What I've Learned About Viral Marketing in Three Weeks

I admit it — I’m a 40-something woman with a leg in two worlds: I still read and crave “dead tree” media including newspapers, books, and magazines.

(My friend and I joke that walking into a Borders is like walking to the corner crack house — we walk out $100 or more poorer.)

Yet, I appreciate and even depend on all things digital.

My client, Dr. Helaine Smith, had maybe half a leg in the digital space. “Dianna,” she said, “My business is dentistry, not forming relationships on Facebook.”

However, she appreciates how the Internet has changed everything and has been educating herself about what she refers to as “punk marketing.”

She’s wanted to make a big splash in the online world for a while now. We’ve done podcasts, optimized press releases, a blog, and even got an article published with the Boston Herald’s Women’s Business site.

These are all great tactics — especially for a dentist — by none of them really “stuck.” I knew part of the problem was me: I was still thinking “old rules.”

So when David Meerman Scott published his most recent e-book about viral marketing, I quickly emailed Dr. Smith and said, “This is it. We’re going viral.” Dr. Smith, who is a huge fan of David, agreed.

You can see the result for yourself — download her new e-book, Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex!. (Don’t worry, it’s not a sleazy sex how-to. It’s about how your oral health affects your sexual health and is quite informative — and “G” rated.)

The e-book went live March 24. Each day has been a learning process. To wit:

David Scott is right — you can’t pitch bloggers unless they know you. If you want them to write about you or your e-book or campaign, you need to find the bloggers in your space and then read their blogs a few months before going “live.” You have to build a relationship with bloggers, respond to their posts, and link back to things they’ve written in your own blog.

Viral happens over time — not in one big bang. The e-book went live on March 24 on Dr. Smith’s blog, and then we issued the press release two days later. I felt like a deflated balloon when no one picked up on the release.

However, a funny thing happened. First Cory Silverberg, the Guide for About.com/Sexuality wrote about the e-book (yes, I pitched him), then Paul Levy, the CEO of the Beth Israel Deaconess and author of the Running a Hospital Blog.

Downloads of the e-book slowly took off, and visits to her blog increased.

Viral is more than one blog post. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that viral marketing is more than writing one blog post and hoping the world finds it. Since announcing Dr. Smith’s e-book, we’ve worked hard to identify other areas of opportunity to spread the word, including BlogHer, a community of women bloggers (fabulous place, by the way), Squidoo, and even LinkedIn. All resulted in traffic and downloads — and posts by other bloggers linking to Dr. Smith’s blog.

It’s ok to learn as you go. I was nervous about this campaign. I’m not a “buzz marketer” — I’m a B2B copywriter who has been trained to focus on writing copy that helps increase leads/conversions.

But as another online marketer told me, “This stuff is still so new there are no real rules yet — we’re all still learning as we go. It’s ok to try something and if it doesn’t work, analyze why and move on.”

So what are the results for Dr. Smith in just three short weeks?

Good question! Dr. Smith’s objective for this campaign is to build “buzz” not leads. She has specific goals she wants to reach career-wise and she thinks viral marketing will help her reach them.

Results for the “buzz factor” include the following:

–> Five blog posts about the e-book — including one by David Meerman Scott which resulted in 20 Diggs (last time I checked) plus a post by another blogger.

–> Over 2,300 downloads of the e-book.

–> Rave reviews from her colleagues and friends. One woman even called her to say she was using the e-book in a course she’s teaching.

–> A fabulous post by Anita Campbell, “From Boondoggle to Business Tool: Yes, I’m Talking about YouTube” about how Dr. Smith uses video to educate consumers.

Now I know that these numbers aren’t earth shattering, but for a small business, they are huge. Dr. Smith’s campaign has resulted in minor buzz in the blogosphere and some good exposure to an audience who wouldn’t otherwise know about her.

In addition, she’s cemented herself as the dentist who cares about people’s whole body health — something a vast majority of dentists also care about, but no one has taken the time to promote in such a visible fashion.

Which brings me full circle — the new rules of marketing are new, but they’re built on the old rules.

Remember how in Scientific Advertising Claude Hopkins talks about how he built an ad campaign for a beer company with the message that they steam cleaned their bottles?

All beer companies steamed cleaned their bottles, only one company talked about it — and saw business increase dramatically as a result.

I love marketing — new marketing, old marketing, any kind of marketing. I love it because when done right, it works. Not only does it work, it’s fun, too.