Effect of Promotion Tactics on Viral Success Rate


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Here’s a sneak peek at information from MarketingSherpa’s first Video Marketing Benchmark Guide – the most recent addition to the series.

Viral marketers need to remember that the point of viral marketing is not the fact that it’s free – it’s its ability to spread buzz inexpensively. While it may seem counterintuitive, the best way to promote free video is to pay for it.

For example, most marketers rated paid-search links “great” as a promotional tactic for spreading buzz. This makes sense; after all, viral advertisers tend to be niche marketers who have trouble reaching their audience with mass media. And, paid search is a proven method for reaching hyper-specific audiences.

Search marketers may cringe at the idea that search is becoming the next big branding medium. But that fact can no longer be denied – it is.
Paid media promotion in ads and blogs, along with traditional PR, are also effective ways of promoting viral media and, if done right, can be inexpensive. The free methods are the most likely ones to be tried, but the least likely ones to succeed.

That’s OK. Failure is an option when the cost is low, and the potential for reward is high. Another takeaway: Don’t bank on one option to spread videos virally. Given the success rate of promotion tactics, we’d recommend making modest investments in all of them.

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MarketingSherpa Video Marketing Benchmark Guide 2009
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