In preparation for an upcoming course I’m teaching at Montana State University, I’ve been combing through some of the literature put out by HubSpot, which is a company specializing in inbound marketing software.

Viral Marketing Software

Today, they had a brilliant viral marketing idea for pushing a viral buzz and getting potential subscribers.  In short, they’re driving leads to their website via a variety of social media channels, qualifying them through the sign up process, and in exchange offering a free 28 page PDF download on PR. But they’re relying on the community to do the heavy lifting for them. Much like GroupOn’s model, the catch is 500 people have to sign up by 6:30 EDT today for everyone to get the download.

A smart strategy for three reasons:

1. User Participation: I don’t know if I’ll get the ebook download but I can personally do something to help ensure I do. Out it goes on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Now, I’ve invested time in the effort by pushing updates out to fellow marketers in my network. As a result, I’ll probably associate more value with the offering given this investment of time.
2. Delayed Gratification: I interacted with the HubSpot brand and then clicked on.  But in the back of my head, I’m still curious if I’ll get the ebook.  I’ll probably be looking for an email with the download link. How many impressions did HubSpot just get off this?
3. Cost: Given the quality of their written work that I’ve been reading, I’m pretty sure the ebook will be well researched and written.  (Actually, it better be, as the community that helped push the awareness for the download can just as easily turn around and tear the ebook apart.) While creating valuable content no doubt costs time for HubSpot, it does push traffic and instantly sets up a sales funnel that qualifies leads.  Chances are out of a minimum of 500, some will convert and the customer acquisition cost is minimal not to mention future customers as well.

Can’t ask much more than that from a marketing campaign.

Extra Credit: How can you create a piece of educational content that could help your customers in an area of their business? Instead of the boring, “enter your email here” = instant download, can you bake some viral ingredients in like HubSpot just did?  Enter any ideas in the comments below.