viral marketingIs viral video marketing a good strategy for local and small business owners? It can be if it is done correctly and set up properly. In fact, it’s a lot easier than most people think. But, do you actually know what viral means? Once you understand the meaning and see how it can be a powerful tool for your small and local business you will be thanking me! Let’s check out how you can use it in your business.

Like always I put together a video for you to help you better follow along this video. Take a look and don’t forget to hit the thumbs up button if you like it!

Viral Video Marketing

Resources Mentioned In This Video:
Get Viral Lock For WordPress  
Get Viral Lock For PHP Based Website

What Is Viral Marketing?

Most people think viral marketing means your video or content gets shared fast and get millions of views. But, the truth of the matter is that viral simply means a piece of content is shared from person to person. This can be through social media, email, or other social sharing sites. It could be shared 100 times or a million times. The only difference is the level of “viral” that piece of content was able to obtain.  You can actually help increase the amount of times your video or content is shared, thus creating a viral marketing campaign for your small or local business. In fact, I even did this for myself….so let’s check it out!

How I Did This With My Own Video and Site

I have implemented this technique on 4 of my videos in the past two months. Since then I have gained almost 200 email subscribers, almost 150 Facebook shares, 29 twitter shares, and 25 Google+ shares. This is only from 4 videos and 2 of those videos haven’t been ranked yet (80% of those stats came from 2 videos).  So, here’s how you do it!

Step 1 – Create A Video With A Call To Action and Put It On YouTube

Create an entertaining and content packed video that keeps people’s attention until the end. You can give them some kind of bonus or something to look forward to in your video. For example, tell them you have a bonus for them at the end or if you are making a video about 3 ways to get more Facebook likes, tell them in the beginning that the most powerful method is at the end of the video. This way they are inclined to stay to the end.  Make sure your video is to the point and you don’t ramble. Immediately after you give the last method, tell them about your bonus and that they have to click over to get that bonus or incentive.

Here’s how I did it. I created a video announcing the Live Marketing Challenge and at the end of the video I had them click over to get a few bonuses and a chance to win FREE coaching from me. Looking back at it now, I should have announced the bonuses earlier or mentioned they were coming up so more people would have stayed to the end. But, it was still effective. Near the end of the video, I tell them to click over to get those bonuses.  You can watch the video here, if you haven’t see it yet.

Step 2 – Create A Landing Page To Capture Email Subscribers

This method is not mandatory, but if you want to collect email subscribers and get your video to spread virally you will need to do this step. The only problem is you will need to create a second bonus to offer after they subscribe. I will get into that below.

At this stage you need to offer them the incentive or bonus you made in the video. But, the only way they should be able to access it should by submitting their name and email address.

Here’s how I did it. In my video I offered them a few bonuses and told them they can access them at this page: http://www.soldwithvideo.com/LLOC

On this page I have an opt-in form for them to subscribe. I put in an “un-listed” video explaining what they need to do to help explain what is going on. As soon as they opt-in I have my email auto-responder send them all the bonuses I offered. They are then re-directed to my confirmation/congrats page, which is where the viral magic happens.

Step 3 – Create A Page Where Your Video Can Be Shared (Where The Viral Magic Happens)

This step is where your video will spread virally. If you skip step 2, this will be the page you make your first offer for the bonus or incentive you made in your video. This means if you don’t want to collect email addresses then you tell them to go directly to this page in your video. If you did step 2 then this is the page they will be re-directed to and where you will make your second bonus or incentive offer.

This page will have the Viral Lock script installed. When you set it up you will need to choose which sharing options you want to use. You can choose to have all three (Facebook, Twitter, or Google+), just one or just two of them. You can even put in a custom message in the Twitter field (I like to include my twitter handle @soldwithvideo so I can get notified when it is shared on twitter). You will also need to choose which URL gets shared. This means you can custom choose which URL gets shared when then hit the share button. I like to have my original video (video from step1) shared, which is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLoGD0OGqes. This way their friends will see my original video that shows them the incentive, which bring them to my email subscriber page, which then brings them to this page, which gets them to share the original video with their friends and the process starts all over again with their friends.  Here is a graphic to help you understand:

(click to enlarge)
viral marketing

Here’s how I did it. After they opt-in to my email form they are re-directed to my confirmation or congrats page, which you can see here. On this page I tell them thanks for signing up and I give them the incentive or bonus. In this case, I tell them it was emailed to them. But, I quickly tell them I have an extra bonus for them if they share my original video. What I did here, was offer them a free download to my eBook “Live Video Marketing Challenge” if they hit the share buttons below. Once they hit the share buttons a download link is instantly available. Now, all of their friends see my original video and the whole process starts over again.  In this example, I was able to get 1200 video videos, 67 Facebook shares, 19 Twitter shares, and 12 Google+ shares and it slowly grows every week. If you set it up correctly it will continue to grow as long as your bonuses or incentives are relevant and of value.

There are a lot of ways to do this, and you can get as creative as you want in order to maximize your viral and lead capturing potential. I hope this helps you get your content to spread virally and grow your business. Like always, you can ask me all questions in the comment field below and don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter.