Sometimes referred to as relationship marketing or word of mouth marketing, the concept behind viral marketing has to do with utilizing existing social relationships as a means of growing a business. Here are some examples of the different types of relationships that may be harnessed in a viral market campaign.
Perhaps the most basic example of a relationship that may be called upon in a marketing campaign is friends and family. The approach tends to be very casual, and may involve simple word of mouth. Loved ones pass along your contact information, often a web site, a game, or a video, to people of their acquaintance that they believe would be interested in what you have to offer. In turn, those contacts pass the information on through their network of family and friends. Over time, the scope of the action can lead to a wide range of persons who take a moment and look into the services offered by your company.
Another relationship that can be mined in the process of viral marketing is business contacts made in previous lines of work. Because there is already some degree of rapport established there, getting an introduction is not difficult to accomplish. Working with this type of relationship is usually a little more formal than with friends and family. There may be official correspondence that is created and sent out, along with support materials, both hard copy and electronic, that can be passed on to others.
Connections to the community can also be part of your viral marketing strategy. Just as with personal and business connections, the people within your community that know and trust you will often be willing to hear what you have to offer. Along with considering your services themselves, they may also be very willing to pass along your web site or email address to others within their networks. The result can be an ever expanding circle of prospective clients, which can only translate into more revenue for your business.
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.
One of the more popular strategies in use with viral marketing campaigns today is the use of video. But are there any good reasons why the current trend of the viral marketing video is getting so much buzz among affiliate marketing enthusiasts? Actually, there are a couple of good reasons.
Viral marketing is all about getting people to pass along information related to the business through their social networks. This may come in the form of text emails, banner ads, and other electronic documents that can be forwarded. More recently, games have also become a popular way to get the word circulating. But the kingpin appears to be the video. The main reason behind the success of the video has to do with the fact that so many people are visual in the way they approach the world. The video appeals to this fact. When people see a video presentation, there is a better chance that they will actually stop and see what the presentation is all about. This in turn increases the chances of sales taking place within a short period of time after the viewing takes place.
There also appears to be a fair amount of research that suggest the viral marketing video is more likely to be passed along to friends, family, business associates and other members of the individual’s social network. In fact, there are some indications that many people will go ahead and forward a video to their contacts as soon as they finish viewing the piece. This is contrasted with a text email, which may or may not be forwarded immediately. Quicker distribution through the social networks means more people will see the video in a shorter period of time.
As more people become aware of the power of the viral marketing video, there will no doubt be more links to videos in our email boxes. Why not settle in and enjoy one or two? You may come across a product or service that is just what you and one or two friend need.
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.
What exactly is meant by viral internet marketing? The definition of this latest type of promotional campaign is simple; it is the use of an approach to advertising that allows for the message to be sent out by persons who are doing no more than passing it along and by this method increasing the potential exposure of that message. One message passed along form one person quickly multiplies until it is soon being sent by hundreds and then thousands. This is the best kind of campaign since it costs virtually nothing to get out the promotional message of a company about its products or services.
Other phrases for this kind of campaign include social networking, word of mouth, network marketing, or leveraging the media. These phrases are more commonly used when the promotion is being used offline. But when we are talking about internet promotions the phrase used is viral internet marketing. The best example of one of these campaigns is the subtle one used by Hotmail. They do nothing more than put an advertisement at the bottom of each email that is sent. This allows for those who receive the email to sign up for a free account. There is no pressure, no encouragement needed. The offer is there if the person in receipt of the email wants to use it. Yet, it brings in new subscribers daily.
The best thing about viral internet marketing is what it offers to those using this tool. It gives them a quick way to get their message out to potentially thousands of people at a low or no cost option. It can be used by large or small companies looking for large or small advertising campaigns. This method uses the internet, and sometimes the greed, of the average person to do the work for them. No new expenses are incurred since the internet is already in place and being used by the company wanting to promote their service or product. Lastly, the people doing the promoting for them are not asked to make a big time commitment. This also encourages them to get involved. Due to the ease in which one of these programs can be begun this type of marketing tool is steadily growing in popularity.
One of the tools used in viral marketing campaigns is the ebook. The use of ebooks in the work of viral marketing can take on several different applications. Here are some examples of how viral marketing ebooks can be used to great advantage.
One of the most common uses of ebooks with viral marketing has to do with providing a little incentive for looking into an offer for goods or services. The ebook is often related to the target audience for the product, and the offer of a free ebook on a subject that the consumer is interested is often enough to entice the viewer into going through a few basic steps in order to obtain the free item. After receiving something, a significant number of consumers will be predisposed toward finding a good reason to buy something, as a way of expressing appreciation for obtaining something for nothing.
Viral marketing ebooks sometimes make their case for a product or service by making good use of the text contained within the book. The subject matter of the book may focus on presenting a particular problem or need, with the text eventually pointing to a given product or set of products as being the ultimate answer to all the problems. This approach helps to sensitize the consumer to the nature of the problem and then systematically present workable solutions. The combination of these two factors creates a mindset that has the consumer ready to accept a solution, which is then supplied by the product.
A final attribute of viral marketing ebooks is that they are easy to pass on. Once a consumer downloads the book, there is nothing to prevent the consumer from passing the book on to friends, family members, business associates, or others that are part of the broader social network of the individual. Most people are more receptive to receiving an ebook from an acquaintance than they would be to a forwarded email or a direction to a banner ad. As more people read and pass on the ebook, the chances for additional sales to result increases dramatically.
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.
One of the best examples of a free viral marketing campaign is to look at Hotmail. The use of this worldwide email service allows ads to be passed along without even having to get the permission or cooperation of the subscriber. Hotmail has an advertisement at the bottom of all outgoing emails. This promotion is to get more people to sign up for free email accounts. So, every time someone uses Hotmail to send an email they are promoting the website. The statistics show that with this method one subscriber will, over time, potentially refer ten people to the service. If this is the case then by the fourth generation of referrals ten thousand people have been referred. That is an incredible amount of traffic for doing no more than putting a small promotional ad at on the bottom of outgoing email. It is an unobtrusive and subtle marketing plan.
ECards are a great example of free viral marketing. When someone wants to send a greeting card by email, whether it is for a birthday, a get well card, season greeting or other special occasion card they go to one of the free services. These services will send a card to the receiver which can only be accessed through a link to their website. The card does not come directly to a person’s email account. They can only pick up their card by going to the services site and accessing it that way. A large percentage of people, when they are getting their card, will put the site into their favorites to keep for future reference. They will often also send their own eCards, either in response to the one they received or because there are people they want o send a greeting to. This continues to bring traffic to the card site.
There are many forms of viral campaigns you can try. One of the best ways to determine if this is the answer for you is to surf the net and check out what others are doing. This will give you an appreciation of the various kinds of free viral marketing promotions that can be tried and so allow you to judge whether this is the approach you want to take in your ad campaigns to promote your product or service.
