The Viral Marketing Cheat Sheet

the VIRAL MARKETING CHEAT SHEET erhaps nothing is as effective and efficient in spreading your message as a viral marketing campaign. The idea behind viral marketing is to inspire people to spread your message for you. It's been estimated that a successful viral campaign can have 500-1000 times more impact than a non-viral campaign. Crafting a successful viral marketing campaign is more difficult than it looks. It requires careful planning and research. Use this cheat sheet to get started. Special thanks to @baekdal, @SEOmoz, and @isaiahmustafa. 1 Stop Being Neutral Viral marketing is about emotions. Forget trying to please everyone. Develop an opinion and inspire strong emotions. You want people to either love you or hate you, be happy with you or angry with you, laugh or cry. Stop being neutral. Be committed. Take a stand. Get people excited. 2 Do Something Unexpected Want people to notice you? Do something completely unexpected. Don't try to promote your product and make it look cool-everyone does that. Remember the "Will it Blend?" YouTube campaign by Blendtec? Their videos became popular not because of their blender, but because of what their blender was capable of blending-namely iPhones, marbles and other items. Google and many other search engines are increasingly using social signal metrics to rank search engine results (SERPS). For example, experts /0 of Google's Pagerani algoriathm(2011). estimate that social signal metrics account for 7% 3 Don't Make Advertisements AS SEEN N TV Viral marketing isn't just advertisements that people share. Forget about you, your product, and your company. Focus on creating a good and interesting story. Your business promotion should be very subtle-never the focal point. 4 Make Sequels People have seen your campaign. You have their undivided attention. What do you do now? When you have people's attention, you need to act. Never leave people wondering about what they should do next. One the best ways to get people to act is to give them more of the same. Make sequels. Give them what they want. Then introduce your brand. 89% 89% (nearly 9 in 10) of respondents to a survey said that they actively share content with others via email (Sharpe Partners, 2006). 5 Allow & Promote Sharing Sharing is what viral marketing is all about. Everything you do to make it easier for people to share your content is going to improve your campaign. Allow people to download and embed the content. Allow people to share via email or publish to their social networks. 6 Connect with Comments Connecting with your audience is a vital part of viral campaigns. Remember the Old Spice campaign starring Isaiah Mustafa? Viewership skyrocketed when Old Spice began to customize the videos based on viewer-submitted questions. Top 10 Viral Video Ads (2010) by unique views 150 m 100 m 50 m "Will it Blend?" "Xbox Project "Responses" (Isaiah Mustafa) "T-Mobile Dance" "Odor Blocker" Blendtec Natal" T-Mobile Old Spice Old Spice Microsoft "Live Young" "Gladiator" "Evolution" "Crash the "Gymkhana Two" Evian Pepsi Dove Super Bowl 2010" DC Shoes Doritos 7 Never Restrict Access Viral marketing is about your campaign taking on a life of its own- spreading like a virus. Never restrict access to your campaign. Don't require people to register, or become members, or to download special software, etc. Viral marketing is never about exclusivity. It is about getting it out there for everyone to see. KISSmetrics likes Isaiah Mustafa AKISSmetrics Let's talk: +1 (888) 767-5477 PEOPLE PAY YOU. NOT PAGEVIEWS. KISSmetrics is a powerful web analytics solution that helps you make smarter business decisions. Try KISSmetrics for FREE: kissmetrics.com/signup Special thanks to @baekdal, @SEOmoz, and @isaiahmustafa