In our technologically expanding world, where the Internet is the
most available form of media, Viral Marketing is an extremely
effective form of advertising. Before the Web explosion, this
form of advertising would have been referred to simply as "word
of mouth" or getting your message out by having your customer
base spread the word.
Why Use Viral Marketing?
There are several studies that state that if someone has a good
experience, chances are they will tell a few close friends.
However, with a bad experience people will repeat it to anyone
who will listen. Since the pace of the Internet is so much faster
than that of word of mouth, you will want to be careful with the
messages you put out there. The message you put forth can spread,
and spread quickly, whether that message is good or bad.
Viral Marketing is exactly what it sounds like - advertising that
works like a virus does. It can be as simple as a message that is
attached at the bottom of an email. Like a virus, as the email is
sent from one person to another, so goes the attached message. It
is like an electronic version of that famous television
commercial that said "you'll tell two friends, and they will
tell two friends, and so on and so on...", only with the World
Wide Web, one well placed message can have the ability to reach
millions with one click of the mouse.
Remember when Hotmail was starting? You could only get an account
if a friend sent you an email with the link. Everyone wanted one,
and emails spread like wildfire. And BMW had that great campaign
with very famous directors, a very new Clive Owen and very short
movies - all on the Internet, which was becoming a brand new
venue for movies. You may not have enough money in your
advertising budget to hire Clive Owen, but there are still things
you can do to attempt some viral marketing.
Essential Features
To tap into the potential power of a viral campaign you will need
a few essential elements - free products or services that are
easily transferred to others using existing communications
networks. These products or services should be something that
will exploit people's natural behaviors and emotions. Some
examples beyond commercials would be how-to guides, surveys,
best-of guides, educational guides, tools, widgets, quizzes and
badges.
Sometimes nothing grabs peoples attention faster than the word
FREE. Free trials, free email accounts, free anything can put you
in a potential customer's head. Free can get your name out there
and introduce people to the goods or services that will generate
future revenues for your business.
There are rewards you can offer as well. Rewarding loyal
customers with anything from percentage rebates and coupons for
future purchases to free gifts for their continued patronage is
another outstanding way to make sure that your 'virus'
continues to spread.
Know Your Customers
Knowing and understanding your customer base will make your viral
marketing more successful; tracking and analyzing what motivates
them to want to pass along your message. You need to know what
makes them tick. What is going to make the working mother of
three take the time out of an already incredibly busy day to not
only be drawn to your message, but also be interested enough to
pass that message along to the other extremely busy moms in her
address book?
As an example, say you have an errand-running service. You could
offer a day of running errands to the lucky winner of a contest.
All you have to do to enter to win the free day of errands is to
register by clicking the link to your website. Strategies such as
these can be a bit more effective as the people that register
tend to have an interest in the services you offer.
If you can zero in on who your customer is, this type of
marketing can be quite inexpensive and highly effective. Online
surveys and questionnaires can also be quite useful in getting
inside your customer's head. They can and should be your most
valuable resource when it comes to figuring out what they want.
Careful consideration of your customer's needs and the
commitment to meet those needs is what will ultimately make you
successful in business.
Viral Marketing is a useful tool and it's something to think
about along with your other online marketing strategies. However,
you still need to create something unusual and useful that people
will naturally want to share and tell others about.
With the Internet there are opportunities to reach a much larger
number of people much faster than in decades past. However, the
basic marketing rules still apply if you want your viral
marketing campaigns to be successful. Know your products or
services. Know what demographics you are targeting. Get in their
head and figure out what they need to feel compelled to not only
spend their hard earned money with you, but what will make them
want to keep coming back, and more importantly, bringing their
friends with them.
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat.
Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art
internet distribution and optimization to build links and
drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/.
