Courtesy of Daquella Manera

I recently posted a review of Seth Godin’s Unleashing the Ideavirus. The whole premise of the book is something that direct marketers, fundraisers, advertisers, and so many other related professional often forget.

Social marketing starts with people being compelled to share your message with their friends.

I can’t send a Hotmail email without recipients seeing at the bottom that it was sent via Hotmail, where it also says it’s free and private. I can’t send an e-card without the recipient seeing that Hallmark has free e-cards. I can’t wear a Lacoste shirt without people seeing the logo on it.

These are all implicit endorsements of the product. If I send you an e-card, you also get an endorsement from me and what amounts to an advertisement for that brand. Not only did the brand impressions increase just by me sending the card, but I may have very well just endorsed this brand within my small circle.

How do you make your campaigns viral?

You can’t just hope and pray that something will go viral. At the same time, you can’t guarantee that something will go viral either, but you have to plan virality into your campaigns.

Next time you have a holiday campaign coming up, ask yourself, “What incentive do people have to participate?” “What’s in it for them to share this with their friends?” If you can’t answer these questions with compelling reasons, rethink your marketing.

What’s in it for me?

I would love to vote for your next animal mascot if I got something out of it…maybe an animal calendar that makes me happy to look at and display and also is an endorsement of your organization from me to my friends? How about a cool little widget I can put on my blog or Facebook profile?

With the recent Old Spice campaign, I can’t exactly go around quoting it or talking about it with my friends without them knowing what it is, so I have to tell them about it. What’s in it for me is the humor, sharing a laugh with my friends. What’s in it for Old Spice is that I feel compelled to share it with my friends, so they get greater reach, awareness, and an implicit endorsement from millions of people.

So, are you just hoping and praying that your next marketing campaign “goes viral” or are you planning for it? Always, always put yourself in the recipient’s position and ask yourself, “What is my incentive to participate? Why would I share this with anyone? What is in it for me?”

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Tags: direct marketers, Social marketing