Welcome to the first lesson in Viral Marketing Crash Course.

In the next 7 posts of Viral Marketing Crash Course I will post a lesson that will help you learn the how you can use viral marketing to increase awareness and profits for your business.

In this first lesson let’s talk a little about the different types of viral marketing. As we dive in to the wonderful world of viral marketing I want you to keep something in mind; a true viral campaign gets forwarded because consumers are compelled to do so by the entertainment or quality of the content, not because you bribed them with a reward or something else.

In the beginning, e-mail was the main way that viral marketing was passed along. Since then viral marketing has gone from a marketing strategy to an art form and there are many ways to accomplish your objectives and create a successful viral marketing campaign. In this lesson we are going to go over the different types of viral marketing tools (methods), so that you can become familiar with them.

We are going to start at the very beginning with e-mail:

It was first but it is still around and still used. It is, however, getting a little harder to use as more and more government restrictions are placed on it. Still… it does work.

Newsletters: This is an extension of e-mail but it a very effective tool. If you include enough timely and valuable information, a good newsletter can drive up the number of visits to your website.

Blogging: Providing the tools on your website to enable bloggers to interact with one another is a terrific way to get the message about your product of service out there and being talked about. Bloggers have their ears to the ground for new products and services.

Chat Rooms: A chat room on your website can and does encourage interaction among your customers and that can’t be a bad thing. Also, you can use the chat room to schedule special events like having an expert available to answer questions on a given day at a given time.

Ebooks: Share your ebook with your visitors and let them share copies of the ebook with their own visitors and other contacts. Include a nice blurb or ad for your most popular product with links to your website.

Software: Share a trial or “lite” version of your software with your visitors and just like with your ebook tell them that they can share copies of the software with their own visitors and other contacts.

Templates – Design your own website or other templates, include your own marketing information on them and give them away as free downloads or as an electronic package. Grant permission for recipients to pass them along.

Articles – Write articles about your niche topic. Include your website and contact information in the byline and grant permission for others to publish as long as they keep the byline in tact. Then people can use your contact on websites, in ezines, newsletters and other places where once again, viral marketing will speed the spread of information about your business.

Video Clips: This is one of the hottest types of viral marketing. Including cool video clips on your website will keep the interest up and increase traffic.

Flash Games: Although they are a little costly to start, they are an extremely effective tool to get your viral marketing campaign going. Once they are launched, they require nothing more from you.

Of course there are other methods for getting your marketing message to go viral, but we will get in to those later.

As we close this first lesson I want to touch on one of the main things that make starting a viral marketing campaign such a good idea. It is the simple fact that it costs a lot less to implement than traditional advertising and can be much more effective in a shorter period of time.

You will also want to keep in mind that viral marketing is just one basic components of your overall marketing plan. It should be linked with other strategies such as setting up squeeze pages to collect subscribers. When you take the time to combine viral marketing with other essential business building strategies it can help you increase awareness about your business, generate traffic to your web site, build a huge and solid customer base, add to your sales and go a long way in contributing towards your success.

We have a lot to go over in the next seven days if you want to learn how to use viral marketing to your advantage, so make sure you look for your next lesson soon. We will be talking more about using email to achieve your viral marketing objectives.

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