Viral Marketing: Basic Training Manual

In the past,Viral Marketing and Guerrilla Marketing were used by only small, start-up businesses. Here's why they've now found their way into the marketing mix of Fortune 500 Companies along with guides on how to use them for your business.

Viral marketing is one of the ever emerging variations of guerilla marketing, a promotional strategy first made popular in 1984 by Jay Conrad Levinson in his best-selling book, Guerrilla Marketing.

Guerrilla marketing employs aggressive, non-traditional, low cost promotional activities to produce profits, rather than utilizing costly conventional media such as TV and magazine advertising. Like guerrilla warfare, it relies on timing, creativity, enthusiasm, energy, and of course, swift action.

These strategies and tactics make guerrilla marketing ideally suited for small start-up businesses and entrepreneurial ventures.

Today, however, it's also used by mega-marketers, even Fortune 500 Companies, as part of their overall marketing plans.

Viral marketing is simply “word of mouth advertising” for the Internet Age. Although initially considered another guerrilla tool for small businesses, it has evolved to become an effective form of marketing for large companies too.

Like its traditional “word of mouth”, counterpart, viral marketing encourages people to voluntarily pass on information about a product, service or company to their social and business contacts.

Conventional word of mouth advertising relies on telephone calls, snail mail, discussions at church socials or random conversations in the grocery store to spread testimonial endorsements. Customers become voluntary brand ambassadors and a free source of publicity. But that's pretty much where the similarity to traditional word of mouth advertising ends.

Viral marketing is designed for today's digital world and its diverse Internet-based social networks. Using today's high-speed technology to communicate with existing online communities, it has the power to reach a potential audience of millions with incredible speed. The effectiveness of viral marketing results from its ability to quickly and cleverly infiltrate these online social networks at little or no cost.

The viral campaign process is simple. A message with a strong, irresistible offer is developed and then passed along through the online community. It spreads the same way a human or computer virus does --- by ongoing contact. Once the message starts spreading, it's propagated and voluntarily passed along from person to person -often in a matter of just days.

One of the keys to success in any “word of mouth advertising” is the ability to identify “opinion leaders” to jump on the bandwagon and spread your message. Traditional “word of mouth” advertising identifies active members of the local community and have extensive “spheres of influence” they interact with frequently. These spheres are groups of social or business contacts that follow the trends the opinion leaders set and try products they endorse or use. Identifying these groups in traditional marketing is a relatively subjective process, time-consuming and a often unreliable process.

Viral marketers, however, can take a more scientific approach. To maximize the impact of their marketing they seek individuals with a high Social Networking Potential or SPN. This Social Networking Potential is an algorithmic representation of the size of a person's social network and their ability to influence it. (For those of us who had trouble with basic Algebra, an algorithm is a series of carefully defined successive steps that need to be completed in order to accomplish a specific task. Algorithms are also the basis of Google's search engine operations.)

A number of different factors enter the SNP equation. They include the number of online community memberships, blogging frequency, web sites visited, content of personal websites, online affiliates, number of articles published, job title, employer, and other relevant data. Once this demographic and lifestyle data is analyzed, a SNP coefficient is calculated and assigned to an individual or social networking group. This rating can then be used to pinpoint people and groups who are prime viral contact points.

Savvy marketers and advertising agencies are also developing their own unique ways of identifying prospects with strong social networks and communicating with them through viral campaigns. There are now also specialized viral marketing consultants and advertising agencies whose clients include Fortune 500 companies. This investment of time and money indicates viral marketing is finding its niche in corporate America.

Many viral marketers simply compile “seeding lists” of high-traffic websites and online communities whose visitors are strong social networker. A typical could include sites like, myspace.com, bebo.com, kontraband.com,borednation.com , linkedin.com and a wide range of others. There are specific social network sites that appeal to teenagers, college students, twenty-somethings, music groupies, parents, and even corporate executives. More sites like youtube.com tare emerging and developing a more broad based audience appeal. Today, there's an online social network for just about everyone.

Viral seeding lists aren't direct mail lists or email lists. Contrary to the belief of many mainstream marketers, viral communications are not confrontational or unsolicited. The objective is not to annoy prospects with “pop up boxes”, “ banner ads” or spam.

“Discovery” is what viral marketing is all about. The idea is to get a prospect to voluntarily find or discover and then interact with a communication containing an offer and branded content, and then pass it along to a friend. The communication could be a website, a video, music, a blog, a photo of the day, an advergame or other message. That's why they're “planted” on high traffic, highly targeted websites and portals, in news groups, bulletin boards forums and other online places where the right people will discover them and pass them along.

