Based on word ‘virus’ - viral marketing or viral business simply means it ‘spreads’ like a virus.

The roots of online viral marketing really took off when Microsoft gave away free email accounts - and advertised this at end of emails. ‘Get your own free HOTMAIL account’.

This spread like wild-fire - like a viral infection. Thus, Viral Marketing was truly born.

But this article isn’t about viral marketing, but rather about how to effectively contain or cure a particularly bad outbreak of ‘viral reputation’.

What is a viral reputation?……

Virus…… an infection that spreads rapidly. Reputation….. what others think about you.

This can either be positive or more often, negative.

If you are a regular reader of my articles, you will know that I encourage use of ‘phrases’ and ‘sayings’ to support or reinforce my point. Not one to disappoint my readers… so here is another classic example.

‘Prevention is better than cure’.

In most simple terms, this means it’s better to avoid it - than go through long, drawn out problems associated with finding cure to virus, In this case - YOUR specific virus.

In business, both online and off (or what I call ‘real-world’ business) - this can be categorised as follows:-

1. Product (or service) 2. Sales pitch. 3. Customer Relations.

1. Product (or service)

Whatever business you are in - you are selling something. An idea, a concept, a product, a service, a package, a solution….. it doesn’t really matter what it is.

However, two key principles are vital to ensure that you ‘prevent’ a negative viral reputation.

a) Ensure your product isn’t rubbish. HA! Sounds like common-sense? Take a look around you in world and see just how much trosh is for sale - and compare it with something better that does same or similar, for a similar price. Sell rubbish at your peril. People (just like you and me) HATE IT. And that’s how a ‘negative’ viral reputation begins.

b) Can your product / service prove that…. “it does exactly what it says on tin”? The ‘tin’ is proverbial - meaning that a tins of beans, really is a tin of beans. If you get peas instead….. you won’t be happy. Don’t claim (or over-claim / over-promote / over-market / overemphasise / over-sell) your product can do something it really can’t stand up to. If you do - then you start a ‘negative’ viral reputation.

2. Sales Pitch.

Or how you sell, market or promote your product. This is linked to (b) above - but can be a totally separate and deadly area, if you aren’t careful.

If you are selling your product / service etc., you need to put yourself in shoes of your potential customers. How would you react to YOUR sales pitch - advertising, marketing, and copy? Yes - it’s all about persuasion… but gentle and soft persuasion. Get customer to ‘buy-in’ - and don’t strong-arm them or force them.

According to Dave Airey, VP of Sales and Marketing at OTI, “We started looking for a way to move our application to a GUI “look and feel,” but after two years of investigation it became obvious that it was not a practical goal. As an alternative we investigated upgrading our legacy application to a new product.”

OTI’s requirements for a new system revolved around their customers. After many years of custom changes, legacy system was geared to client requirements.

Airey noted, “OTI’s initial search took us to major ERP players, but none had features we required to support our loyal customers.”

Finding an ERP System with Strong Functionality: The search for a new ERP system ended when OTI was introduced to PRONTO North America (www.PRONTOerp.com). According to Airey, “We were introduced to Pronto and were immediately impressed with rich functionality. One important feature was that Pronto is fully integrated. We had engineered our legacy system to be fully integrated so this was of major importance.”