The Mind of Vatke
Thoughts, Musings and Advice by Andre Vatke

I first came into full contact with the term “Viral Marketing” through Seth Godin’s 2000 book “Unleashing The Ideavirus.” In reality it’s not a new concept at all – just a new twist thanks once again to the Internet. In fact Godin even talked about it in "Purple Cow."

The basic premise behind viral marketing is that a product or idea can be so unique, so appealing that your customers do the marketing for you. In other words, word of mouth marketing becomes epidemic.

It’s the added impact of the Internet that Godin argues will cause this viral cycle to increase in quicker, more intense and yet shorter cylces. Godin also outlines the elements that companies need to put in place to help unleash the holy grail of marketing – highly effective free promotion.

Is viral marketing applicable to network marketing or is it simply another sexy idea that sells eBooks?

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In recent years there has been a flood of courses and educational material claiming to teach network marketing distributors how to harness viral marketing for themselves – allowing technology to exponentially multiply the effectiveness of a simple posted report, video or other online asset. It would appear to be the perfect marriage between an effective direct marketing method and the potential of near instant viral word of mouth.

But what’s the reality?

One important criteria Godin observes is that in order for the “idea virus” to gain momentum it must be based solely on respect. The moment a monetary objective enters into the equation on the part of the person making a recommendation (termed as a “sneezer”) the entire model collapses and the outbreak is thwarted.

In other words you can’t buy viral marketing. Not directly anyway.

Which brings me to an interesting observation of one popular viral network marketing promotion course - the author has been verified spending in excess of $45,000 a month on advertising to promote the course. The issue then comes in that they would like customers to think that the promotion is viral. It’s not. It’s simply Internet driven direct sales. And as brilliant or effective as it may be, it’s not viral.

Consider this: when someone is paid a commission for making a recommendation, do we really take their recommendation in the same light as one made without a profit motive? Studies show no. Once we perceive a profit motive we look at things differently. And that’s where network marketers need to take heed…

Believing you are in a pure word of mouth mode, while your prospects perceives you in selling mode will cause you to bump up against perpetual resistance from your prospect. Why? Because your recommendation is perceived as nothing more than an attempt to manipulate.

The difference between a genuine viral recommendation and one that’s compensated is similar to finding out that a recording artist didn’t use their own voice on a recording. Once the truth comes out it can cause a stellar collapse overnight. (Remember Milli Vanilli?) And yet fans are generally OK with artists using backing tracks during live performances provided the artist doesn’t attempt to deny the fact. In the end what none us want is to be deceived.

Network marketing may incorporate elements of word of mouth, direct sales or new communications technologies but in the end it’s important to understand that no matter what you call it, the promotion of your product, service or business idea is a form of selling. Get this wrong and you disrespect the prospect. Disrespect the prospect and you lose – ideavirus or not.

Many people starting a network marketing business are unaware of their marketing options and blindly follow their first bit of advice that sounds good to them. Or they trust someone who in most cases has little experience or may not share their same sense of ethics. Either way they start their business on the proverbial wrong foot, not knowing how their actions are perceived by their prospect or what their end ROI really is.

It stands to reason that a basic education in prospecting and marketing should be a prerequisite for anyone wanting to call their own shots in network marketing. And it’s the one idea virus that really should be spread by those of us that care about the integrity of the industry and the success of the many over the success of just a few.