Viral Marketing - How to Start a Plague
Before you read this, make sure you read my previous posts on Viral Marketing. Before you reach to this step, you need to know what’s the number ONE rule in viral marketing. And then, you need to create a reason for people to spread the message for you.
After all that, here’s what you need to do next …
You need to release the virus to the masses. What I mean by that, you need to create that initial traffic to your viral marketing campaign. Without that initial traffic, you just can’t get the ball rolling. But be sure you do that step 1 and step 2, like I said above.
Now here are a few ways to ‘release the virus.’
Start with your own list
If you have a mailing list of your own, that is where you should start. Write a message about this new thing that you are launching, and blast it to your list. What’s a list for if you don’t use it.
Joint venture with other people
If you do step 2 right, there’s no reason why you can’t ask for a joint venture on this. If you plug-in an affiliate program in it, tell your potential JV partner that they can earn commission from this. If you are just giving things free, you can say that this is a free resource and they their subscribers may like it.
Participate in forums
I don’t go out and start spamming forums. But I searched related forums for related discussions. If your new thing is about ’stress relief’, look for discussion on that in forums. Than drop your own opinion. Make sure you have a good signature that links back to your site.
Write a press release
You can also do this. Write something about your website and start distributing it as press release. There a lot of resources on the Internet on press release. One that you may want to consider is PRweb.com
Write an article
Yes … start with one article. Maybe a how-to article which is related to your new website. And have a good resource box that links back to your site. And then, start distributing it to article directories.
When the traffic starts to come in … you’ll start to see that you just can’t stop it. A new subscriber will always want to refer new one, and then another, and then another …
This is the last of my Viral Marketing series. Good luck with your Viral Marketing campaign.
