Daily Domain Name Registration Blog

Viral marketing is all the rage at the moment, and that’s probably because it works very well. However, it has something of a bad press.

A classic example of viral marketing which really raised people’s hackles was the Lonelygirl15 series on YouTube. If you somehow missed this phenomenon, it all started a series of video diaries, ostensibly featuring a teenage girl called Bree with very religious parents. The diary won a huge audience over a period of a few months, after which it was outed as a hoax. However, the secret was not well-publicised before the producers managed to sneak in some subtle product placement.

The problem was that Lonelygirl15 was that it touched people emotionally: people empathised with the characters and were horrified when they discovered that the whole thing had been a hoax. That it had been used for advertising purposes was just the last straw.

Viral marketing doesn’t have to be this insidious, though. There are many ways in which you can use viral marketing to promote your website and/or your product, without resorting to any underhand tactics. One of the best ways, I think, is to use some sort of free product, such as an eBook or some software. The whole idea of viral marketing is that people do your marketing for you, but in order for them to do that, you need to give them something they’re likely to pass on.

Some of the most effective viral marketing schemes out there are for products like popular music player Winamp. There’s a free version of Winamp which thousands of people use, but users can also upgrade to a ‘pro’ version for a small fee. This means that every time users turn on their computer, they’re given a little piece of viral marketing - and what’s more, Winamp is a great product, which means it’s likely to get passed around. If you sell software, you could either have a cut-down version available which can be upgraded to your full version at a cost, or you could offer the full version on a 30-day trial.

Where appropriate, games, wallpapers and other free tools and fun features can be a good way of attracting people to your website. You’ll probably have noticed a lot of web games that are sponsored by a particular company. (For example, the rather jolly KFC tower defence game, Hunger Strike. See? It works!)

If you want your viral marketing campaign to work, you need to make it easy for your visitors to share your free item, whatever it may be. Consider adding a “Share with a friend” email form, and make sure that your URL is easy to remember - particularly the page on which your free item appears. Ideally, you should buy an appropriate domain specifically for your viral marketing item. For example, if you have a web game as a viral, make sure you buy the name of that game as a domain, and have it redirect to your page.

I’ve just had a thought! Maybe those people who make really awful Flash websites have actually come up with a clever ruse to get more visitors, since they tend to end up on various blogs and websites complaining about how dreadful they are…

Resources:

The Counter Counterfeit Commission (Mini Cooper).

Iain Ford on online viral marketing.

Brady Brewer on optimising your viral marketing campaign.

Lonelygirl15 on YouTube.