Long Term Viral Marketing

There is no one viral marketing approach, there are maybe dozens of different viral marketing approaches that can be used by your business and if you take the time to research and understand the diversity of viral marketing methods you can achieve long term results. The difference between a viral marketing campaign that works long term and those that only provide short-term success is understanding how to convert a campaign to keep bringing in steady streams of traffic. No matter how much traffic your business gets through the short term if customers aren't coming back 6 months later your business won't be getting continued sales and won't be able to keep operating in the black.

The first thing to consider when contemplating a viral marketing campaign is the strategy that you will assume while attempting to market your business. For instance, it may be a more preferable approach to reach your audience through efforts of word-of-mouth marketing than it would be in print or web advertising. In other words, it is far better to let someone else spread the word about your product or service than it is for you to try and market that service and spend endless advertising dollars. Arguably, there's much more you can do in the interest of keeping your customers coming back for more. You can always set a tone with your website or blog to keep the viral flow going and keep the customers interest piqued.

One other consideration is what is called "viral loops". Viral marketing loops allow you to seek and acquire organic customers in such a way that does not look like marketing or advertising in any way. Viral loops allow your efforts to work continuously and in an orderly fashion so that you are working smarter and not harder. Viral loops also cause your efforts to work hand in hand with customers in referral marketing and advertising. The loops are basically made up of customers who like the product or service enough that they tell friends, and those friends tell friends and the process continues on and on.

Social platforms like LinkedIn, and other social networks have enabled this idea to become a more preferable way of attaining customers for the long-term benefits. The cause and effect in this scenario asks that the customer is addressed repeatedly over and over, thereby creating a re-engaging effect each time that the network is accessed. Anytime the information on one of these platforms is accessed, the users are notified and the information is shared among their networks. In a viral loop, the information is circulated over and over, thus the “loop” effect and the endless sharing cycle.

In a similar fashion, the mechanics of notifying senders whenever there has been a new information update to their site is a great way to re-energize the visitor and create a need to come back for more. The customer is subtly reminded that the site exists. It also serves as a point of social validation to become a member of the site and to share that information with other members of the networking system. This is where the long term viral marketing gets interesting because now the member is becoming active with the business’ objective and purpose. Once the system has established itself, it then relies on the loop and word-of-mouth advertising to further its mission.