Viral Marketing Overview
Viral Marketing Overview
The goal of a viral marketer is to generate a "buzz" about a product or idea, inducing users to relay the marketing message to others and create an exponential growth in the message's visibility and effect.
This form of online marketing is important because it ensures a high and rapid response rate. Comparatively less expensive than direct mailing, the main strength of viral marketing is its ability to attract a large number of interested people at a low cost.
However, its weakness is that it is hard to control. Like the "telephone game" that children play, the marketing message may become distorted as it passes from ear to ear.
Elements of a Viral Marketing Campaign
There are six elements that make up a viral marketing strategy. Although not all six are necessary, the more you can incorporate into your website marketing strategy, the more powerful your results are likely to be.
A classic example of a successful viral marketing campaign was the one done for Hotmail.com, the first Web-based, free email service. Hotmail automatically attached a brief message at the end of everybody’s email, suggesting they sign up for this free service. After two years, more than 12 million people had Hotmail email accounts.
An effective marketing strategy comprises of:
• Free products or services
• Effortless transmission of the message
• Easy scalability from small to very large
• Exploiting common human behaviors
• Using existing communication networks
• Making use the resources of others
Free Products or Services
Most viral campaigns give valuable products away to attract attention. Free software programs, free ringtones, free e-books are just some examples. Although they may not profit today, by freely giving away these products marketers hope to create a surge of interest they can profit from later.
Free attracts visibility; this visibility also highlights other products that you are selling, and finally you end up making sales. This kind of attention can bring in valuable email addresses, advertising revenue, and e-commerce sales opportunities.
Effortless Transmission of the Message
The medium you choose to propagate your message must be able to easily transfer and replicate. Some examples include email, a website, discussion forums and free software downloads. Viral marketing works extremely well on the Web because instant communication is easy and cheap. The digital format makes duplication simple.
The marketing message itself must also be brief so that is can be easily be transmitted without getting distorted.
Easy Scalability from Small to Large
Scalability must be considered when developing your viral marketing campaign. The flaw in the Hotmail viral model was that it required its own mailservers to transmit its message. If the strategy was wildly successful, mailservers would have to been needed much more sooner than anticipated. A lack of mailservers would have ground the campaign to a halt.
Exploiting Common Human Behaviors
A good viral marketing campaign will take advantage of human motivations such as the desire to be cool, or the need to be popular. The urge to display and communicate this savvyness produces millions of websites and email messages.
Designing a strategy that plays on this type of behavior for its transmission has excellent chances of being successful.
Using Existing Communication Networks
Your potential customers, like in real life, develop relationships online. They collect email addresses and bookmark websites. Affiliate websites and programs, and opt-in email campaigns exploit these networks. By placing your marketing message into these existing communication channels, you can exponentially multiply its circulation.
Making use of Others' Resources
The most clever viral marketing campaigns use the resources of others to get their message out. Affiliate programs use of this strategy by placing links on other websites to drive web traffic. Authors who give away their articles, press releases, even banner advertising – they use someone else's news service or webpage to relay their message. Someone else's resources are being depleted instead of yours.
Viral Marketing Overview - To learn more about this author, visit Pasquale Spadafora's Website.
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Viral marketing is a form of online marketing that uses a "word-of-mouth" technique to spread its message. The term "viral" refers to how quickly a message propagates via links in e-mails, e-newsletters, blogs and websites that point to a product or service people might find of interest.
The goal of a viral marketer is to generate a "buzz" about a product or idea, inducing users to relay the marketing message to others and create an exponential growth in the message's visibility and effect.
This form of online marketing is important because it ensures a high and rapid response rate. Comparatively less expensive than direct mailing, the main strength of viral marketing is its ability to attract a large number of interested people at a low cost.
However, its weakness is that it is hard to control. Like the "telephone game" that children play, the marketing message may become distorted as it passes from ear to ear.
Elements of a Viral Marketing Campaign
There are six elements that make up a viral marketing strategy. Although not all six are necessary, the more you can incorporate into your website marketing strategy, the more powerful your results are likely to be.
A classic example of a successful viral marketing campaign was the one done for Hotmail.com, the first Web-based, free email service. Hotmail automatically attached a brief message at the end of everybody’s email, suggesting they sign up for this free service. After two years, more than 12 million people had Hotmail email accounts.
An effective marketing strategy comprises of:
• Free products or services
• Effortless transmission of the message
• Easy scalability from small to very large
• Exploiting common human behaviors
• Using existing communication networks
• Making use the resources of others
Free Products or Services
Most viral campaigns give valuable products away to attract attention. Free software programs, free ringtones, free e-books are just some examples. Although they may not profit today, by freely giving away these products marketers hope to create a surge of interest they can profit from later.
Free attracts visibility; this visibility also highlights other products that you are selling, and finally you end up making sales. This kind of attention can bring in valuable email addresses, advertising revenue, and e-commerce sales opportunities.
Effortless Transmission of the Message
The medium you choose to propagate your message must be able to easily transfer and replicate. Some examples include email, a website, discussion forums and free software downloads. Viral marketing works extremely well on the Web because instant communication is easy and cheap. The digital format makes duplication simple.
The marketing message itself must also be brief so that is can be easily be transmitted without getting distorted.
Easy Scalability from Small to Large
Scalability must be considered when developing your viral marketing campaign. The flaw in the Hotmail viral model was that it required its own mailservers to transmit its message. If the strategy was wildly successful, mailservers would have to been needed much more sooner than anticipated. A lack of mailservers would have ground the campaign to a halt.
Exploiting Common Human Behaviors
A good viral marketing campaign will take advantage of human motivations such as the desire to be cool, or the need to be popular. The urge to display and communicate this savvyness produces millions of websites and email messages.
Designing a strategy that plays on this type of behavior for its transmission has excellent chances of being successful.
Using Existing Communication Networks
Your potential customers, like in real life, develop relationships online. They collect email addresses and bookmark websites. Affiliate websites and programs, and opt-in email campaigns exploit these networks. By placing your marketing message into these existing communication channels, you can exponentially multiply its circulation.
Making use of Others' Resources
The most clever viral marketing campaigns use the resources of others to get their message out. Affiliate programs use of this strategy by placing links on other websites to drive web traffic. Authors who give away their articles, press releases, even banner advertising – they use someone else's news service or webpage to relay their message. Someone else's resources are being depleted instead of yours.
Viral Marketing Overview - To learn more about this author, visit Pasquale Spadafora's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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