Go Viral by Secret!

Sometimes, the best way to spread news is to tell a secret. You just need to know exactly who to tell the secret to.

Back in the grade school days, if you wanted to spread something, you'd tell that secret to a certain blabber-mouth friend that was a source of gossip and information for the entire class (or grade, or even school if you found the right person). The secret could be out quicker than if you outright told everyone yourself.

Why does it work? Everyone loves the secrecy and level of exclusivity of being a part of the secret, and even when the exclusivity has gone out the window, no one wants to be the last to know.

So, how can this be applied in internet marketing?

First, you have to identify the right group to start the message with. Following standard diffusion theory, you'd want to identify valuable groups like opinion leaders and mavens (those who go the extra mile to get the ball rolling for new products by helping others).

What if your product isn't new? This concept will be just as effective if it is not - because the target just has to perceive it as a new concept - it just has to be new to them.

Once you have identified the group, the message must be transmitted in a way so that the recipient sees value in sharing it with their online friends. The value can be monetary, such as a high amount of savings, convenience, or just plain fun. And mixing those concepts couldn't hurt either.

In addition, for the concept of secrecy to work, creative and effective copyrighting is a must. The following example is from the email that was sent by one of the best and most consistent copy writers of our time, Woot.com.


Sales of Microsoft's Zune MP3 player have been dwindling for various reasons including the release of Apple's new line of iPods. In addition, a new version of the product planned for release soon, so previous revisions of the product are collecting dust in warehouses. Woot.com saw an opportunity to take these players and sell them at discount rates to its customers, but to exhaust their supply, they had to get creative.


They started by offering the Zune at a discount price on their site, the price later dropped, and they issued a coupon to previous buyers for a future purchase. This unnecessary, but thoughtful step started a relationship with the Zune crowd that they had started to collect.

After waves of sales on the units, it is obvious that they still had not been completely tapped out. In a genius move by one of their marketers, they decided to reach out directly to their Zune crowd. They offered refurbished units at their lowest price ever and sent an exclusive email out only to those who had already bought a Zune from them. Excerpts from the email are below:

"..shhh... don't tell anyone! We have a limited quantity of official factory-refurbished black Zunes (now aka Zune 30's) to offer effective immediately. Our elite strikeforce of pirate-tongued, ninja-trained negotiation commandos worked their powers of persuasion to obtain every single official factory-refurb Zune 30. No, no blackmail, extortion, or coercion was involved (as far as we know). The point is, you won't see these anywhere else."

"Sneak a friend or two in if you want - this is indeed an exciting chance to join the Zune in-crowd..."

Did it work? I'm typing about it now, aren't I?

In the midst of a hard day's work, a friend gave me a call to tell me about it. I hadn't been interested in the previous iterations of the deal, but when he described the "secret" aspect, I must admit that my interest rose.

I am on the fence now, but that is a fence that I wouldn't be on without the promotion. I've even contacted others to converse about the deal since. Will they generate one or more sales from the original email sent to my friend? Surely.

And then there's this guy. According to pageviews, he told over 10,000 of his friends! I do believe it's safe to say quite a few sales were generated there.