Creating a Viral Marketing Campaign

The other day I was talking with a friend about common methods used to create a good viral campaign via written or rich media. We started talking about some of our favorite videos on YouTube, etc. and ended up spending an hour watching all kinds of funny, inspirational viral media. This got me thinking about what goes into making a good viral piece. Below I will share some steps I think you can take, but at the bottom I’ll share the key.

Steps

1. Formulate your messaging — determine exactly what you want to convey about your product or service. You want to convey the benefits of your product or service, not just the features, and don’t be afraid to get crazy in this objective.
2. Determine your method — are you going to produce a written viral piece or a video viral piece. Consider the elements involved such as costs, time, etc. and then determine what route you want to follow.
3. Load it up — this is the part where you make your viral piece connect with your customer on an emotional level. Touch their heart, or touch their funny bone, or something else that makes them think…I need to share this.
4. Don’t advertise — viral marketing is about sharing something that is funny, or is a great story. Don’t just think about advertising through your piece. Many of the best viral ads don’t even include a brand name or anything…it’s left to the customer to figure it out.
5. Publish the content — publish your viral piece to your website, YouTube, a blog, or a new website you build for the viral piece.
6. Make it easy to share — let people share your piece as easily as possible. Make it downloadable, sharable, allow embedding, etc.
7. Spread the message — do everything you can to share the message online and offline. Post to forums, message boards, social accounts, blogs, emails, etc. Basically get the viral aspect started.
8. Love the comments — reply to comments made on your piece. Don’t delete negative comments unless they are crude or attacking to others.

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Now here is the part I promised to be at the end…

THE KEY —

Make sure your viral piece is viral worthy. You can’t just expect people to share something that is ordinary or expected. You either have to come up with an idea that is excellent, or have some excellent tools you use in your business that can easily be made into a viral campaign. One example of these tools is from a hunting company in Texas, Rancho Bellas Rocas.

If you want to go hunting in Texas there is no better way than their way, as you can see from the pictures below, and no I wasn’t paid for this post…these pictures are just simply viral worthy so I’m sharing them.