Very often, the offer in viral marketing is “Free”. It could be a free email account, a free web page, a free screensaver or wallpaper, free software, video or music downloads, a free magazine subscription, a free T Shirt or product sample. The big creative challenge is to make the free offer appear to be really free with no strings attached and not just another advertising gimmick.
Viral marketing is far more sophisticated that many traditional marketers or even guerrilla markets give it credit for. And an increasing number of large companies are finding a place in their promotional mix for viral marketing as well.

In order to be effective, viral marketing requires a carefully developed plan. The plan is no different that a traditional marketing plan. A basic plan includes:

• Objectives: a clear outline of exactly what you want to accomplish
• Strategies: a detailed plan of how you're going to it
• Target Audience: the market segments you're trying to reach
• Media: What social networks and online communities you're going to use
• Creative Strategy- What are the formats, styles, tones and offers of the communications.
• Budget - How much you plan to spend annually and how the money is allocated
• Tracking and Results Analysis- How you measure the effectiveness of the campaign

One very effective way for any business to use viral marketing is to boost the effectiveness of a TV, print or direct response advertising campaign. It's a simple, low cost and very efficient means of increasing your advertising effectiveness. Viral campaigns can be “seeded” in targeted social network sites and online communities that will “discover” your message quickly and pass it along. The message very often reaches a potential audience of millions virtually overnight.

Usually you can see measurable results and a “lift” in your advertising performance in a matter of days.

In presenting the idea of viral marketing to some clients, I've encountered some very strange and humorous misconceptions it. One very conservative client described viral marketing as a “pack of high school kids in garages, techno-geeks in basements and pornography merchants in seedy bedrooms sending out spam that will infect PCs everywhere with deadly computer viruses.” Wow! I never realized viral marketing is destined to bring about the downfall of online civilization as we know it today. Well, thank God I'm a MAC guy and immune to most dreaded viruses. Better abandon your PC right away and get yourself a MAC today!

Viral Marketing has become serious business. Major national advertisers are shifting an increasing percentage of their advertising dollars from TV, radio, print and mail into interactive online media, including viral marketing. Like search engine marketing, pay per click advertising and guerrilla marketing, it's found its niche and is here to stay.

By Michael Crozer, Bizcovering.com

Internet ad spend holds relatively steady

The nation's largest advertisers increased their share of spending on the Internet while simultaneously reducing spending in traditional advertising channels. The ad spend report, released this week by eMarketer, forecasts $21.4 billion in online advertising spending in 2007.

The report observes 68 of the top 100 advertisers, as ranked by TNS Media Intelligence, decreased spending on traditional channels including TV and print, and at the same time those advertisers have increased the share of their budgets going to the Internet.

"When you look at the largest advertisers in the U.S., they are still only putting about 3.5 percent of their total ad budgets online. However there are indications they are moving more online," said eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman.

Like ad spend reports from other research firms, eMarketer reduced its previous projection of the U.S. Internet spend from $21.7 billion to $21.4 billion in 2007. The online ad spend is expected to reach $42 billion by 2011, with continued growth through that time.

Categories within the online channel are expected to see little movement. "In terms of search, it will remain at about a 40 percent range for a number of years," said Hallerman. The report finds search will represent 41.1 percent share of online this year, 42 percent in 2008, and is expected to reach 43 percent in 2011.

Display ads, in the form of banners, are forecast to take 21.5 percent of online's share of spending in 2007, 21.5 percent share next year, and 20.7 percent share in 2011. Rich media spending will hit 6.8 percent this year, 6.7 next year, and back to 6.8 percent in 2011. Dollars spent on rich media are estimated at $775 in 2007. Other categories covered include classified ads, referrals, e-mail, and sponsorship.

Unmeasured dollars reach into the billions, according to Hallerman, due to the money spent by marketers to build corporate Web sites, video, and word-of-mouth type campaigns. He said brand marketers can, in some cases, engage an audience on their Web sites better than paid media. He also points to video posted on corporate Web sites and on video-sharing sites on YouTube. The Dove brand is examples of using viral video to spread a message.

The economic climate has driven mortgage companies and others in the financial sector to pull ad dollars from their budgets. Hallerman said the financial services sector has contributed about 15 percent of the Internet ad spend. Other sectors are taking up some of the slack. Hallerman attributes the uptake to the proven measurability of search, and even with display, where they have an idea of where the impressions are going.

eMarketer reports contain aggregate numbers from other research firms.

