Important Elements of a Viral Marketing Campaign - Tell A Story
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Obviously, you need to create some kind of content for your viral marketing campaign. But what kind? What should you do with it? And what lessons can you take from Burger King, Philips, and others about how to do it right?
Well, one of the big things they did right was listed by Baekdal.com as the second of seven tricks to viral marketing: do something unexpected. The site used a video of a man attacking a bear to get the freshest salmon possible as an example.
So what's the first thing you should do? If you're a marketer, you already know: make your viewers feel something. But it has to be something strong. Love, hate, anger, compassion...you have a wide spectrum from which to draw. The thing you must not be is neutral – or boring. Nobody is going to pass along content that just kind of makes them nod and shrug.
Now, if you're going to be playing with emotions, that may mean building a story, or at least a situation to which your visitor must respond (a la the Subservient Chicken). If you're doing that, guess what? Your product and/or service is taking a back seat. You are NOT creating an advertisement. This is a good thing, because most people HATE ads. If you watch the ads during the Superbowl, for example, you'll see that most of them are little vignettes, and the product itself might barely get a mention. Of course, you should keep your theme in mind; if you're a pool builder, for example, you could run a Funniest Pool Stories contest. But you're telling a story, not yelling at people to buy your product.
Okay, so you have your visitors' attention. Now what? Bodygroom did sequels, and so have others. If you don't keep adding content, you will lose their attention. You can give visitors a behind-the-scenes look at making the content. You can blog about the content. You can invite them to write in and react to it. But don't leave them with nothing.
Next: Spreading the Buzz >>
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