How Does Viral Video Marketing Work?
The concept behind viral video marketing is simple. You create or hire someone to create a video about your company, product, idea, concept, organization, band, movie, book, or whatever you want to promote, and then you upload it to free online video sites like YouTube, Yahoo Video, and Google Video. The hope is that thousands and millions of people will then view your video and be motivated to take additional interest in whatever it is you are promoting and hopefully follow a link back to your website and become a client or purchase your product.
Orchestrating a viral video marketing campaign is not quite so simple. In fact, as this technique like many other forms of marketing online has become more popular and prevalent, the competition is fierce and it takes ever more time, money, and creativity to generate the results you want from this type of marketing. Still, it can be effective as long as you follow a few guidelines when you decide to go this route.
First, before you even embark on creating a video to upload, you need to know exactly what your goal is with this video, who your target audience will be, and how much money you are willing to spend to achieve this goal. In other words, have a plan, a budget, a target market, and a definitive way you can determine whether your campaign is successful or not. Like any other business decision, you need to know if you will be able to generate a good return on your investment (ROI).
While getting a million views can be a goal, more importantly, determine what you are really trying to achieve with this. If you are simply trying to show a million people that your organization exists, then this may be a legitimate way to achieve that goal. But if you really want to get 100,000 of those people to go to your website with the ultimate goal being that 10,000 people will purchase your product, then the video you create and the way you promote it are going to be different.
For instance, a funny video clip or spoof could accomplish the first goal of getting a million visitors, but that same video is not likely to drive 10 percent of those people to your website and then prompt 10 percent of those viewers to buy.
Many experts classify videos as going “viral” when they are viewed by 100,000 to 1 million plus viewers depending on who you ask. Others define “viral” as a means of distributing the message meaning it is spread through interaction with others (kind of like the flu). By the first definition, you may not have a snowball’s chance in you-know-where of achieving viral marketing success with your video and your goal. But by the second definition, you definitely do. Depending on how you get your message about the video out there and depending on who views the video and the results you get from those viewings will determine the overall success of your campaign. You could be able to achieve your goal such as to promote a local business to local viewers seeing your video clip with far fewer than 100,000 views if you get the word out to the right people. So you need to know how you will determine if your video viral marketing campaign is successful.
Second, you need to be able to promote your video successfully to this target market. This, then, is the real heart of viral video marketing determining the best way to spread the word about your video and get people to actually watch it. You will need to get educated and become your own PR person to effectively do this or hire a company experienced in doing this if you really want to get the word out and generate views. And this will take time and technique. Common ways include using email, social networking sites like FaceBook and MySpace, and commenting on various blogs, but the companies that really get results with their videos have entire teams devoted to plugging their videos online to engage viewers. You can utilize these same techniques, but it will require a sizeable investment of your time to do it, and this relates back to the first point: will you get the ROI you need? Only you can decide.
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