Viral marketing is a method of advertising that encourages others to spread the message about your product – like a virus. So more people are exposed to your message, thereby increasing potential business. . Viral marketing is more powerful than general advertising because it conveys an implied endorsement from a friend.

If you’ve been walking around the city and seen words written in chalk on the pavement, then you’ve seen viral marketing at work. The principles apply to businesses of all sizes:

Make your message memorable and ’sticky’
Viral marketing requires your product or service to come up in your customers’ conversations with others. That means there needs to be something about it that people will want to talk about. Longwinded, uninteresting, or unclear messages are hard to repeat, let alone remember. Make yours simple, and clear enough for a 6 year old to understand. Nike have the ultimate example here – “Just Do It”. It’s so well known now that it’s become part of american culture.

Cultivate your Reputation
The most critical precondition for successful viral marketing is Reputation. Nothing will sabotage and choke off viral marketing success faster than a sudden reputation for poor quality or poor service. Whatever else you do, you must cultivate a positive reputation for your services.

Create incentives
You can also get people talking about you by making it worth their while in some way. The incentives don’t even need to relate to your service. Some of the simplest campaigns involve offering people free books or products for introducing 3 new people to your business.

Create a buzz by offering free stuff
People love sharing great value and free stuff. Offer your customers something low or no cost, and invite them to tell other about it. They feel great about it because they get to introduce something valuable to their networks – all at no cost. Now you have them on your contact list, you can begin the sales process on the rest of your services.

Use other people’s resources
The most creative viral marketing plans use others’ resources to get the word out. Affiliate programs, for example, place text or graphic links on others’ websites. Authors – who give away free articles or chapters – seek to position their articles on others people’s’ web pages. Now someone else’s newsprint or webpage is relaying your marketing message.

Adding viral marketing into your marketing mix can be a legitimate strategy, if well thought out and executed. And it’s also lots of fun- in case that matters too.