Internet Marketing Driver

  • GSQi Home
  • About Glenn Gabe
  • SEO Services
    • Algorithm Update Recovery
    • Technical SEO Audits
    • Website Redesigns and Site Migrations
    • SEO Training
  • Blog
    • Web Stories
  • Contact GSQi

Rethinking Your Viral Marketing Strategy: Why Building a Solid Online Marketing Foundation Should be Your First Priority, Not A Funny Video

April 6, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Share
Tweet
Share
Email

Human Pyramid of Online Marketing ChannelsThere are times companies hire me to evaluate their online marketing strategies. Essentially, they want to better understand the potential impact of their efforts and if there are any holes in the strategy at hand.  When an idea for a viral marketing campaign crosses my desk, the first thing I like to do is gain access to the company’s web analytics package and start analyzing site performance.  Based on the hit or miss nature of viral marketing, my hope is that I immediately see a consistent level of quality traffic (based on conversion) from a number of traffic sources.  Unfortunately, that’s not always the case and it’s the first red flag.  Then, since viral marketing campaigns usually need a kick-start, I review how strong of a presence the company has on various social networks.  Again, my hope is to see a solid presence and strong engagement via blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Once again, that’s not always the case and could be extremely problematic for the company I’m helping.  Based on what I explained above, here’s a question to think about (and one I’ll address in the rest of the post):

Why in the world would a company spend a lot of money, time, and resources on a viral marketing campaign without already having a solid online marketing foundation in place?

In my opinion, and based on my experience, the company pulling the trigger on the viral campaign without having a foundation in place could very well be setting itself up for failure.  If my analysis reveals a lack of consistent, quality traffic and a poor presence on social networks, then I believe the plan needs to be adjusted (in a big way).  I usually recommend that they spend the budget allocated for viral marketing on building a solid online marketing foundation instead.  Then, once the foundation is in place, the company can layer viral marketing on top of that foundation.  Let’s explore why.

Quick Note: I’m referring to viral marketing and not word of mouth marketing (wom).  I know there is a lot of confusion about the difference between viral marketing and word of mouth marketing and you can read this previous post of mine to learn more.

Consistent Quality Traffic, A Critical Element To Your Online Marketing Success
I explained earlier that I usually dig into a company’s reporting to better understand their current traffic sources and quality of traffic.  In my opinion, when it comes to driving traffic, there are too many companies focusing on short-term gain versus building a long term strategy.  There are some people that want a quick win, but that’s definitely not a great way to look at online marketing.  If you develop the right strategies, you can build a long term plan for driving consistent and quality traffic via a number of traffic sources (building the solid foundation I have referenced numerous times in this post so far).  For example, organic search could be driving targeted visitors across tens of thousands of keywords on a regular basis.  And by the way, there is no ad spend for that targeted traffic.  In addition, a well planned SEM strategy could yield high quality traffic across a wide range of targeted categories and keywords in paid search.  Also, SEM could supplement your SEO initiative, enabling you to provide air cover for SEO as you strengthen your organic rankings.  Also, if you want to consistently drive customers back to your site, then building a well-scrubbed in-house email list is a smart move.  I haven’t even mentioned RSS subscribers, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, other social networks, etc.  This foundation (which includes a number of online marketing channels), is worth its weight in gold.  If you don’t already have a foundation in place, then building it should be your focus, not creating a viral marketing campaign. You can get to the viral marketing campaign later on…

If  You Are Lucky, Viral Marketing Provides a Spike in Visitor Traffic, Then a Quick Falloff:Spike in Visitor Trending

Instead, Building a Solid Online Marketing Foundation Results in Consistent & Quality Traffic:

Consistent Visitor Trending

Viral Marketing Fails More Than It Succeeds
Based on what I just explained, you can understand why I’m sometimes shocked to see a viral marketing plan planned when a strong online marketing foundation hasn’t been developed yet.  Think about it, why wouldn’t you spend that budget on building a strong foundation versus spending it on a short-term viral marketing campaign?  And by the way, that viral campaign will likely fail performance-wise.  I’m not saying that viral marketing can’t be successful, but viral marketing fails more than it succeeds.  When most people think of viral campaigns, they tend to just remember the successful ones.  Nobody remembers the campaigns that bomb, which makes sense since those campaigns never went viral!  :)  Also, there are times that a successful viral marketing campaign was preceded by dozens of other attempts that failed.  The fact of the matter is that you never know what will go viral.  It’s hit or miss, and your business shouldn’t heavily rely on “hit or miss” as its core online marketing strategy.

Although I help companies with brainstorming ideas for viral marketing campaigns, I would never recommend a viral campaign if the other (and more powerful) areas of online marketing weren’t covered already.  In addition, even if you end up having your campaign go viral, that doesn’t necessarily translate to outstanding financial performance.  If your goal was just exposure or links, then that’s fine.  But, if your goal was conversion, then you might not be so thrilled with the results.  That’s why if you clearly understand your goals, you can better structure your online marketing campaigns to reach those goals.  That might sound obvious, but tying strategies back to your core goals can help keep you on the right path and avoid the inevitable: a funny video with 100 views on YouTube, a fan page with no fans, and an empty Twitter account only followed by a few spammers.

Social As Your Launching Pad
Earlier I mentioned the importance of social media marketing on the impact of viral campaigns.  The reason is simple.  If you want something to go viral, there’s not a better way to get the word out to a wide range of targeted people than via Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, etc.  But, it’s much easier if you already have a strong following when you launch your campaign. If you have that following across social networks, then you have a much greater chance of gaining traction.  And traction is exactly what you need in order to spark your viral campaign.  Without the spark, you might just end up in the viral marketing deadpool.  And that’s not a pretty place to be.  :)  By the way, read my post about The Twitter Effect on SEO to learn how Twitter can impact traffic, inbound links, and rankings in organic search.

