by Donovan Baldwin
If you are trying to sell anything online, or if you are even just now looking into it, you have probably run across the term "viral marketing". You probably have some concept of what is meant, but you are probably not quite sure exactly what it is, and you are almost certainly in the dark as to how YOU can take advantage of this fantastic Internet marketing tool.
Wikipedia defines viral marketing as follows:
"viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages."
A lot of words, but what do they actually mean. Let's teach by example:
Jane has a product she wants to sell. She creates something, let's say an ebook, that she gives away for free. Within the ebook, which contains something of value, let's say information, is a reference to Jane's product. Anyone who gets the book and who appreciates the value of the material may choose to select Jane's product to solve whatever problem (I use the term loosely) which led them to be interested in Jane's product in the first place.
This initial step has allowed Jane to create a group of potential customers who value her and her product because of the benefit they have derived from the free book Jane gave them.
Additionally, and this is the viral part, Jane has also given permission for anyone to not only download a copy of her book, but share it with as many others as they wish. Some may give it to friends and family, others may offer it to visitors to THEIR websites as an enticement or enhancement to their own product(s), or they may offer it as a thank-you gift to customers. Some may feel that they have benefited from Jane's advice and provide a link to a source for the book on a social networking site to which they belong.
This has created another, potentially exponentially growing group of customers.
People learning about Jane's ebook in this manner, may then, in turn, offer it to others themselves.
While not every viral marketing product is going to turn out to be the next million-hit offering on YouTube.com, many viral products...jokes, books, videos, articles, etc., do manage to eventually be seen by hundreds of thousands of people who otherwise may never have heard of "Jane" or her product.
So, how do you get in on the action?
Well, one way is to create your own viral product, like Jane's book, and start handing it out on virtual street corners.
It's at this point that most people give up.
They simply cannot get past that word, "create", whether because of the time, effort, knowledge, or cost involved.
There are solutions!
One of my favorite ways of creating customers...and sales...is through the use of free viral ebooks which have been prepared by other professionals in their respective fields. I get viral ebooks on all sorts of subjects at ViralEbookExplosion. I can put my own links into them for related products, and then give them away.
You can see some of the ebooks that I give away for free at http://xtramoney4me.net/free_ebooks/index.html, or you can go directly to ViralEbookExplosion and get your info direct from the horse's mouth.
That's all for now, but I also have another source where I can get viral ebooks as well, and I will be telling you about that in another post.
Have a great day!
Don