A lot of words have been used to describe viral marketing, even though the name itself implies it all. Think about a virus for a moment, how it seeks out then inhabits other systems around the body. Now imagine that virus in a positive way, seeking out and inhabiting many places on the Internet.
There are essentially two forms of viral marketing in broad operation around the online world. They are known individually as "Cross Promotion" and "Co-Marketing." They differ in their goals, but perform the same viral task, that of identifying common markets and trading information to attract attention from each other's assets. This may seem to contradict common business practice; for example, one wouldn't expect to find McDonald's displaying ads at Burger King. The Internet is different.
Cross PromotionCross promotion means finding other businesses like yours and trading information. Your first step is to identify those sites that exhibit a definite similarity with what you do. For example, if you have a site about regional travel opportunities, you would seek out other index sites, as well as specific travel outlets, such as motels, transportation businesses, tour guides, restaurants, etc. Find professional looking sites that you find appealing and interesting.
Now that you have a list of sites, and you've collected contact information about those sites, you're ready to set your marketing virus loose. Try to individualize each message, and email each of your contacts by expressing enthusiasm about the market you wish to share. Generate some excitement!
What you are looking for is the ability to exchange information in the form of website placements and email offers. Don't limit yourself to swapping banners or newsletter ads. You want to take things a little further. If you own a mailing list, suggest a dedicated, solo swap, where their subscribers learn all about you, and yours about them. Offer articles for publishing on a topic of interest if your partner site is publishing content. On a website, you're looking for "integration" and not "advertising." Get into the site's navigation system, for example. Supply content in the form of articles for resource pages.
If you have the ability, you can actually template such pages into the look and feel of the other site, then send them an email with a URL to view the page. In our example above, you could have articles about the various towns in your regional travel site, and have specific target sites, like motels, take your page for inclusion on their own site. They can either use your code, or just link to your page, which is wrapped in their template.
Alternatively, you might have a search function at your site, which you could offer as a service to other sites, free of charge. This invitation then adds a functionality to the other site and generates interest in you as the supplier. All website owners are looking for good content, as well as enhancing their sites' functionality. If you can use your site to help them, you both win and the virus grows. The point is to be innovative, and to see how your ideas can benefit the site you with which you want to cross promote.
Co-Marketing
Co-marketing differs from cross promotion in what is being traded. In cross promotion, the emphasis is on information to attract visitors. Co-marketing attempts to further the trade by exchanging information aimed at generating revenue.
To continue with our example, a basis for co-marketing could exist between a motel owner and you through referral compensation from your site for locating a new customer. This could be achieved with online coupons, or even an ecommerce reservation system. Or it could work as a custom affiliate program where your clicks are traceable to sales at the other site.
As the above scenario suggests, another difference between co-marketing and cross promotion is that co-marketing information does not necessarily have to be displayed by both parties. That's not to say it can't work both ways. Let's say you sell search engine submissions. You could sell your service through a site that sells domain names. Both markets are identical — webmasters. But you are selling totally different products. Now you can sell domain names, and your partner can sell search submission services. By co-marketing, you not only expand your reach, you have the ability to expand your inventory as well.
The really fantastic thing about co-marketing online is the low cost of integration. In the brick and mortar world, you're looking at packaging, shipping, stocking, and retail costs. On the Web, even if you don't know how, you can find somebody who can make the electronic integration take place at a tiny fraction of what it would cost to reach the same audience in the physical marketplace.
Summary
Viral marketing efforts, no matter how small, will always increase your visitors over time. Giving careful consideration to your first tasks of identifying and contacting those that share your online market will substantially enforce the vigor of the virus.
As you form more alliances with other website and list owners, the virus spreads. What's even better, as you grow, so does the number of people that will try to virally market with you, and your inbox will collect pleas to do exactly what you did with your original contacts.
