Viral marketing is a great addition to your list of online marketing strategies. This inexpensive and effective process involves encouraging people to spread the word about your products and/or services through articles, news items, interactive games, videos, images, ebook, and other high quality material or marketing message. It is usually associated with word of mouth in which people pass information to others. The same goes for viral marketing, but you need to make sure that it does not die out so you can reach your target market and increase brand awareness.

A viral marketing campaign will be successful and effective if it has a high pass-along rate. Sharing the information with other people should continue until a lot of people know your business and what you offer. Therefore, your marketing message should be interesting enough that people will be encouraged to pass it on to their family, friends, and colleagues. Create a marketing message that highlights the strengths and unique features of your products/services. Think about what is new about your product and what sets it apart from the competitors.

Another good tip to encourage people to pass your material or marketing message to others is to make sharing easy for them. Add an "Email this Article to a Friend" icon or link at the bottom of an article or blog post. Newsletter subscription must also be easy to do.

Here are some basic methods or tools used in a viral marketing campaign:

• newsletters
  
  
• adding the site url in your outgoing emails
  
  
• creating/adding a blog to your site
  
  
• adding the site url in avatar
  
  
• posting comments in blogs and online discussions which are related to your business
  
  
• promos
  
  
• offering ebooks for free
  
  
• podcasts
  
  

As with other online marketing methods, viral marketing entails time and patience. There's a fierce competition out there so work hard to make your presence known online and increase brand awareness.

Tags & Keywords : viral marketing, online marketing, viral marketing campaign, brand awareness, marketing message, promote products