Mojot Blog

In the past few weeks I was trying to figure out if there is such thing as online guerrilla or is the guerrilla online actually the viral marketing? Since the goal of the guerrilla marketing is to attract great attention with small budgets (in most of the cases) it matches the philosophy behind viral marketing. We are all witnesses of great campaigns that have had fantastic viral effects. Such examples are Dove Evolution, Old Spice, and Ikea Facebook Showroom with millions sharing these campaigns with their peers.

I have also roamed the internet to find some online guerrilla marketing examples, but couldn’t find anything. Most of the examples I came across were actually proposing how to boost your online presence with offline guerrilla. And yes, there are some awesome examples: creative t-shirts with your website URL, QR codes, blank business cards (URL only) and bumper stickers. But, suggesting that you should tattoo your URL on a visible body part is not quite smart, right? Please don’t do this.

That made me realize that the definitions of guerrilla and viral marketing are practically the same but refer to different worlds. Guerrilla to the offline, and viral to the online world. However, these 2 marketing tactics combined can get you to the top of the spiral of success as long as they are part of a creative and well planned marketing strategy.

Being creative and coming up with a cool viral campaign is not an easy thing to do. So, here are a few tips that will make it easier for you to develop your viral campaign.

Giveaways. People always want to get stuff for free. It makes them happy. Full stop. You can give away free e-books, music, subscriptions to a service; or even your product/service if you think it would generate the desired buzz.

Videos. Create videos worth sharing. People like to share videos on Facebook, Twitter, Skype or via other services they use but only if it is really cool. Make it about your business and try to make it fun, touching, inspiring or whatever is consistent with your marketing strategy as long as it brings out the desire to click ‘Share’.

Contest. Make a contest for your target audience. Most of the people like the challenge and the feeling when winning. Make sure that your contest motivates social sharing. The more the people share, the greater the reach of your campaign.

I would be happy if you would share your experience with viral and guerrilla marketing in the comments!