Try Kick-Starting Your Viral Campaign With The (Lack of) Social Media Presence Listed Below:

Presence on Social Networks

Unfortunately, many companies haven’t spent the time to build a presence across social networks.  They might have quickly set up a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a shell of a blog, and subsequently they have nothing to leverage when their viral marketing campaign goes live.  Compare that situation to a company that already has 10K fans on Facebook, 7500 Twitter followers, thousands of blog subscribers, 400 subscribers on YouTube, etc.  Having that following across social networks will greatly improve your chances of getting the word out quickly about the viral campaign.  On the flipside, if you practice drive-by social media (or don’t participate at all), then you won’t have a foundation to leverage when your campaign launches.  Drive-by social media is the practice of quickly setting up accounts at social media sites and then dropping a message about your own content or campaigns.  It never works and is embarrassing for agencies and companies that do it… Instead, you should build fans, followers, and subscribers the right way, which will enable you to reap great rewards from your hard work.  And you just might see that message go viral…    The core point to remember is that you want to build your following BEFORE your viral campaign goes live and not as it goes live.

Build Your Foundation, Then Go Viral
So before you give approval on that sexy viral marketing campaign, make sure you fully understand what your current online marketing foundation looks like.  Are there cracks in the foundation, do you have little SEO power, should you restructure your SEM account, and are you currently engaging targeted people on social networks?  If you answered “no” to some of those questions, then don’t launch your viral marketing campaign yet.  Spend that budget on building your online marketing foundation and then layer viral marketing on top of it.  You won’t regret it.

GG

Share
Tweet
Share
Email

Filed Under: viral-marketing, wom

Comments

  1. Seth Goldstein says

    April 7, 2010 at 2:32 am

    Glenn, Nice blog setup. I completely agree. Aiming for Viral right out of the gate is setting yourself up for failure. If you are concentrating on the whole picture with social media you will get much more out of it than trying so hard for one rare and elusive goal.

  2. Glenn Gabe says

    April 7, 2010 at 1:08 pm

    Thanks Seth and you’re exactly right. I unfortunately still see many attempts at viral marketing BEFORE a solid online marketing foundation is in place. The budget would have been much better spent on building that foundation and then layering viral on top.

    GG

  3. Kim S says

    April 8, 2010 at 1:05 am

    The only thing about laying this kind of social media foundation for a viral marketing campaign is it can be very time consuming. If you are however, able to make tremendous gains through using social media like twitter, facebook and youtube it will definitely be worth the effort.

  4. Newsbuzzy says

    May 12, 2010 at 6:08 am

    I completely agree. Aiming for Viral right out of the gate is setting yourself up for failure. If you are concentrating on the whole picture with social media you will get much

Trackbacks

  1. Tweets that mention Rethinking Your Viral Marketing Strategy: Why Building a Solid Online Marketing Foundation Should be Your First Priority, Not A Funny Video | Internet Marketing Driver -- Topsy.com says:
    April 6, 2010 at 1:17 pm

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Glenn Gabe, A2Office. A2Office said: RT @glenngabe: Rethinking Your Viral Marketing Strategy: Why You Should First Build a Foundation, Not Funny Videos http://glennga.be/dg74s8 -my latest post […]

  2. Link Post for April 6th through April 7th says:
    April 7, 2010 at 6:02 am

    […] Rethinking Your Viral Marketing Strategy: Why Building a Solid Online Marketing Foundation Should be… – […]

  3. Bookmarks for April 6th through April 7th says:
    April 7, 2010 at 6:51 am

    […] Rethinking Your Viral Marketing Strategy: Why Building a Solid Online Marketing Foundation Should be… – […]

Connect with Glenn Gabe today!

RSS Latest Blog Posts

  • Continuous Scroll And The GSC Void: Did The Launch Of Continuous Scroll In Google’s Desktop Search Results Impact Impressions And Clicks? [Study]
  • How to analyze the impact of continuous scroll in Google’s desktop search results using Analytics Edge and the GSC API
  • Percent Human: A list of tools for detecting lower-quality AI content
  • True Destination – Demystifying the confusing, but often accurate, true destination url for redirects in Google Search Console’s coverage reporting
  • Google’s September 2022 Broad Core Product Reviews Update (BCPRU) – The complexity and confusion when major algorithm updates overlap
  • Google Multisearch – Exploring how “Searching outside the box” is being tracked in Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics (GA)
  • Sitebulb Server – Technical Tips And Tricks For Setting Up A Powerful DIY Enterprise Crawler (On A Budget)
  • Google’s Helpful Content Update Introduces A New Site-wide Ranking Signal Targeting “Search engine-first Content”, and It’s Always Running
  • The Google May 2022 Broad Core Update – 5 micro-case studies that once again underscore the complexity of broad core algorithm updates
  • Amazing Search Experiments and New SERP Features In Google Land (2022 Edition)

Web Stories

  • Google's December 2021 Product Reviews Update - Key Findings
  • Google's April 2021 Product Reviews Update - Key Points For Site Owners and Affiliate Marketers
  • Google's New Page Experience Signal
  • Google's Disqus Indexing Bug
  • Learn more about Web Stories developed by Glenn Gabe

Archives

  • July 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • GSQi Home
  • About Glenn Gabe
  • SEO Services
  • Blog
  • Contact GSQi
Copyright © 2023 G-Squared Interactive LLC. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Are you ok with this? You can always opt-out at a later time if you wish. Cookie settings ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. You can read our privacy policy for more information.
Cookie Consent
Save & Accept