For a marketers message to spread virally requires a new approach, and the acceptance of a new relationship with consumers. The implication for brands and their marketers runs far deeper than the tone of voice of their advertising or the choice of celebrity endorsement. It challenges the notion of advertising itself, and implies that a new form of communication is needed.

The web, email, mobile, messenger and the waves of new peer to peer sharing techniques have provided almost frictionless channels for the spread of messages, while social media and web centric communities have provided anchors for identity, cultural capital, and on occasions marketing messages, to be perpetuated and endorsed.

If we trust ‘people like me’ more than those once iconic institutions, then it’s important to remember that those ‘people’ have changed too. “There was a time when we defined “people like me” in a general sense, and, quite often, they were our neighbours and people in our social circle, but now they’re people who, first and foremost, share our interests”, explains Pam Talbot, President/CEO Edelman in the US.

Talbot is clear that “with the rise of social media—blogs and websites devoted to every topic imaginable—we can find people in all parts of the world with kindred interests, even in the most specialised fields. So instead of putting our trust in a few people we know well, we tend to have webs of acquaintances.”

We’ve been running the Digital Viral Marketing Academy since the summer of 2004, and classes here in London this week were a great chance to reflect on the low cost routes as well as the big budget stuff.

Viral marketing isn’t something you can control, but it is something you can enable. There are several theoretical models we use to help explain how you can get your viral marketing to work. Remember that there’s still nothing that beats a great idea - and you can throw all the marketing techniques you like at something and it might never fly – but by breaking down the challenges into their parts makes the task more manageable and the results more effective.

Understanding how viruses spread really sheds light on the problem

Follow the medical analogy of disease diffusion can be really useful. Years ago I was lucky enough to spend some time with epidemiologists who were looking at how you model and structure disease diffusion. We were exploring infection rates and the pathways for diseases in rural Africa and urban Europe, and although our interests were in disease containment rather than proliferation, it taught me how strong the analogy is for the spread of ideas. Because of the importance of disease, there’s a mass of literature and an army of researchers that the marketing industry can learn from.

When we’re applying the model to viral and buzz marketing, some simple steps to tackle are:

Is the message ‘infectious’ enough to spread?
Are there barriers to the spread that can be removed?
Are there people who can transmit the message effectively?
Is the social landscape able to facilitate the spread of that message?

Following it through can lead to surprising implications. On the most recent Digital Viral Academy, one of the things I took away was how it might not be the expected top selling products that are the ones to focus on. Thinking through which messages are easiest to absorb, process, and act on could see relatively small turnover products used as the tests for viral campaigns. The message needs to be clear at first glance and have a logical connection in the mind of the recipient to help them uncover the benefit of forwarding it on to more of the ‘people like me’ that viral relies upon.

There are simple low cost routes as well

Often viral is seen only as being about big budget video pieces, but it’s worth remembering that some of the simplest viral techniques come free and can be added to any web page. Here are a few of our favourites:

* ‘Forward to a friend’ – helping the information find other ‘people like me’
* ‘Bookmark this page’ – helping the customer find you again easily
* Email – helping build that relationship over time
* Mobile news alerts – for the right group and the right message
* RSS feeds – helping the customer find you again easily
* Syndicated content – making the most of traffic on other sites that are out there
…And along the way, checking that your harnessing your navigation so customers can find what they want effectively is an equally important issue.

But before any of it goes into place, plug in the web analytics so you can see what the baseline is for audiences. Some digital marketers are visionary and brilliant enough to intuitively get it right straight away, but for most, the safety of the numbers and the classic approach to testing cause and effect, will be the smartest way forward.

Digital’s 10 step model

To bring some marketing discipline and structure to viral and buzz marketing, we designed the ten step model for digital marketing. It mirrors our ten steps in media planning theory, and by following through it will equip you not only with the roadmap, but also with a process for learning and becoming ever smarter in your digital marketing.

It’s designed to be a flexible tool, but everyone who goes through the programme comes away with a clear blueprint that can then be opened up to their team, agencies and partners.

Like all good marketing it begins with customer insights and setting objectives, but it’s key to make those objectives SMART from the start; it will take a few campaigns before there is enough baseline data to understand what ‘SMART’ looks like, and as we always stress in the Viral & Buzz Marketing Academy, watch out for SMRT objectives ;-)

When it comes to learning, treat your first digital marketing campaigns as research exercises. Put significant energy into the learning and analysing of campaigns when they finish, and then refine your model for the next time around. Get the models right and your digital marketing will become easier and scale. You don’t have to be a digital expert to turn your activities into a learning engine that feeds back on itself.

And if you come across great viral marketing then let us know – we’ll take a look and might be able to include it here in the viral marketing training programmes.