With the squeeze on businesses around the world you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a closer scrutiny on how a company's advertising revenue is being spent in the face of the recent credit crunch.

Some industry experts however believe that online advertising will continue to grow as businesses seek more bang for there buck so to speak.

Online advertising is a growing aspect of business marketing in the internet age even if you don't own an e-commerce website, and one particular brand of marketing online is of course Viral Video Marketing.

So what exactly is Viral video marketing and how can it fit into your marketing portfolio and strategy.

According to one of the UK's leading viral video marketing experts Breon Snowdon, Managing director of the award winning Surrect Media design and production company based in the UK

Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that seek to exploit pre-existing social networks to produce exponential increases in brand awareness, through viral processes similar to the spread of an epidemic.

Snowden's statement sums it up nicely but there is also a number of upsides to web marketing campaigns (especially viral ones) that businesses are starting to take notice of.

One of these is the cost base. Unlike the very expensive television advertising and traditional media advertising avenues, web video marketing can be far more economical and a businesses exposure to its potential customers tends to be more than the snapshot 2 minutes or glance an advert in the national press will likely receive.

Interesting and well thought out videos can keep a customer captivated often for more than five minutes at a time and if the video is particularly interesting or sufficiently informative or funny quite often they will go viral.

This is where the true magic happens as your video is spread by word of mouth, e-mail or even gets bookmarked at the many social networks that are now part of the every day buzz of the internet. This is the viral video marketing effect.

Production cost can be very low compared to traditional televised media so this aspect alone makes web video marketing a very attractive option indeed, even for the small business owner.

Equally with a well, though out brief and a sound strategy it is possible to make more than one cut of a video so it can be uploaded to the internet more than once furthering the chance of viral growth.

Some traditional retailers for example Tiger Direct have taken the bull by the horns and now use video to sell their product online as this not only gives them massive exposure, but they can effectively pre-sell a customer on the latest emerging technology or upgrade product for a home computer for example enhancing their own brand at the same time.

Whilst this does not fall under the general banner of viral video marketing it does go to show that web video marketing is being taken very seriously indeed by any business wanting to get their message out there and increase the visibility of their brands or products.

Another positive benefit and aspect of viral video marketing is of course to all intents and purposes it is timeless, which flies totally in the face of normal advertising.

Simply put a TV advert for example will only be shown at certain times for pre defined number of views. For more exposure you must pay a lot more, and once your run of adverts has finished, your return on your investment will all but cease.

This is similar to traditional media advertising where an advert can run for as little as a day.

Viral video marketing is entirely the opposite as once you have made your initial investment your video can be viewed around the world at any time of the day 24/7, and as has been shown in many examples currently doing the rounds a good viral video campaign can keep your brand or message out there for years.

If your not ready to jump in a commission a viral video marketing campaign straight away, don't forget there are a number of other very positive benefits of using video, and that is of course for your on page presentations.

A well thought out video presentation can be a very effective and professional medium to pre'warm potential customers or clients visiting your web site and can really set your business apart from your competition, but don't wait too long though or you may be left behind.

Copyright (c) 2008 Dave Talbot