VIRAL MARKETING

A SIMPLE QUIZ AND A LITTLE VANITY BROUGHT IN OVER 20,000 B2B LEADS IN A FEW MONTHS

The team was assembled in a BLR conference room. For three of the team, the average age was 23. The dress code was a little frightening: shorts, t-shirts, and sandals as the unofficial uniform.

Management of HR.BLR.com had heard about the power of viral marketing, and this team was charged with finding an effective application of the much-touted viral technique.

An hour or so later they had it: The HR Challenge.

The basic concept was a weekly, one-question quiz on human resources. The quiz would be available on a new HR website, or you could have it emailed to you every week.

Recipients clicked on the link that represented their answer, which brought them to a page which would instantly tell them how they did.

Subscribers were encouraged to become registered Challengers by providing detailed contact information, and about a third did so.

In exchange, the HR Challenge site would keep detailed performance records of their quiz results, including how they stood in relation to their peers, with a chance to rise to the top of the Leader Board, along with other "Challenger-only" benefits.

RESULTS

Within a few months the quiz had 20,000 subscribers, at a total advertising cost of less than $5000.

All challengers also received a weekly HR Ezine that introduced them to the HR.BLR.com paid content web site. New subscribers continued to join after the initial advertising stopped, urged on by their friends and colleagues.

Thanks to a very involved user population, feedback on questions and answers soon became intense.

Challengers were contacted by BLR as sales leads, which ultimately provided over $200,000 in related sales.

The email list was profitably mailed with "product" messages from several outside marketers, since the recipients were double opt-in and had agreed to receive "carefully selected" product emails.

CONCLUSION

Every marketer has a good viral marketing idea somewhere.

For brewers of beer, a hot tub video with a funny ending might provide product placement and ultimately get sent round the world via YouTube and email.

For HR.BLR.com, the HR Challenge was a viral idea that was relevant to its subject content, so it attracted new-to-file prospects far cheaper and faster than any other technique.

What is the viral marketing idea that will generate new leads for you?

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