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There is so much talk everywhere you look lately about "viral marketing." Several ezines, sites and discussion lists are covering the topic, and marketers are in a tizzy trying to figure out what it is and how to do it. I was even meeting with a new client whom I’d just met the other day, and the first thing out of his mouth was, "we have to do some viral marketing, what can you do for us?" The problem is, I don’t believe there is such a thing.

I’m not convinced that anyone can "create" or "do" viral marketing. Everyone seems to think it’s just like TV ad space or banners and that all you have to do is come up with some gimmick, pay someone, and "Voila!" customers come knocking your door down. The truth is that viral marketing is simply a misguided phrase being used to describe word-of-mouth promotion.

Word-of-mouth is not a new concept, folks. It wasn’t a sudden idea that hit like a lightening bolt that these marketers happened to miss last week while at Starbucks getting their morning pick-me-up of choice. It is a concept that has contributed to the success and failure of products and companies ever since selling began.

EVERY company should make it as easy as possible for people to tell other people how great their products and services are at every opportunity. You can facilitate the process through some solid public relations efforts, by reminding and encouraging customers to tell their friends, or even by incentivizing people to do so. If you aren’t doing this in some fashion, you’re missing out on what is arguably the best form of marketing there is, but that’s where it ends for those of us in the biz. We can’t "do viral marketing." We can encourage it, but the fact is - it happens on it’s own. There’s a caveat here though: IT WILL NOT WORK UNLESS YOU OFFER SOMETHING COMPELLING.

This is the key point. Your offer, whether it’s a product, service, joke, gimmick, song, commercial, movie, catbox litter sweeper or whatever, won’t go very far unless it’s worthwhile to the consumer. You have to have something solid, useful, valuable, cool, compelling, fun, funny, creative or hot that people will want to see and use. And even then, getting word-of-mouth promotions to take hold is often hit or miss.

Let’s look at some examples, both on and offline:

Do you remember Orbit soda? People told their friends about it because the colored bubbles floating in the drink looked so dang cool, and some people even dared to try it - but where is it today? Nowhere. That’s because it tasted horrible and felt icky on your tongue. The packaging certainly sparked curiosity and discussion, but nobody wanted to buy it, so off the shelf it went.

For a current example, let’s look at the "Wassup!" ads. This is NOT a viral marketing campaign. Instead, it was a creative concept for their commercials that people found funny. I don’t believe Budweiser ever expected people to goaround saying "Wasssuuuup!" to everybody and make jokes about it, but the ads were catchy and people picked up on it. Everyone knows "Wassup!" is Budweiser. That doesn’t, however, make people go out and buy their beer, and I guarantee the fad will be over one day soon.

The one we’re all sick to death of hearing about, but people are actually citing as a good example of a "well implemented viral marketing campaign" - is the Blair Witch Project. Yes it is interesting that the movie got so successful without traditional ad dollars behind it, and it is also interesting that they were one of the first to promote the site primarily on the Web, but it was the fans of the movie that found it scary and cool, and told their friends to check it out. They were interested in the product - not how it was marketed. And they told their friends on their own - the filmmakers didn’t "do" viral marketing.

OK, one more that’s also touted as a great example of viral marketing - Hotmail. Hotmail did a great job of promoting their service by including a tagline and a URL in all emails sent through their service, and it certainly generated awareness, but the reason they are successful is because they offer a free, easy email program that many people want. They got leads through "automatic" pass-along, but it is only because people want the product that it has done so well.

All of these examples are meant to illustrate that you can encourage word-of-mouth, and sometimes it might happen anyway even if you don’t (think Mahir), but it all comes down to whether or not what you’re offering is worthy. Beyond that, it’s in your customers’ control. If you have a great product, service, ad, offer or other item, people will tell their friends. And if it sucks, they’ll tell their friends that too.
A great article I read on the same topic that even better illustrates this point was written by Sean Carton at ClickZ in his article entitled "What Builds the Best Buzz?" You can read it at: http://clickz.com/cgi-bin/gt/article.html?article=2191.

My favorite line in his article that I think sums it up well is, "All the best PR and "viral marketing" efforts in the world won’t save a company that provides crap."