There is a vicious rumor circulating among website owners that search engine optimization (SEO) is the single most
powerful form of marketing on the web. I have my suspicions that this rumor was started by professional search engine
optimizers, but I have not yet received my mail-in Nancy Drew kit to reach a definitive conclusion. All the same, it
might be best to not share this information with any professional SEO who is trying to win your business.
The truth, however, must be told – SEO is not the best marketing for your website. To those of you who are professional
marketers, this will not come as a surprise, but SEO takes a backseat to the real king of marketing. Unfortunately the
mystique of Google, complete with their daily updates and rumors (I heard that Larry Page has been parting his hair on
the other side this week - a pagerank update must be near!), has gotten so many website owners Googley-eyed that they
are missing the real marketing gem that we should all be aiming for.
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Buzzing Over Your Website
Marketers know that there is one thing that will bring more sales for a website than a well-optimized site could ever bring:
buzz. This has also been called viral marketing or passive marketing, but unfortunately both of those phrases have been used
so much that they lack their own buzz-power, and as a result we often look away when someone mentions viral marketing.
There is no real secret to viral marketing – the secret is to do just what the name says: create a buzz. You want people to
talk about your website, to let others in on their secret which is your website. You want those that learn about you to have
a sense of excitement, a sense of privilege, a sense that only you can offer what they are seeing. You do not want to resort
to calculating CPM rates, optimizing PPC campaigns, or working tirelessly on optimizing your website for some algorithm that
is likely to change in a month - you want others to market your website for you.
And that is just what viral marketing is - it is the process of getting others to market your website for you.
Examples of Successful Viral Marketing Campaigns
Fortunately there are several examples of viral marketing campaigns which we can look at for inspiration. Some of these may be
unrealistic for our unique needs, but we can take away principles from these campaigns which will teach us more about viral
marketing.
Xbox 360
When Microsoft released the Xbox 360 in November of 2005, they attempted to do their first world-wide distribution rather than
staggering the distribution to help supply keep up with the demand for the new gaming console. Their worldwide distribution,
however, fell far short of their goal of getting an Xbox to everyone in the world that wanted one. The result was that the new
units quickly sold out in most stores even while hundreds of people waited to get their own gaming box.
The perceived scarcity created a buzz that fueled
eBay auctions and news stories about the new Microsoft product. Most eBay auctions sold at a tidy profit, and sold quickly.
The news died down once the intial wave of scarcity passed, but while there was a perceived scarcity in the product, and
while hundreds of people waited in line for their Xbox, the Xbox was news. People, who may not have had any desire to buy
the product, talked about it, became familiar with it, and shared their opinions on the issue.
From this scarcity – and the extreme demand for this product, buzz was born.
Gmail
Admittedly, anytime Google so much as moves a corporate pinky, they create buzz. But of all the examples of viral marketing
I have seen in the past several years, none seem to match up to the buzz that Gmail created when it was released.
Gmail was released just as the SEO industry was ramping up for what was being dubbed as the 'search engine wars'. Yahoo had
recently announced that they were ditching their Google results in favor of the newly acquired Inktomi indexing engine, and
MSN also threw in their hat with an announcement that they would become rivals of the rising Google.
In what was perceived to be a response, Google released Gmail. Gmail had buzz written all over it. The timing of the release
appeared to be a direct jab at Yahoo. The record breaking disk space offered with each account was itself newsworthy, and the
fact that you could not get it unless you were offered a special invitation all worked together in a way to make Gmail one of
the most desirable invitations on the web.
And this was a key point – Google gave people the opportunity to feel special. Those who had the first invitations were in a
special club – a club that affirmed their place of importance in the world of Google. They were the first adopters, the first
people to accept a hot product from a hot company.
Buzz-worthy? Absolutely.
Viral Videos
A development in the past few years as Internet connection speeds have increased is the advent of viral videos. We have all
seen viral videos – Brokeback
to the Future, Why Macs Suck,
Russian Climbing (wait until the second minute of this
video before it gets good), Japanese T-Shirt Folding, or
even a cool commercial for a Honda, viral videos have a tendency to get passed around.
I don't think this point needs to be made too much – if you watch these videos, chances are pretty good that you will
forward one on to your friends, family, or associates if you have not yet seen it. These videos are funny, amazing,
useful, or simply awe-inspiring enough that we want to share them with others.
Anatomy of Viral Marketing
There is no shortage of examples of viral marketing in action – any time you learn about a website by word of mouth,
through a blog entry, or through a genuine link on another website, you are participating in viral marketing. With all
these examples of viral marketing, it becomes fairly easy to breakdown several aspects that seem to make web pages
'buzz-worthy'.
Buzz-worthy Sites Stroke People's Egos
Everyone likes to be 'in the know', to be a first adopter of a product that everyone eventually comes to love. If you
know some of the first adopters of Apple's iTunes system, you know what it is like to know a first adopter and how much
pride they take in being able to spot a winner before anyone else.
Buzz-worthy sites, like Google's Gmail, create an exclusive club that both affirms its members and creates a stronger
demand. They create news, create conversations, and create envy on the part of those who are not so beneficial to be a
part of the first adopters.
Being one of the first to discover something that everyone will enjoy or find useful, or being one of the first to be
invited to an invitation-only club, is an honor. It strokes our ego, and if you want to get people interested in you,
stroking their ego is a great start.
Buzz-worthy Sites Promise to Amaze
If you want to create an initial buzz about your website, you need to get people excited enough to talk about your
website. The only way you can do this is to promise real amazement, real insight, real controversy, real humor, or
any mix of these attributes. The Xbox 360 was touted to be the first in the line of several releases of the next
generation of game boxes. Gmail was promised to be an email system like none we had ever seen (and with more space
than ever offered). Viral videos promise to show you something that you have never seen before, and that will either
make you laugh, cringe, or shake your head in amazement.
Buzz worthy sites need to stand out from the crowd of competing sites. There are millions of websites all asking
for our attention, but those that get the attention are able to create a message that is unique, useful, appealing,
and attractive.
Buzz-worthy Sites are Original
In order to be buzz-worthy, you must first create something that people are going to feel as if they 'discovered'.
No one is going to talk about something which has already been discovered or which everyone knows about. People talk
about things which they have never seen before, things which are particularly useful, particularly funny, or particularly
insightful.
The Xbox 360 is the first of the new gaming consoles. Gmail was the first to offer a
full gigabyte of disk space.
Buzz requires that people see something for the first time, are promised amazement, are amazed, and get the
ego-stroking feeling that they have just discovered something great.
Considering Buzz for Your Business
Practically applying buzz to your website is not easy. Although viral marketing is by far the most powerful form
of marketing available to website owners, it is not an easy thing to create. Even if you devise the most buzz-worthy
creation, you may find that in practice it just does not seem to resonate with the general public.
You may also decide that viral marketing is not the best thing for your business. Viral marketing, unlike other
marketing which is fairly easy to control, can quickly grow out of control. If you happen to be successful with
viral marketing, you may find that you are not able to meet the new demand that you see for your products or
services. Viral marketing, once released, becomes its own beast outside of your control.
Those concerns aside, most businesses would love to have a viral aspect to their website. Consider today what you
could create that would create a buzz in your industry. Is there a tool that you could offer for free that no one
else is offering? Is there an opinion that you have that is original and insightful? Is there a free service that
you are willing to offer?
Viral marketing is, ultimately, the greatest form of marketing. Not only does it produce incredible results, it is
also an affirmation that what you are doing is worthy of praise – enough praise that people are willing to talk about
you to others.
About The Author
Mark Daoust is the former owner of Site-Reference.com. This article was originally
published at
www.site-reference.com/articles/Internet-Marketing/Marketing-More-Powerful-Than-SEO.html
