The internet provides a harsh and very competitive battleground for businesses, and just the strong last. As an internet marketer, you are going to need to create your business and your product or service offer rise out from your competitors, or else it's a one-way ticket to financial destruction.

You're also going to have to get your target market to notice you, remember you, and if possible, point you to their associates,friends and additional potential customers.

There might just be one significant problem you haven't got a answer how to do it, nor do you have the money to do it.

The answer is in a brilliant vehicle called viral marketing.

Viral marketing is in essence word-of-mouth enhanced a thousand times over through the power of technology, especially the internet. It uses the resources, credibility and social contacts of your customers and potential customers to promote and "spread the word around" about your product. It is cheap and easy to activate, making it perfect for small businesses over the internet.

Now the big question: how do you unleash a viral marketing powerhouse?

1. Find your product or service's unique advantage. You can do this by asking yourself what need of the customer your product or service can fulfill that others can't the answer is your product' or service's unique benefit. But before laying any claims, be absolutely sure that your product or service can fulfill the benefit you promised if not, you're going to have problems with your credibility.

2. Find your target market. Understand who your potential customers are how old are they? Where do they live? Are they single, married, divorced? Do they have children? What is their normal day like? What do they do on the weekends? The more you know about your target market, the better you will be able to figure out how, where, and when it is best to introduce your product or service to them.

3. Get original. Make your website and the emails you send out entertaining, interesting, and attention-grabbing. They must be chilly enough to read, and even cooler to pass around. Don't forget to create them relevant to your recipients as well. Keep in mind that you are not the single one trying to grab these people's attention there are hundreds of other businesses out there prepared to take your customers away. With your website and other materials, make sure that doesn't happen.

4. Keep your present customers satisfied. It is harder to get new customers than to keep current ones. So before you set off to implement a viral marketing campaign to grab new customers, make sure that your current ones are satisfied with your product or service. Encourage feedback from them, and give particular attention to their comments about your product or service. In the long run, these customers will provide great value to your business as they become product or service endorsers that you don't have to pay.

5. Stimulate referrals. If your budget allows it, provide an incentive for customers to refer your product or service to others. It can be a free gift, an extra service, discounts, and so on, as long as it will persuade them to tell their friends about your business.
One of the best ways to encourage referrals from your customers is to keep them loyal to your product or service. And you can keep them loyal by keeping them pleased, and making them believe in your product or service so greatly that they become advocates of it. When they become loyal to you, you won't even need to supply them freebies or discounts in order to stimulate them to refer you to others they would willingly promote your product or service.

6. Propose freebies on your website. Provide e-cards, newsletters, wallpapers, screensavers, and other viral marketing materials that your site's visitors can download for themselves or forward to others. As usual, make sure that they're attention grabbing and compelling. They must be material that people would be delighted to use as their desktop wallpaper or screensaver, and so on.

These are just a few of the numerous ways you can unleash a viral marketing campaign. The best thing about viral marketing is that if it doesn't work the first time for you, because it's cheap and easy to implement, you can try and try until you get it right. So get working on your viral marketing campaign now.