Viral marketing offers an array of possibilities and different ways to achieve your overall goals. Pre-planning and the right setup to create success are the things you will need to make it work for you and your online business, just like any other traditional businesses.

The first thing you want to be sure you don’t do is get over-zealous. The one thing you need to avoid at all costs is spamming. Spamming is still used widely, but with the government establishing more restrictions and penalties for violations, no one wants to be in that situation. The professional image of your site is at stake if you just go on sending emails blatantly.

Spamming requires a database that contains a huge list of e-mail addresses set up so that the message can be delivered with one click. The problem with it (aside from the governmental restrictions and associated fines) is that it annoys the recipients and kills the validity of your campaign, which in turn kills the factors that would motivate someone to refer your site.

You need to personalize by creating your website with personal appeal. You must see to it that your website makes your customers feel safe, secure and cared for. Email is important because it is and has always been one of the most affordable ways to keep in touch with your customers.

To properly handle email permission, you must assure your customers, first and foremost, that their email addresses will not be sold or shared to third party companies. The next thing to do is to attach the benefits they can receive to the need for their email addresses.

A good way to go about it is to attach coupons or discounts that are only available to members who are signed-up to email notifications. Viral marketing effect takes place every time you send out an email.

Viral marketing has been around for quite some time and had matured a bit over the years. Web advertising had made it big and now holds its place as another tick box for any ad campaign. Now being the medium where a campaign is launched to create a buzz before it hits TV and print, big business gets it.

Buzz works! It can work for small and start-up businesses, as well. The planning stage of a viral campaign will set out objectives and develop the viral theme for a buzz. There are three core components to any viral campaign and businesses of any size can use them. They are:

1. The creative material: The viral agent that embodies the message you want to spread in a digital format (image, video, text, etc). The trick is to put together material that people will be eager to share with their family and friends and people are much more eager to share “advertainment” than advertisement.

2. Seeding: Distributing and placing the agent online in places that provide the greatest potential spread. Direct viral material downloads or links on specialist viral third-party web sites in order to create awareness and spread before users get to the campaign destination site.

3. Tracking: Measuring the spread of the campaign to provide accountability and prove success. It is absolutely vital that you know what is or is not working. The only way to get that information is to track the results of your seeding.

Trends have evolved, lessons have been learned and there is definitely some science involved in creating a buzz that will linger on lucratively. We all know that the buzz technique is here to stay. One only needs to learn how to use it strategically. When done correctly, it can make a difference to the success of any online business.

We don’t have a vaccine for it, but this is a virus that we wouldn’t want to cure.

Here are some ideas to help you start your viral marketing campaign:

1. Purchase the branding rights of a Viral e-book. Simply allow your free e-book to be given to the site visitors as gift, which will then be passed on to their visitors, and so on and so forth. This will just continue and in effect will be spreading your branding all over the Internet.

2. If you have the ability to set up a forum or other bulletin board, you really have a great tool. Allow people to use your online discussion board for their own website. Some people have, some don’t, but be sure to include your banner ad at the top of the board.

3. Do you have a knack for web design? Create some templates, graphics, etc. and upload them to your site. Then, allow people to give away your free web design graphics, fonts, templates, etc. Just include your ad on them or require people to link directly to your web site. Make sure that you include a link back to your site in the copyright notice and require them to keep your copyright notice intact.

4. Write an e-book. Allow people to place an advertisement in your free e-book if, in exchange, they give away the e-book to their web visitors or e-zine subscribers.

5. Write articles that pertain to your product or service. Allow people to reprint your articles on their website, in their e-zine, newsletter, magazine or e-books. Include your resource box and the option for article reprints at the bottom of each article.

6. There are numerous products on the web that will be available to sell you a license allowing you to distribute the product as gift to people. Go for those products that provide “branding rights”. This way, you can incorporate your own name, website, and contact information.