How to go viral with your blog
Is it really possible to let other people market your site for you? Because the main principle of viral marketing seems to be that it’s possible to let other surfers/readers/webmasters promote your site, purely because they like a piece of your content you have created. So how is viral marketing created and why are some webmasters good at it while others fail to generate anything more than a few visitors?
It’s important to be different when hoping to go viral as the internet really has no time for ideas that have been done before. That doesn’t mean you have to complexly re-invent the wheel, some of the most successful viral campaigns have been a new slant on an old concept. Mostly you will have to experiment to until you find the right formula.
A mistake that people often make when they create some kind of viral content is “overselling it”. For example if you create a great info-graphic but your corporate branding is too prominent it’s going to put people off. We don’t mind being sold to but do it under the radar.
It’s important to get the ball rolling at the start of the campaign. Even if you have the most “sharable” content ever you really have to get someone prominent (i.e. a blogger) to get your campaign off the ground. It’s only after you hit a critical mass of people that your idea can start to snowball and this is when viral marketing becomes real value for money.
It’s really important to measure your success with any kind of campaign. Unless you only plan to do one campaign (not advisable) how will you know what works/what doesn’t unless you measure how many extra visitors/sales you get? It’s not always easy to measure how successful your viral marketing efforts are but anything is better than nothing, knowledge is power when it comes to statistics.
Don’t forget that the end result of any campaign is to make money either directly or in-directly. I hope these tips help you to come up with a great campaign for your blog.
If you’re a new webmaster then check out my marketing site which has lots of advice for anyone starting a website. We have something for everyone.
