Viral Marketing Tutorial

What Is Viral Marketing?

Viral Marketing is simply a method that allows your prospects and clients to easily forward information (i.e. ebooks, reports, trial version of software, and etc...) that is of benefit to them.

It's information that can help them solve a problem or realize a benefit.

Although, not as popular a "buzz-word" as it once was, viral marketing is still one of the most powerful techniques you can use to draw tons of targeted traffic to your website.

Here's a word of caution: The speed of the Internet can bury powerful tried and proven marketing techniques, such as, viral marketing. Because these new tactics are being created at an alarming rate.

However, you must be really careful not to allow this bombardment of new marketing methods that makes you forget about those, which have stood the test of time.

If you invest in high quality marketing courses, such as, "The Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business On The Internet," by companies such as The Internet Marketing Center, you'll notice certain methods always appear in the materials.

This is not by accident...

They wouldn't continue to appear year-after-year if they weren't proven.

An excellent example of viral marketing is the wildly successful Blue Mountain Cards, an Online e-greeting card service provider.

They grew their company to massive proportions by using a simple viral marketing tactic...

Which was to allow everyone to send a free e-greeting card to their family, friends, business associates, and etc.

Once the friend or family received the e-greeting card, they were given the options to reciprocate by sending one back.

Once Blue Mountain Cards had a big community of people sending cards to one another, they started charging for some of their e-greeting cards.

This simple viral marketing technique allowed them to grow into a multi-million dollar empire, who still remain the leader in Online e-greeting cards.

Do you see how incredible viral marketing is?

Why Is Viral Marketing Important?

First of all as with almost anything in life, including marketing techniques, most people will not use them to their fullest potential, because the Internet is breeding more and more hype and Get Rich Quick Schemes.

What does this have to do with viral marketing you might ask?

Since most Online businesses are tactical meaning reactive in their approach to marketing, they may incorporate it sometimes, but not monitor it's progress or try to improve upon the results.

This is a big opportunity for you, the home-based business owner.

By your competitors putting in a half-hearted effort in implementing viral marketing into their businesses gives you an advantage if you were to sit down and plan out how to fully utilize this powerful technique. You could potentially dominate your marketplace.

Let everyone else chase after the latest and greatest marketing hype, while you concentrate upon maximizing each traffic tactic to it's fullest potential, and then move on to implementing another one.

How Can Viral Marketing Help You Grow Your Home-Based Business?

Viral Marketing offers tons of benefits to the home-based business owner, such as:

1. Viral Marketing is a very inexpensive way to drive targeted traffic to your website's.

2. Allows you to grow your home-based business exponentially after being set in motion.

3. Viral Marketing allows your prospects and clients to refer your products and services, and with word-of-mouth advertising being the least expensive, it's one of the best ways to build a massive list of future clients.
   
   Click Here to read our Referral Marketing Tutorial to get more insight on why you'd be leaving so much money on the table if you don't implement it into your "marketing mix."

4. Your Viral Marketing message remains consistent as it's being passed from person-to-person, which means there would be less chances for anyone to add and drop critical details that would change the meaning.

5. Allows you to establish yourself and home-based business as the most trusted expert in the eyes of your prospects and clients.

Don't you think those are powerful benefits, especially for a method that's not talked about as much these day?

Right?

Are There Any Dangers or Challenges Associated With The Use Viral Marketing Marketing?

While there are several benefits associated with the implementation of Viral Marketing, you must be careful to avoid being accused of spamming your prospects and clients.

You maybe familiar with those "Send To A Friend" links that you see on website's.

Well...

If you really think about it, those can pose a real danger.

Why?

The link may say "Send To A Friend," but what if someone visited your website and entered a miscellaneous person's name and email address into your form and submitted it?

What if that person complained and got your website shut down, because they accused you of spamming them?

I bet you're thinking to yourself that Viral Marketing doesn't sound so attractive now.

You should be highly concerned, because your business is very important to you and your family, so protecting it is of your highest priority and for someone to come along and wrongfully accuse you of spamming them could become a disaster.

Before you get discouraged, you should know that there is a solutions to this dangerous issue.

For example, if you require prospects to have to fill out an Opt-In form on your website in order to get access to your Viral Marketing information, you can set up an autoresponder, such as, GetResponse to require them to have to perform a Double Opt-In, which is basically where they would have to click the first email sent to them to confirm.

If your prospects clicked on the confirmation link contained in the first email they receive, they are saying, "Yes I'm The One Who Signed Up To Receive Your Information."

If they don't click the confirmation link, they are refusing to receive your Viral Marketing information and can delete it.

Your prospects will only refuse your information if a stranger signed them up or if they totally forgot they were the ones who requested it in the first place.

So, now do you see how this can protect you from any potential spam complaints?

As a home-based business owner, you need as much leverage as you can get, because usually funds, time, and energy are limited.

And Viral Marketing has the power of giving you that leverage.

Imagine 20 prospects forward your viral information to just 5 of their friends each...

Do the math... 20 prospects x 5 friends = 100 New Prospects

What if those 100 New Prospect told 5 friends?

Do the math...100 New Prospects x 5 friends = 500 New Prospects

That's 600 New Prospects generated by the first 20 Prospects!

Is that not amazing?

This number will continue to grow.

But, in order for you to create a successful Viral Marketing campaign, you must take your time and plan it out by using the proper tools.

Remember what I said earlier, most of your competition will not take the time out to implement their marketing strategies and tactics.

If you raise your standards above them, you'll increase your chances in dominating your market place.

What Tools And Resources Must Be Used To Implement Viral Marketing?

• Getresponse Autoresponder
  A server based stand-alone autoresponder that has built in templates (150 templates), unlimited email marketing campaigns, sales and conversion tracking, great email deliver ability, technical support, and more features and benefits that I can't list here.
  Click Here for more details.
  
  

• Guerilla Marketing for the New Millennium
  This great ebook covers how to integrate your marketing efforts to increase your effectiveness, but what we want to emphasize is Mr. Jay Conrad Levinson shows you how to create and use a Marketing Calendar, which by the way is critical to the implementation of not only the Viral Marketing tactic, but all of your marketing strategies into your home-based business. Don't hesitate to pick up this ebook!
  Click Here for more details.