Here's a simple example.

Suppose you want to promote a dog training product, you have a sales page and people may purchase it for $37.

You can get traffic through regular SEO or PPC etc.

Another way would be to write a short report about dog training which you could giveaway for free AND giveaway the master resell rights too. This way your report could spread virally through the interent.

Now if that report contained links back to your main product sales page you could see lots of traffic coming your way from all those reports that are circulating!

I wrote quite a long post about this on my blog just last week. For more info click the link in my signature below.

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An example of viral content is the 'Charley bit my finger' video on Youtube which has nearly 200 millions views. Or Susan Boyles Britains Got Talent video that produced millions of views within days all around the world.

Viral content is something cool, funny, gimmecky or of similar nature that spreads like wild fire.

a great example is the "will it blend" campaign from Blendtec.

In 2006 Blendtec launched a viral campaign call ‘will it blend’ via YouTube and a new website made specifically for the campaign. The campaign consisted of short viral videos in which Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson poses the question “will it blend” to everyday items from golf balls and pens to remote controls and iPods and uses a Blendtec blender to answer the question. By the end of 2006, sales of Blendtec’s Total Blender were up 43%.

The clips are humorous, sometimes quite dangerous and often tap into current affairs, with the most recent clip asking if the “stimulus” bailout package from the US Government will blend.

The campaign has proved hugely successful. Between the willitblend.com website and the Will it Blend Youtube channel, the videos have exceeded 100 million views worldwide.

The YouTube channel has become incredibly popular: they have 181,789 subscribers, have received 3.5 million channel views and have achieved a staggering Page Rank of 6. This page contains a link to the Blendtec website.

The willitblend.com website also has a PR of 6 and an Alexa ranking of 84,846.

The blendtec.com website has a Google Page Rank of 5, has an impressive Alexa traffic rank of 147,972 and Alexa tracks some 381 inbound linking sites, though Google tracks over 4,500.

The man behind the campaign, George Wright, advises viral campaigners to make their videos fun; if they’re good enough, the buzz will spread by word of mouth online and off.

I agree, the 'Will it Blend' series is brilliant. It combines unique content with excellent presentation, is entertaining, and actually demonstrates the benefits of the product. You can't ask for more than that.

I have 2 exapmples of very successful viral marketing campaigns in norway... - Which I would say is quite easy to replicate for many things and products.

1. Norwegian (A Norwegian flight company)

They launched a competition where the winner could book a flight to anywhere in the world, fill it up with their friends, and name it.

The criteria for winning was to get as many people to sign up for something they offered. I'm not sure if it was to book a flight, create your own plane, or simply give them your email.

Either way, it doesn't matter. It spread everywhere on facebook and email, and the brand awareness got a massive boost. (As well as they obviously made loads of money, as they got interviewed by many newspapers etc. for their impressive results this year.)

2. Fjordkraft (Norwegian power supplier)
Competition: Write down your email to enter, and share it with your friends on facebook, email etc.
Then you can win free power for a year. AND if one of the friends you referrred win, you will get free power as well.

They also had a checkbox you could tick off if you wanted more info about Fjordcrafts offer. A telemarketer from Fjordcraft would then call you to get you over.

Results: Quite viral, massive brand awareness, and loads of new customers who checked the box.

I think there is definitely loads of potential in viral marketing for offline businesses these days. Especially for medium-large companies selling a product.