The term “viral marketing” is becoming a household term because of the common use of the phrase “viral video.” For example, some crazy Britney Spears fan pitches a rant on video and posts it online on YouTube or some other popular video site. Next thing you know, he gets millions of people checking out the video. This spreading effect is like a virus, hence the terms “viral video” and “viral marketing.” Essentially, these are just new, shorthand terms for what has been around since Biblical times – word of mouth. However, a marketer must have more than traffic in mind. Ultimately, the question is how to make money from the traffic you do get, for millions of views can be worthless unless you turn them into profits. By following the viral marketing strategies in this article, marketers can increase profit potential from the traffic generated from viral marketing campaigns.
Unfortunately, marketers run into problems when attempting various viral marketing campaigns. When you are trying to sell something, you need content that is relevant to your offer. Despite what you hear, most viral content just doesn’t sizzle like the examples we hear about in the news. These are the exceptional cases, not the norm. Just check out the viral video sites and see how many people are viewing the videos. Most have been seen by hundreds, not millions.
A related problem is trying to figure out how to monetize the viral traffic you do get. Many marketers complain that, even if they get traffic to these videos, articles, etc., they still are not making any money. Many times, the reason for this is simply because the content is not relevant to the offer. For example, you could easily make a video showing a magic trick, and those videos seem to get a lot of traffic, but that’s not going to help you much if you are selling vitamins instead of magic books. Additionally, lots of people who happen upon your viral message are merely casual surfers. They aren’t in the mood to buy anything.
Marketers would be advised to keep their content as sizzling as possible while remaining relevant to the product or service which they are marketing. This is not always an easy task by any means, but it’s something marketers need to tweak and test in their viral campaigns as much as possible.
Nonetheless, there is some way to profit from casual surfers. Of course, you need to mention your website in any videos you make, preferably both written and spoken since this will provide more “triggers” for surfers to remember where to find you or get more information. Again, though, casual surfers may just be lurking, and the goal is how to make at least some money from their visits. This is quite simple. Just publish pay-per-click ads (PPC ads) on your pages. Google runs AdSense, and it is usually easy to get accepted by them as long as you have a legitimate website. You can easily find AdSense by just running a search from the Google home page. This way, some of those lurkers who come on in will click on your ads and make you some money when they lurk right away after a few seconds.
Another important thing to remember is to use lead generation with your viral marketing campaigns. Always build a list when you are marketing. If you do not currently have a list management system set up, Aweber.com provides various options starting at a few dollars per month. As previously stated, a lot of lurkers just are not in the mood to buy anything. But by capturing their email, you can catch them later when they might be in a mood to buy.
In short, you will get a lot of casual, untargeted surfers in your viral marketing campaigns along with some of the more targeted folks. The primary way to profit from the casual surfers is to utilize PPC ads on your site. The primary way to maximize your profits from the more targeted surfers is to get them on your list so you can keep mailing them until they are in a buying mood. Use both of these techniques at the same time to make the most from your viral marketing campaigns.
