web site, growing anticipation for a new product, building lots of SEO links, or making sure customers make a purchase right away. Viral campaigns should always build you links, whether or not that is a main aim of the campaign. Because of this, you should try to influence the anchor text—or the visible, clickable text in a link—being used.

Step 2: Plan a Message or Content That Users Want to Share

On the Internet, there is a lot going on. For a campaign to be worthy of sending on, it has to stand out from the clutter. You need to be original by doing some of the following things:

• Make something scarce
• Make something free and abundant
• Be very funny
• Be very interesting
• Be very informative
• Be very educational
• Be very unusual
• Be a little cryptic
• Be the best
• Create something users want to copy
• Present the tools for a mashup

Burger King created the Web site “Subservient Chicken” (http://www.subservientchicken.com), where anyone could tell a man dressed up in a chicken suit what to do. It is very funny and quite bizarre. It got a lot of traffic. Hotmail made their e-mail service available to anyone. When Gmail was launched, it was by invitation only, and Google ensured that the invites were scarce. People talked about both services quite a bit.

Using controversial or enticing names for viral content makes it more likely that your audience will want to investigate further. For videos, thumbnails are exceptionally important in enticing visitors to hit the play button.

Step 3: Make Your Content Easy to Share

The easier a message is to pass on, the more likely it will be passed on. E-mails should include “forward to a friend” links, and a “send to a friend” link can be added easily to any Web page.

Viral marketers can make use of existing social media both as an environment in which to host their message and as a means to share their message. For example, using a popular video-hosting site, such as YouTube, for a viral video makes it easy for users to embed the video onto their own sites.

For best response, personalize e-mails automated by the sharing process (with subject lines like “Your friend Mark Hunter thought you’d find this amusing”). And for best SEO practice, tell users how to link to your content.

Step 4: Make It as Simple as Possible for Users to Get Involved

For campaigns that require interaction, it should be as easy as possible for users to sign up and get interacting. Lengthy sign-up forms asking for lots of information will slow and can even halt your campaign.

Step 5: Be Authentic and Transparent

It’s a viral marketing campaign for a brand, and marketers who pretend otherwise can see the attempt blowing up in their faces. Studies have shown that branding does not have a significant detrimental effect to the contagious nature of a viral campaign.

Step 6: Provide an Incentive for Sharing and Interacting

The greatest incentive for users sharing your content is social currency: something that users will want to share. People like to be seen by their friends and colleagues as resourceful, caring, or humorous, and the content you create should tie in with those values. Tailoring your content for your target market will give you even better results.

Incentives can be financial: a gift voucher for every five friends the campaign is sent to. Or users could be entered into a competition for every ten friends they refer. However, campaigns work best when the prize does not eclipse the content. Increasing social currency works for a brand, too; it will increase brand equity.

Step 7: Make the Message Available

Sophisticated alternate reality games (ARGs) usually involve hiding messages and making them cryptic, but for the most part, marketers want their campaign to be very available. Research your target market and make sure that they can access your campaign easily based on their usual online habits.

With any successful campaign, the spread of the message can usually be traced to several core influencers: those people responsible for the viral growth. Influencers tend to affect a large number of people either by sending the message to lots of people or by causing lots of people to want to emulate them. However, influencers are difficult to identify prior to success, and so seeding a campaign should attract as large an audience as possible.

Be aware, as well, that editorial mentions in traditional media can also create a huge amount of traffic for a campaign, so press releases still need to be part of the seeding process.

Using forums and inciting blog comments can all help get content out there.

Step 8: Use a Strong Call to Action

Be sure that the medium does not eclipse your message. If you have taken the time to create compelling and engaging content, make the most of the interaction you have with a potential customer. Be very clear about your call to action, or the action you want the user to take next:

• Send this video to a friend.
• Play now!

Step 9: Track, Analyze, and Optimize

Monitor interactions with your brand from consumers so you can see growth and response. Make sure you are aware of the many ways that users could be talking about you. Chapter 11 “Online Reputation Management” provides guidelines for the process of listening online. If the campaign is growing, but the message is not as intended, there might need to be some adjustments made.

Analyze what elements of the campaign work, so that when the next one is launched, these can be optimized.

Tracking software ForwardTrack (http://forwardtrack.eyebeamresearch.org) shows the geographical spread of a campaign over time and also lets participants see the spread of the campaign. This tracking solution can become a part of the marketing of the viral message.

TubeMogul (http://www.tubemogul.com) and VidMetrix (http://www.vidmetrix .com) both provide tracking and audience analysis for online videos.

Step 10: Get Lucky

Careful planning and great content with an enticing incentive should all result in a campaign that is successful. A little bit of luck is usually required for a campaign to fly.

Be Prepared for the Traffic

Anticipate wild success and ensure that the server can cope with the additional traffic. Nothing will kill a campaign faster than it being unavailable, and this has happened countless times.

Ensure that all parties know about the viral marketing campaign so that they can be prepared for any feedback that arises from this. If there is a cryptic element involved, or information that should not be released, ensure that all employees know about this.

If the campaign is to increase sales, be sure that there is sufficient stock in place.

Start Relationships

With millions of people being exposed to a brand, a company should plan to make the most of this first contact. As well providing all the tools to send a campaign on, a well-planned campaign will also ask their audience permission to keep in touch with them. Build on the nature of the campaign and ensure that future communications are not far removed from the viral campaign.

Prepare a Marketing Success Report

Consider the additional traffic and traction if the campaign becomes a case study, archived and accessed by marketers, journalists, and other interested parties. Make the most of this additional latent traffic avenue by preparing useful case studies, screenshots, and contact details. Even though the viral marketing campaign may be over, make sure it appears in online conversations and continues to generate traffic and links for your company.

If possible, keep relevant Web sites up and running and games still available once a campaign has finished.

Getting It Wrong: Astroturfing

Astroturfing refers to parties trying to manipulate word of mouth and comes from the term “grassroots campaigning.” Sometimes referred to as “stealth marketing,” it can also be a viral campaign killer.

Astroturfing usually occurs in the seeding period of a campaign. Employees may use fake names to try to seed a campaign on forums, in blog comments, and through services such as Digg (http://www.digg.com). Communities are quick to pick up on false commentary, and this can be disastrous for a campaign. As with all social media interactions, transparency and authenticity can be far better for traction.