By Enid Burns, The ClickZ Network

Internet advertising buoys the UK advertising industry with above-expectation 41.3% year on year growth in the first half of 2007

Above expectation growth takes the internet advertising sector to a half-year high of £1,334.3 million - compared to £917.2 million just a year ago - lifting online advertising's market share significantly, to 14.7%.

The results of the biannual internet advertising spend study commissioned by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), the UK online advertising trade body, in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC), point to online advertising expenditure reaching a potential new high of £2.75 billion by the end of 2007.

The total UK advertising market grew by 3.1% during the first half of the year to £9.1 billion. However without online's contribution, UK media expenditure would have fallen by 1.9% (or £147 million). Once again the internet has propped up the UK advertising economy and remains the fastest-growing advertising medium. The new results see online overtake the size of the direct mail sector, which has a market share of 11.8%.

All major online ad formats surpass expectations

Classified advertising is the latest online success story, growing by 72% year on year to £277.7 million with a share of 20.8% of all internet advertising spend. Online classifieds in the recruitment, automotive and property sectors are shaking-up the print industry, with marketing budgets switching at a steady rate in response to the demands of the internet user.

Internet display advertising (including banners, skyscrapers and rich media formats) climbed 33% to £287 million and a share of 21.5%. Nine out of ten online households in the UK are now on broadband, and marketers in all sectors are targeting consumers with increasingly creative rich media and video advertisements.

Paid-for search (search engine listings that advertisers pay for when a consumer clicks through to their site) was 44% up year-on-year to £762.3 million - a share of 57.1% of the online total. Growth is attributed to at least half of all ecommerce transactions (£32 billion in 2006) starting with a search. In July 2007 internet users carried out 1.4 billion search queries and over 80% of these resulted in a click through to a website. Advertisers recognise that search plays a valuable role in building brands, selling products and creating a competitive advantage online.

Major categories up, automotive is star online performer

The top five categories remain the same as in 2006 but automotive has overtaken finance with a 12.5% share and is very much the star performer. From brand-building display ads for marques and models, to email building relationships, through to search aiding research and price comparison, and ultimately classifieds helping consumers find what they want, the automotive industry utilises every online format to complete a customer journey.

Recruitment leads with 24.7% of share up 5.3 points with finance down 3.9 points to 11.7%. Consumer goods made steady progress, increasing by 0.7 points to 5.3%, while retail remained static at around 3.1% of all online advertising spend.

The share of the business and industrial category more than doubled to 3.1% while telecoms also performed well - up two points to 6.7%. Property continued its ascendancy achieving a share of 5.7%, up 1.4 points year-on-year.

Key drivers for growth

Broadband: Broadband is now an everyday utility with 52% of all adults in Great Britain connected at home*, an increase from 13% of all adults with broadband just three years ago. With 90% of home internet users now accessing via broadband, up 6 points year on year, and 38% of the online population having used a wireless connection at home in the past month, advertisers are able to deliver far more creative and engaging communications to a mass audience.

Online evolution: Ofcom research reveals that average daily web use rose by 158% over the past four years; the over-50s account for nearly 30% of time spent online; and women in the critical 25 - 34 age group spend on average 20% more time on the net than their male counterparts. This is all great news for advertisers as the medium hurtles towards £2.75bn by the end of the year.

Social networking websites: While not a major driver of online advertising expenditure, social networking sites generate higher consumer demand for fast broadband, increasing time spent online and boosting overall consumer confidence in the online experience. This is likely to increase advertiser interest in the medium and lead to a continued growth in advertising expenditure for years to come.

Measurement and web analytics: As tools for measuring the efficacy of online, such as engagement and brand-building, become more sophisticated and robust the sector is fast becoming more accountable, transparent and measurable than traditional advertising sectors.

The online market is developing at an astounding rate and once again we see exceptional growth and a significant increase in market share. 90% of internet users are on broadband now and nearly 40% are using wireless. We're also seeing women and the over 50s spending far more time online, which makes the internet a very attractive medium to a broader set of advertisers.

Importantly, marketers have a much better understanding of how online works and how to measure the effects of brand advertising as well as direct response. With other disciplines such as web TV, mobile and in-game advertising on the rise too, the opportunities in digital are limitless.

Source: Internet Advertising Bureau UK.