Viral email marketing is a relatively new term having only been coined in 1996. It became more publicly known in 1997 when a venture capital firm used the term to explain a marketing approach they were going to use. The idea is that a percentage of the population is susceptible to a certain approach to marketing. Some feel this group of people is more likely to sign up for newsletters, get on email lists, and pass along forwards to those in their contact lists. A good marketing program coordinator will be able to target those email-users who are more likely to pass along promotional advertisements.
A key phrase to remember when planning a viral email marketing campaign is that the avenger consumer, when satisfied about a product or service, will likely tell three people how pleased they are. But if they are displeased they will tell at least three times that number. The research on this type of ad campaign tells advertisers the type of person who will join this type of promotion. If you think of it like a pyramid marketing scheme with one person writing to two and those two people to two more and on as it continues to at least double each time it does not take long before the email has circulated to thousands. The key is making it worthwhile for someone to forward it.
It is the benefit to the sender that needs to be strong enough to entice them to cooperate and forward the emails while still being cost effective enough that it does not cost the advertisers too much. One of the best, and most common offers, is a discount on the product or service being promoted. This discount is not given just because the email is forwarded but if the person it is forwarded to comes to the site and either makes a purchase or at the very least puts their name on the companies list of those prepared to receive promotional materials. The company needs to have a positive result from the campaign if they are going to give a reward to forwarders. These programs in viral email marketing are overall finding they gather good results that in the long run save a lot of money in advertising fees while still garnering as good if not better results.
There are many different methods to putting together a viral marketing campaign. These methods include those that will have a small cost for the advertisers while others will cost nothing more than some time to make the promotion work. One of the more simple viral marketing tools is using a signature line on your emails. Almost all email sources will allow the addition of a signature line to an outgoing email. It can be part of every email that is sent even replies. It becomes a tool when instead of simply signing your name you use it with a tagline to interest the person who receives the email in a product or service you are offering. Therefore the way to make it work best is to write a catchy line and then underneath that put a link to your website.
Other viral marketing tools that are used a lot is the submission of articles. What you do is send an article you have written to a website that accepts them, being certain that you write on the topics they are looking for content about. Do this on sites that allow a space for the author, you, to put something in about yourself. In this area you can do a short bio on yourself and put in a link to your own website. This will bring traffic to your site simply by being on someone else’s. Again, it promotes what you are doing without you have to do much work except to keep your website interesting to others.
Probably the most common method of viral marketing is the one where the campaign uses word of mouth to spread their advertising message. This is done by promoting to a number of people, often beginning with people you know, and getting them to then forward the message along to others. To compensate them for their efforts discounts or some free items are promised if their contacts sign up at the website being promoted. This is one of the viral marketing tools used most often and can be incorporated into the advertising campaign of both big and small companies. It is notable for the large number of people that opt into the program.
The newest trend in promoting over the internet is the viral marketing campaign. For those who are not clear on what this means, since it sounds a lot like sending around a virus, the term identifies a method of promoting a product, idea or service by getting friends, and then friends of theirs, to send emails to their friends as the driving force of the promotion. The enticement of a discount or other monetary reward is usually all that is needed to begin the email promotion effort.
Another term for a viral marketing campaign is social networking because it all depends on the ability of the campaigner to contact people they know and encourage them to send a specific email to those they know. If the campaign in based on trying to sell a product then usually it is done by giving the person doing the forwarding a perk that will encourage them to be part of the program. The average person can generate a lot of names if there is something worthwhile in it for them.
Those running these promotions will usually give the person who sends the promotional emails a discount or something free like a t-shirt or a mug. What they get is based on how many of their contacts actually make contact with the company. Some will only give out a gift if the person buys something or accepts advertising to be sent; in other words if they opt in. To opt in the person must sign up for newsletters or to allow promotional mailings of some sort.
The viral marketing campaign is becoming a commonplace marketing effort. Estimates are that worldwide at least two hundred million people are involved in some type of social networking. This is an ever growing number and shows signs of being the best new marketing tool out there. It is being used to sell everything from eBooks to clothing and everything in between. It should not be underestimated what word of mouth, on a global scale, can do.
